1982 Topps #191

Card Review: 9.9  This is Tim Wallach's marquee rookie card. At one time this card booked at over $4.  My first trip ever to a card shop was made with the purpose of finding this card.  It was probably about 1985 or '86, and my father took me.  I had no idea there was such a thing a stores devoted entirely to baseball cards.  My father had bought cards as a kid, a good number had survived in a shoe box, but he was in no way what you would describe as a card collector.  His collection ceased in 1968, and he didn't see a card again until people started giving them to me.  He was much more inclined to throw b.p. at a field or play catch in the yard than buy cards, and by the time my brother and I were 12 or so he flat out discouraged it as kid stuff.  But somehow back before then, he got the idea in his head that I should have a Tim Wallach rookie card, and found a cardshop in the yellow pages (The Batter's Box near Thunderbird High School in Phoenix).  I remember arguing with the cardshop guy because I thought there should be a 1980 Wallach since he had stats for '80 on the back of his cards.  But the guy had a book and proved me wrong.


Fun Facts: *Topps missed out by putting Wallach on the '81 Expos Future Stars card.  Had Wallach shared a card with Raines, it really would have been one of the great cards of the 1980's.
*Wallach wore #58 and was an outfielder when he was called up in 1980 for his MLB debut.  He homered in his first official at-bat.
*The 1982 All-Star game was in Montreal.  Wallach was a huge snub, his triple crown numbers in '82 were .268, 28 HR, 97 RBI.  Ray Knight was named an All-Star at 3B instead, with numbers of .294, 6 HR, 70 RBI.

Number of this card in my collection: 160
2011 update: 163
2012 update: 318
2013 update: 379
2014 update: 426
2015 update: 833 
2016 update: 1,145
2017 update: 1,187
2018 update: 1,195
2019 update: 1,227
2020 update: 1,233

2021 update: 1,240

2022 update: 1,251

2023 update: 1,277

2024 update: 1,788