1963 Topps #279 Wally Moon
About Wally Moon
Card #279 puts Moon in the third series of 1963 Topps, a Los Angeles Dodgers card. At 33 he was down to part-time work: Los Angeles had assembled a young outfield of Frank Howard, Tommy Davis and Willie Davis, and a knee Moon twisted in 1962 while tripping over his own mitt had helped push him to the bench. He still got into 122 games in 1963 and batted .262 with 8 home runs and 48 RBIs, and that October the Dodgers swept the New York Yankees in four straight for the title.
Wallace Wade Moon was born April 3, 1930, in Bay, Arkansas, the son of a factory worker who later became the town's mayor. Named for football coach Wallace Wade, he was the first in his family to reach college, and he earned a master's degree in educational administration at Texas A&M while still in the minor leagues. Moon debuted for the St. Louis Cardinals on April 13, 1954, homering in his first big-league at-bat while fans chanted for Enos Slaughter, the longtime favorite traded away to make room for him. He batted .304 that season and was voted National League Rookie of the Year over Ernie Banks and Hank Aaron. A left-handed hitter who threw right-handed, Moon spent five seasons in St. Louis before a December 1958 trade sent him and pitcher Phil Paine to the Los Angeles Dodgers for outfielder Gino Cimoli. Advised by Stan Musial, he built an inside-out swing to lift fly balls over the screen in the Los Angeles Coliseum's short left field, and the results were dubbed Moon shots. He won World Series titles in 1959, 1963 and 1965, made two All-Star teams, and won a 1960 Gold Glove in left field. He retired after 1965 with a .289 average, 142 home runs and 661 RBIs, and died February 9, 2018.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 232 | 0 | 10 | 102 | 68 | 34 | 11 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
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: #337 Los Angeles Dodgers
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- #5 1962 National League E.R.A. Leaders
- #7 1962 National League Pitching Leaders
- #9 1962 National League Strikeout Leaders
- #11 Lee Walls
- #53 Joe Moeller
- #68 Friendly Foes
- #80 Jim Gilliam
- #105 Ron Fairly
- #123 Frank Howard
- #150 Johnny Podres
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #279 card?
It is card #279 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Wally Moon of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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.