1965 Topps #54 Joe Gibbon
About Joe Gibbon
Gibbon's card #54 sits in the 1965 Topps first series and shows him back on his feet: 10-7 with a 3.68 ERA and three complete games over 146 2/3 innings for Pittsburgh in 1964, his best win total since the 13 he posted in 1961. He was 29 and working mainly as a starter, 24 of his 28 outings. The Pirates uniform did not last much longer. After one more season in Pittsburgh, on December 1, 1965, the club traded Gibbon and infielder Ozzie Virgil to the San Francisco Giants for outfielder Matty Alou.
Joseph Charles Gibbon (1935-2019), a 6-foot-4 left-hander from Hickory, Mississippi, was a two-sport star at Ole Miss, an All-America basketball forward who averaged 30 points a game as a senior and was drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1957 before choosing baseball. He signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates that year, led the International League with 152 strikeouts for Triple-A Columbus in 1959, and debuted on April 17, 1960, winning a World Series ring as a rookie. His best season came in 1961: 13-10 with a 3.32 ERA in 29 starts. On December 1, 1965, Pittsburgh sent him and Ozzie Virgil to San Francisco for Matty Alou, and manager Herman Franks turned him into a bullpen man; a June 1969 trade for Ron Kline returned him to Pittsburgh for two more seasons. Over 13 seasons with the Pirates, Giants, Reds and Astros he went 61-65 with a 3.52 ERA, 743 strikeouts and 32 saves. Danny Murtaugh hung the ironic nickname "Gabby" on the quiet Mississippian. Gibbon later coached baseball at Clarke College in Newton, Mississippi, and was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1979.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 296 | 4 | 46 | 161 | 61 | 14 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 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. 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: #209 Pittsburgh Pirates
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- #143 Pirates 1965 Rookie Stars
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- #218 Dick Schofield
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #54 card?
It is card #54 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Gibbon of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.