The 1960 Pirates won the World Series in seven games over the Yankees, and Clemente hit safely in every one of them, .310 for the Series. The next year he did it for a full season. In 1961 he batted .351 and won the National League batting title, the first of his four, and he won his first Gold Glove in right field. He would win one every year for the rest of his career.
This is the card that came out the following spring, and it is printed on a border made to look like wood. Topps made 598 cards in 1962, issued in seven series, and every one is framed in that brown grain. The photograph is drawn as if its lower right corner were peeling up off the card, a small piece of trompe l'oeil that runs through the whole set. Clemente stands with the bat on his shoulder in front of a batting cage, and in the turned-up corner the name reads BOB CLEMENTE, PITTS. PIRATES, OF.
The border is printed to look like wood, and the corner of the photograph is drawn as if it were peeling up.
Number 10 sits in the first series, which was printed in quantity, and the card is not scarce. Clemente batted .312 in 1962, the season it was on the shelves. From 1960 through 1972 he hit .300 or better in every season but one.
The wood is the problem. A brown border shows every touch as a pale spot, and the edges of 1962 cards chip easily, so a copy that looks clean at arm's length often does not under a light. Centering matters more than usual, because the grain makes an uneven border look like a mistake in the wood.
It is, in its way, the most domestic card he ever had: a ballplayer in a wooden frame, as if someone had hung him on a den wall.
