1966 Topps #47 J.C. Martin
About J.C. Martin
Lopez resigned in November 1965 and Eddie Stanky took over, and Martin never took to him: tough, quick with fines, sound on baseball but poor with people, in Martin's telling, and so hard on opponents that he woke them up. Martin hit .255 in 1966, decent by his standards, but the starting job went to Johnny Romano and he got into only 67 games, 63 behind the plate, with 157 at-bats. Romano was dealt to St. Louis after the season and the job came back. Card #47 is a first-series card and the lowest number of his 1960s Topps 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 | 172 | 1 | 18 | 79 | 44 | 17 | 7 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 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. Where SGC registers no separate row for a variation state, its slabs of that card are listed under the base state.
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Related cards
Team card: #426 Chicago White Sox
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #8 Floyd Robinson
- #25 Pete Ward
- #66 Al Weis
- #85 Eddie Fisher
- #111 Gary Peters
- #127 Ken Berry
- #141 Tom McCraw
- #164 White Sox 1966 Rookie Stars
- #199 ChiSox Clubbers
- #222 American League 1965 ERA Leaders
- #245 John Buzhardt
- #261 Ron Hansen
- #281 Bruce Howard
- #301 Greg Bollo
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #47 card?
It is card #47 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing J.C. Martin of the Chicago White Sox.
How many cards are in the 1966 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 613 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no number used twice, and 14 cards carry catalogued print variations - five checklists, the trade and sold statement backs, the three-state #43 Don Landrum, three team-card dot pairs and the #161 Jerry Lumpe white streak - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, 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.