Possible error on 1961 Topps #90 Jerry Staley
 

The 1961 set is massive, so it naturally has quite a few errors and variations. However, I think I've found an error on the #90 Jerry Staley card, and a quick Google search makes it seem like it hasn't been reported anywhere yet. This set is long before my time, so I'm not very familiar with Staley and hoping someone can confirm this.

Looking at Staley's card, I thought he looked a little long in the tooth. I was wondering how old he was for the picture, and was very surprised to learn that his birth year was 1928, making him only 32 at the time of the photo.

A day or so passed, and it crossed my mind again. There's no way that guy was 32. I looked him up online, and found a Wikipedia page for Gerry Staley who was born in 1920. It appears to be the same guy... a Gerald who mostly went by Jerry (per his autographed cards). If this is correct (which it appears to be since he was already in the big leagues by 1947), then this is another misprint on the back of one of a '61 Topps. To my knowledge, this hasn't been reported anywhere.

Good catch - have the card but never noticed that. Just updated the card's listing on TCDB to reflect that: https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/51/cid/9196

Re his name: Staley's SABR bio states that he was usually known as Gerry (and is so listed in the encyclopedias) but he preferred the spelling of Jerry. You can check out his SABR bio if you're interested: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Gerry-Staley/

Welcome to the forum, Casey.

After looking at all of his cards, Staley also has the wrong birth year on his 1952 Topps and 1953 Topps (1921) and his 1954 Bowman (1923).

Nice first post Casey. Welcome to the forum

Yes welcome… and glad I don’t have to look for another variant