1969 Topps #112 J.C. Martin
About J.C. Martin
Hodges spotted Martin against right-handers late in 1969 to rest Grote; he finished at .209 in 66 games, 48 of them catching. In the first NLCS game ever played, at Atlanta on October 4, he batted for Seaver with the bases loaded in the eighth and lined a two-run single in a five-run inning; New York won 9-5 and swept the Braves. In Game Four of the World Series, tied 1-1 in the bottom of the tenth, he pinch-hit for Seaver again and bunted, and Pete Richert's throw struck his wrist and bounded away while Rod Gaspar scored from second with the winning run. Baltimore said he had run inside the line; the umpires let it stand. Card #112 is a second-series card from the championship year.
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 · SABR Games Project · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 357 | 8 | 75 | 179 | 69 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 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
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- #55 Jerry Grote
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- #90 Jerry Koosman
- #127 Kevin Collins
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #112 card?
It is card #112 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing J.C. Martin of the New York Mets.
How many cards are in the 1969 Topps Baseball set?
664 cards, tracked as 696 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 664 with none skipped and no printed number shared by two cards; 32 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately, 23 of them the yellow- and white-letter name pairs of #440-511.
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 2026-10-12.