1963 Topps #214 Orlando Pena
The card back gives his birth date as September 17, 1933; he was born November 17, 1933.
Uncorrected error: The back says born 9/17/1933; his birth date is 11/17/1933.
About Orlando Pena
Pena's 1963 was the year Kansas City leaned hardest on him: 35 games, 33 of them starts, nine complete games and three shutouts across 217 innings. He won his first three decisions, then the bottom fell out - a losing streak that reached eight before he beat Baltimore 2-1 on July 19 - and he finished 12-20 with a 3.69 ERA for a 73-89 club, leading the American League in losses. Card #214 is a third-series number. Worth knowing that the back has his birth date wrong, printing September 17, 1933 instead of November 17.
Orlando Gregorio Pena was born November 17, 1933, in Victoria de las Tunas, Cuba, and worked as a butcher in his father's supermarket before baseball took over. He was one of three players signed out of a 1955 Cincinnati tryout camp in Havana, and he climbed through the Florida State, Carolina and International leagues to a major league debut on August 24, 1958, retiring six straight Dodgers in relief and getting the win. A slight right-hander at 5-11 and 154 pounds, he leaned on a forkball he had learned from Elroy Face and was accused often enough of loading the ball that he admitted throwing a few. Cincinnati shuttled him back to Triple-A, and it was the Kansas City Athletics, who got him from the Milwaukee organization in August 1962, that finally handed him a rotation spot. From 1965 on he was a reliever, and a persistent one: eight clubs - Reds, Athletics, Tigers, Indians, Pirates, Orioles, Cardinals, Angels - across 14 seasons through 1975, finishing 56-77 with a 3.71 ERA, 40 saves and 818 strikeouts in 427 games. He scouted for the Tigers and White Sox afterward and is a member of the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame, inducted in 2000.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 337 | 3 | 55 | 198 | 55 | 18 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 21 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-09-24. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here.
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Related cards
Team card: #397 Kansas City Athletics
More Kansas City Athletics cards:
- #2 1962 American League Batting Leaders
- #23 Ed Lopat
- #51 George Alusik
- #67 Ed Charles
- #82 Ed Rakow
- #104 Lew Krausse
- #124 Dick Howser
- #157 Diego Segui
- #195 Manny Jimenez
- #236 Bill Bryan
- #253 1963 Rookie Stars
- #256 Jerry Lumpe
- #282 Bob Del Greco
- #301 Bill Fischer
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #214 card?
It is card #214 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Orlando Pena of the Kansas City Athletics.
Does 1963 Topps #214 have an error?
The back says born 9/17/1933; his birth date is 11/17/1933. It was never corrected, so there is no variation to chase - every copy of #214 reads the same way.
How many cards are in the 1963 Topps Baseball set?
576 cards, tracked as 583 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 576 with no gaps and no number used twice, and seven cards carry a catalogued print variation - three checklists, the two Rookie Stars cards also printed with a "1962" heading, and the #341 Jack Baldschun and #454 Art Fowler print states - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, The Topps Archives, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-03.