2020 Year in Review

2020 Year in Review

It finally happened.  For the first time since 1995 (should be 1997, but that's a gripe for another day), a Wallach once again appeared in the Topps base set.  Chad Wallach, the youngest of Tim's three sons, was featured on card #658 of Series 2 Topps this year.  While I'm obviously quite pleased to see Chad featured in this year's set, I'm still compelled to complain that it didn't happen three years ago.  Chad made his MLB debut in 2017 with the Reds.  Given that his debut was so late in the year, I don't fault Topps for not including him in the 2017 Update set, but he certainly should have been included in the 2018 base set.  It's not like there was reason to believe he wasn't going to be on an MLB roster during the 2018 season, as Chad not only made the Marlins roster coming out of Spring Training in 2018, he was the opening day starter.  Traditionally I feel like the kids of long time Major Leaguers get shoe horned into Topps sets at the earliest opportunity (or maybe I'm just biased by my fascination as a kid with the '85 Topps father/sons subset), but Wallach was made to wait until he was playing in his 4th MLB season before Topps could be bothered to include him.  Better late than never.

The other Wallach kids did appear on minor league cards during their careers, but never made it to the majors or into a Topps set.  The oldest, Matt Wallach, made it to Triple-A in the Dodger organization as a catcher, playing for the Albuquerque Isotopes.  I actually saw him play a few times in Albuquerque as well as with the Dodgers in Spring Training.  Unfortunately he never got the call up.  Brett Wallach was a 3rd rd draft pick as a pitcher, and was featured on a lot of cards before having his career come to a premature end due to an arm injury.  Prior to Chad's card above, Brett's inclusion in the 2010 Topps Pro-Debut set was the closest a one of Wallach's sons had come to being on a "real" card.  

Chad Wallach had an abrevieated, albeit, shortened 2020 season appearing in 15 games for the Marlins.  However, he ended up winning the starting job at the end of the year and starting all five of the Marlins Playoff games.  Hopefully 2021 will see another Chad Wallach card in the base set, and few more chances to make a mark in the Majors for the youngest Wallach.

2020 wasn't all about Chad Wallach's Topps card for me.  I also added a few thousand more Tim Wallach cards to my collection.  A couple of big mile stones were hit, including the 1987 Topps card becoming the just the second card I have to it the 1,000 copies mark (1982 Topps is the other), and 1988 Donruss becoming the third to hit 900 copies.  Here's a more detailed look at the 2020 baseball card numbers:

Current cards in the Collection: 26,914

Cards acquired in 2020: 2,091

Collection grew by: 8.4%

Top Fifteen Most Abundant Cards in the Collection

 

1. 1982 Topps .................................. 1,233     

2. 1987 Topps ...................................1,024     

3. 1988 Donruss ................................. 976

4. 1989 Topps ..................................... 851

5. 1988 Topps All-Star ....................... 823

6. 1988 Topps ..................................... 796

7. 1986 Topps All-Star ....................... 709

8. 1990 Topps ..................................... 617

9. 1990 Donruss ................................. 533

10. 1989 Donruss ............................... 513

11. 1990 Fleer ..................................... 488

12. 1987 Donruss ............................... 468

13. 1982 Fleer ..................................... 456

14. 1989 Fleer ..................................... 443

15. 1986 Topps ................................... 440

The only change in the Top 10 was at the ten spot, with 1989 Donruss bumping 1990 Fleer down to 11.  The last few years I've only listed the Top 10 but am charting it out to 15 this year for a change.  As the collection as grown, and the field has started to spread out a little, it makes more sense to me to list more cards.  It was back in 2015 that I first posted one of these list for most abundant cards and on that list, 273 copies was enough to crack the Top 10.  Today 273 copies would put a card at #30 on my list, just between 1991 Score (271) and 1991 Upper Deck (288).  Needless to say, I've picked up a lot of new cards in the last six years.  

It's interesting to me, that even extended out to fifteen, the list is still monopolized by Topps, Donruss, and Fleer, and the most recent card is 1990.  I'd have to list cards out to #19 for another brand to show up (1990 Score x357).  

Top 10 most added cards in 2017

1. 1987 Indiana Blue Sox .............. 325

2. 1989 Donruss .............................. 85

3. 1988 Donruss .............................. 83

4. 1982 Fleer .................................... 74

5. (tie) 1990 Donruss ....................... 64

5. (tie) 1987 Topps  .......................... 64

7. 1990 Topps  .................................. 63

8. 1988 Topps AS ............................. 60

9. 1989 Upper Deck .......................... 58

10. 1988 Topps      ............................ 51

I no doubt expect the '87 Indiana Blue Sox card to be an anomaly and not make many more appearances on this list in future Year in Review post.  This year, one generous reader somehow had 325 copies of the card lying around and sent them my way, increasing my total from 1 copy, to 326 copies.  The rest of the cards in this list are more or less in line with what would expect. 

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

There really doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason as to which cards will fail to make an appearance in a given year.  Obviously the more obscure cards, or limited inserts, aren't necessirly expected to show up, and that's why I don't point them out here.  There's also a few cards that I have decent number of, like 1984 Nestle x81, that don't show up very often and I just happen to have a large stack of, that I don't really feel the need to point out either.  It's the one's like 1992 Bowman this year, a card I currently have 57 copies of, that managed to go the entire year with out adding a new copy that make me scratch my head.  Other surprise "no-shows" this year included 1995 Fleer Ultra (x51), 1985 Leaf (x45), and 1994 Collector's Choice (x45).  While I can't make heads or tails of what factors may explain why a card doesn't show up in a year, I have noticed that when I mention one on this list, for some reason I usually see a few copies of it show up almost immediately afterwards.

Welcome Back

There were a few cards that showed up this year after some very long hiatus.  The eleven year "no-show" streak for the 1989 Topps Baseball Talk is a little bit misleading.  The reality is it's the first one I've acquired since buying a three pack that included the Wallach in the toy section of a Target way back in 1989.  2011 is just when I put the original post up, and those are the years I use.  Otherwise there'd be no way of tracking all of this.

1st since 2011
1989 Topps Baseball Talk

1st since 2012
1987 Indiana Blue Sox
1990 Panini
1995 Donruss Top of the Order

1st since 2013
1994 Pinnacle Artist Proof
1996 Flair

1st since 2014
1993 Mother's Cookies
1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection

Top 10 cards sent in 2020

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 2020.

1. 1987 Indiana Blue Sox .............. 325

2. 1988 Donruss............................... 67

3. 1990 Donruss............................... 64

4. 1987 Topps .................................. 46

5. 1989 Donruss .............................. 44

6. 1989 Topps .................................. 36

7. 1984 Topps .................................. 31

8. 1991 Upper Deck Checklist ........ 26

9. 1991 Topps ................................... 25

10. 1988 Topps AS ........................... 23 

Top 15 All-Time Most Sent Cards

1. 1987 Indiana Blue Sox ............... 325

2. 1989 Topps .................................. 321

3. 1987 Topps .................................. 304

4. 1988 Topps All-Star .................... 288

5. 1988 Donruss............................... 283

6. 1990 Donruss .............................. 280

7. 1988 Topps .................................. 253

8. 1990 Topps .................................. 249

9. 1989 Donruss............................... 208

10. 1990 Fleer ...……...................…  207

11. 1991 Donruss ............................ 189

12. 1986 Topps ................................ 186

13. 1986 Topps All-Star .................. 176

14. 1991 Donurss MVP ................... 173

15. 1991 Topps ................................ 171

Since I started this blog I have been sent 9,279 cards by readers.  The 15 cards above are the most commonly sent ones.  This list has long been my favorite list that I keep regarding my collection.  I think it's a better reflection on trends that existed within the card industry in the 1980's and early to mid 1990's than the list of my overall collection numbers.  This is a random sampling, while the overall numbers are directly effected by the cards I specifically target, and I am biased towards cards from 1982-85.

 With the anomaly of the 1987 Indiana Blue Sox set aside, every card on this list is a Topps/Donruss/Fleer base card from 1987-1991.  As someone who was a young kid buying cards at grocery stores, gas stations, little league snack bars, card shops, and even the ice cream truck for awhile during those years, nothing about that cluster surprises me.  Baseball cards were literally every where and I'm not sure I knew a kid my age who didn't at least casually collect them.  I really believe if I were to continue this blog for another 20 years, the cards on this list would remain more or less the same.  

2021 will see this blog reach its ten year anniversary.  My hope, is that for the occasion, I'll take a deep dive into my list and put together some charts and graphs.  I'm not sure there will be anything to be learned from them, but I'd like to see what they look like none the less.

As always, a huge thank you, and Happy New Year to anyone who reads this blog from time to time, sent cards last year, or has ever sent cards, I look forward to doing this all again next year.