2019 Year in Review

2019 Year in Review

That 2018 Topps Chad Wallach isn't real.  It's a mock up I did on the Topps website.  Topps didn't make a 2018 Chad Wallach, or a 2017 for that matter either.  And for reasons that I can only attribute to sheer incompetence, Topps didn't produce a Chad Wallach in 2019 either, despite Wallach being the opening day starter for the Marlins for the 2nd consecutive season in 2019.  When was the last time the son of a 5x Major League All-Star played in three Major League seasons and didn't get a card from Topps?  Topps is really missing a golden opportunity here.  Include Wallach in the set, and make the SP/Variation of the a retired player be Tim Wallach with the Expos.  For the moment suspend any disbelief and just accept that I have no personal bias here, and am only looking out for what's in the best interest of the Topps flagship set.

Chad saw a promising season cut short in 2019 with concussion issues, but still hit .250 with a home run and three doubles.  Chad and Tim have now combined for a 2,106 career hits, 262 career home runs, 436 doubles, and 1,133 RBI's, though Tim is carrying most of the weight there.  Baseball reference is projecting Chad to have a very solid 2020 season, perhaps that will be enough to finally get Chad in a Topps set.  A fourth MLB Season without a Topps card would probably be some sort of dubious modern record.

2019 saw Tim Wallach step down as the Marlins bench coach.  The split was entirely amicable, with Wallach simply expressing a desire to being closer to family in California.  Wallach indicated that he would be open to coaching again for a team closer to the West Coast.

2019 also saw a new Wallach card produced.  Tim was included in the 2019 Topps Archives sub set recognizing the 50th Anniversary of the Montreal Expos.  There were about a million unnecessary variations of the card, but it was still a welcomed event, and the standard card was a very nice looking one done in the style of 1969 Topps, complete with an old picture, though this was due to Wallach having been retired for 25 years and not a Marvin Miller led boycott of Topps photographers.

Here's a look at the 2019 Archives Wallach with five of the six foil variations.  I don't have either of the two "1/1" Black ones.  One of the two "1/1" Blacks was offered to me for the bargain price of $500, but I passed.  It was the damaged autographed "1/1," not the "1/1" that hasn't been written on.

Now here's a look at the 2019 baseball card numbers.

Current cards in the Collection: 24,813 

Cards acquired in 2018: 2,921

Collection grew by: 11.8%

Top Ten Most Abundant Cards in the Collection

 

1. 1982 Topps .................................. 1,227

2. 1987 Topps ..................................... 961

3. 1988 Donruss ................................. 893

4. 1989 Topps ..................................... 801

5. 1988 Topps All-Star ....................... 763

6. 1988 Topps ..................................... 745

7. 1986 Topps All-Star ....................... 692

8. 1990 Topps ..................................... 554

9. 1990 Donruss ................................. 469

10. 1990 Fleer ..................................... 466

For the first time in two years there is a new comer to this list with 1990 Fleer moving into the #10 spot.  The Top nine remained unchanged in order, though they all saw their respective numbers go up.  1988 Donruss and 1989 Topps both surpassed the 800 mark. 

Top 10 most added cards in 2017

1. 1982 Fleer .................................. 134

2. 1988 Donruss ............................ 128

3. 1986 Topps ................................ 110

4. (tie) 1983 Topps ........................ 105

4. (tie) 1990 Fleer .......................... 105

6. 1984 Topps  ................................. 74

7. 1986 Topps AS ............................ 66

8. 1989 Topps .................................. 65

9. 1992 Fleer .................................... 63

10. (tie) 1991 Leaf ............................ 60
10. (tie) 1993 Topps ........................ 60

1989 Topps and 1990 Fleer were the only cards to repeat from last year on this list.  About half of these were the usual suspects, cards I'd expect to see, but there were a few surprises.  Notably 1992 Fleer and 1993 Topps are cards that don't usually show up in large numbers.

Notable No-Shows, zero acquired (pre-existing amount)

I'd point to 1995 Pinnacle as being the most surprising card I didn't add any of in 2019.  While I only have 31 copies, it usually makes a couple of stray appearances each year.  1990 U.S. Playing cards (34), 1986 Donruss All-Star (28), and 1996 Donruss (19) were some other notable no-shows in 2019.

Welcome Back

It's not unusual for me to go years without adding an additional copy of a particular card.  While there isn't exactly a shortage of 1989 Topps, there are a few cards that show up less often than others.  These cards made returns after significant hiatus in 2019.

1st since 2012
1991 Panini 
1991 Topps Tiffany
1995 Upper Deck Gold Electric Diamond 

1st since 2013
1986 O-Pee-Chee Sticker
1987 General Mills Book
1996 Donruss Press Proof
1996 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion

1st since 2014
1986 Provigio
1989 Fleer Glossy
1989 Topps Tiffany
1991 Topps Micro

Top 10 cards sent in 2019

Cards sent by strangers, and people I've come to know through this blog remains my favorite aspect of collecting baseball cards.  It never stops being astonishing when an envelope shows up with a couple of Wallach cards inside.  The whole thing is just sort of surreal.  These were the Ten most commonly sent cards in 2019

1. 1986 Topps .................................. 59

2. 1991 Leaf  .................................... 47

3. 1984 Topps .................................. 43

4. 1986 Topps AS ............................ 40

5. (tie) 1983 Topps ........................... 28

5. (tie) 1990 Fleer ............................. 28

7. (tie) 1988 Topps ........................... 27

7. (tie) 1990 Donruss ....................... 27

7. (tie) 1992 Fleer ............................. 27

10. 3 tied with 24 

Top 10 All-Time Most Sent Cards

 

1. 1989 Topps .................................. 286

2. 1988 Topps All-Star .................... 266

3. 1987 Topps .................................. 257

4. 1988 Topps .................................. 236

5. 1990 Topps .................................. 234

6. 1990 Donruss .............................. 215

7. 1988 Donruss............................... 214

8. 1990 Fleer ...…….....................…  186

9. 1991 Donruss .............................. 180

10. 1986 Topps ................................ 174

It's not grounded in anything scientific, but I'd wager that there's a correlation to be found between these numbers and production runs from the major card producers in the late 1980's and early 90's.  The Top Ten list above is certainly well represented by what you would expect to find.

A huge a thank you, and Happy New Year to anyone who sent cards last year, has ever sent cards, or even read this blog and thought about sending cards.  I look forward to doing this all again next year.