1964 Topps #148 J.C. Martin
About J.C. Martin
Catching 120 games in 1964, Martin watched the White Sox win their last nine and still finish second, a game behind the Yankees. His own line fell to .197, 58 hits in 294 at-bats, with 24 passed balls charged to him. He never pretended the race was winnable: those Yankees, he said, had so much that nobody could compete, their benchwarmers good enough to be regulars elsewhere. Card #148 is a second-series card, out in packs early in the summer while Chicago was still climbing.
Joseph Clifton Martin went by his initials because both of his grandparents were named Joseph, and the Southern habit of using initials stuck. Born December 13, 1936, in Axton, Virginia, he signed with the Chicago White Sox as a first baseman before the 1956 season and debuted on September 10, 1959, too late in the year to be eligible for that fall's World Series. Short on power for a corner infielder, he went back to the minors in 1962 to learn catching under Les Moss, and from 1963 he was Chicago's regular receiver, a left-handed hitter and right-handed thrower whose working life was spent chasing the knuckleballs of Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher. He caught Joe Horlen's no-hitter in 1967 and was traded to the New York Mets that November, where he backed up Jerry Grote and wound up at the center of a disputed bunt play in the World Series the Mets won in 1969. Three seasons with the Chicago Cubs closed out fourteen years, 908 games and a .222 average. He coached for the Cubs in 1974 and worked White Sox telecasts alongside Harry Caray in 1975.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 175 | 0 | 13 | 74 | 56 | 22 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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: #496 Chicago White Sox
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #2 1963 American League E.R.A. Leaders
- #13 Hoyt Wilhelm
- #31 Dave Nicholson
- #66 Eddie Fisher
- #81 All-Star Vets
- #85 Pete Ward
- #107 White Sox 1964 Rookie Stars
- #130 Gary Peters
- #168 Al Weis
- #195 Floyd Robinson
- #215 Ray Herbert
- #232 Al Lopez
- #247 Dave DeBusschere
- #264 Jim Landis
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #148 card?
It is card #148 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing J.C. Martin of the Chicago White Sox.
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.