1964 Topps #222 Bill Pierce
About Bill Pierce
Card No. 222, from the set's third series, shows Pierce in what turned out to be his final season. At 37 he made the club out of spring training as a reliever and was quietly effective, going 3-0 with a 2.20 ERA and four saves across 49 innings, though rarely in a tight spot. On September 10 he made his only start of the year, and the last of his career, beating the Dodgers on 7 2/3 strong innings. He knew his strikeout count to the batter: three short of 2,000 when he walked off. Two more in relief on October 3 left him one shy, and he announced his retirement as the season ended.
Walter William Pierce was born April 2, 1927, in Detroit and grew up in Highland Park, where he did not play organized ball until he was 15 and took the mound only after his sandlot team's pitcher left for a club with better uniforms. Six shutouts as a high school junior earned him the nickname Mr. Zero, and his hometown Tigers signed him for a $15,000 bonus; he debuted in June 1945, weeks after turning 18. Worried about his wildness, Detroit traded him to the White Sox in November 1948 for catcher Aaron Robinson and $10,000, a deal historians rank among the most one-sided ever made. In Chicago the slightly built left-hander became the American League's best southpaw: seven All-Star selections, the 1953 strikeout title, a league-leading 1.97 ERA in 1955 that was the only mark under 2.00 by a qualifier between 1947 and 1962, 20 wins in 1956 and again in 1957, and a near-perfect game against Washington on June 27, 1958. Three seasons in San Francisco closed out a career of 211 wins and a 3.27 ERA. The White Sox retired his No. 19 in 1987 and unveiled a statue of him in 2007. He died July 31, 2015.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 273 | 1 | 53 | 129 | 56 | 15 | 10 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
Team card: #257 San Francisco Giants
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #222 card?
It is card #222 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Pierce of the San Francisco Giants.
How many cards are in the 1964 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 589 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 587 with no gaps, and no number carries two different cards; two cards - #4, the A.L. Pitching Leaders, and #517, the seventh-series checklist - carry a catalogued back variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, Baseball Almanac, 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 2026-10-11.