1965 Topps #382 J.C. Martin
About J.C. Martin
Nineteen sixty-five was Martin's most productive season at the plate, .261 in 119 games with a .333 on-base percentage, and it also cost him a record he never wanted: 33 passed balls, a major-league mark that stood until Geno Petralli broke it in 1987. Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher were the reason. A knuckleball, Martin said, could break ninety degrees and then double back, and you had to snatch it the instant it arrived; of the men who threw it, Wilhelm's was the one that always worked. Card #382 sits in the fifth series, inside the regular run.
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 | 257 | 7 | 42 | 128 | 51 | 20 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 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. The two checklist variations, #79 and #508, are listed under the wording PSA uses for each state.
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Related cards
Team card: #234 Chicago White Sox
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- #9 American League 1964 Pitching Leaders
- #41 White Sox 1965 Rookie Stars
- #58 Fred Talbot
- #70 Bill Skowron
- #81 Don Buford
- #89 Mike Hershberger
- #125 Juan Pizarro
- #146 Ron Hansen
- #183 Dave Nicholson
- #198 Smoky Burgess
- #208 Tommy John
- #215 Pete Ward
- #253 Danny Cater
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #382 card?
It is card #382 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing J.C. Martin of the Chicago White Sox.
How many cards are in the 1965 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 600 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no printed-number collisions, and two checklist cards - #79 and #508 - carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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.