2023 Year in Review
There were no new Wallach cards released in 2023. Neither Tim nor Chad made it into any sets. Topps in their infinite wisdom opted not to include Chad Wallach in the base set or update set, despite Chad setting career highs in nearly every statistical category this past season. Chad ended up hitting 7 home runs while playing in 65 games for the Angels, and established himself as Shohei Ohtani's preffered catcher. Chad Wallach has now played seven straight MLB seasons and has only 2 Topps cards to show for it. Someone over at player selection is asleep at the wheel.
On a personal level, my season started in Arizona with Spring Training in March and ended in New York in August when I returned to Yankee Stadium for the first time in nearly a decade. There was time when I was an undergraduate student that I would regulary ride the Metro North down to the city and sit in the $8 center field seats at the old Yankee Stadium. It doesn't feel that long ago, but somehow it's been more than 20 years. A friend from those days was getting married, and that's what brought me back to the city, and by extension, Yankee Stadium. I don't hate the new Stadium (can we still call it "new?") but it feels pretty clear to me that it's now safe to say that it was a terrible mistake to tear down the real one and build this replacement (I can't say the same for Shea, as much as loved it with all of it's flaws). Still, brown bagging a beer on the 6 train surrounded by other Yankee fans doing the same has a charm that is unique to the Yankees. My partner, who did her undergrad in Manhattan, but somehow never went to Yankee Stadium in her college days, and unbiased by a lifetime of memories of going to the real Stadium, found this new one to be wonderful. So perhaps I judge too harshly. Hopefully it won't be another decade before I get back. Once a year, I like to post some non-hobby pictures, so my apologies if you're just here for the cards.
(Camel Back Ranch, Dodgers/A's)
(Salt River Fields, Rockies/Dodgers)
A final note on my trip to New York. When I was in undergrad, and for a period of time after graduating and before going to law school, I played in a band. We played a lot shows, opened for some bands that you may have heard of if you were in the scene in 2003, and even had our name appear on Ticketmaster tickets a couple of times (though never sniffed a record deal). A story that always does well when it comes up, is we played a show at CBGB's once. It's no longer there, but since it was near our hotel, and out of some sense of morbid curiosity, we went down to see what had replaced it. It's a high end men's fashion store now, one that specializes in the rock & roll look (irony is dead). The type of place where a large security guard on the inside looks you up and down before deciding whether to open the door for you. They let us in, and we pretended to browse while I pointed to racks of $5K jackets and quietly said "that's where the backstage rooms used to be," and things of that nature. It was a more emotional experience than I expected to be. Somewhere I have a high 8 video of our performance at CBGB's. If I ever dig it up, maybe I'll post a song on a Sunday Edition post of this blog. For now, here's a picture of what used to be something nice.
....And now to the Cards:
Current cards in the Collection: 33,147
Cards acquired in 2023: 1,457
Collection grew by: 4.6%
Top Fifteen Most Abundant Cards in the Collection
1.(tie) 1982 Topps .................................. 1,269
1.(tie) 1984 Topps ...................................1,269
3. 1988 Donruss ......................................1,120
4. 1987 Topps ..........................................1,080
5. 1983 Fleer ............................................1,063
6. 1989 Topps ................................. 1,000
7. 1988 Topps All-Star .............................. 953
8. 1988 Topps .................................... 938
9. 1986 Topps All-Star .............................. 790
10. 1990 Topps .......................................... 743
11. 1990 Fleer ............................................ 662
12. 1990 Donruss ...................................... 592
13. 1989 Donruss ...................................... 589
14. 1986 Topps .......................................... 574
15. 1989 Fleer ............................................ 546
For the first time since I started posting this list on annual basis back in 2015, there is a tie at the #1 spot. I don't know what the odds of that are, but they have to be small. 1989 Topps landed on exactly 1,000 copies, making it the 6th member of the the 1,000 card club. I'll probably never do it, but I like the idea of filling empty factory set boxes from a given year with 792 copies of the Wallach from the set.
Top 10 most added cards in 2023
1. 1990 Fleer ..................................... 113
2. 1989 Score ..................................... 69
3. 1988 Topps ..................................... 63
4. 1989 Fleer ....................................... 56
5. 1988 Fleer ....................................... 53
6. 1991 Fleer ....................................... 52
7. 1988 Donruss ................................. 46
8. (tie) 1989 Donruss .......................... 40
8. (tie) 1989 Topps .............................. 40
10. (tie) 1991 Score ............................. 39
10. (tie) 1990 Topps ............................ 39
1990 Fleer ran away with this category this past year. It's the first time it's topped this list. A few ff the usual suspects, notably 1987 Topps and both 1986 Topps didn't show up in the numbers they usually do. Perhaps I've started to exhaust the supply?
Notable No-Shows, zero acquired
Welcome Back
Most of the cards on this list were sent by a very generous reader. Dave from Williamsburg sent me one of the more unique packages I've ever received, loaded with rarely seen cards, including the '93 Refractor, a pair of Desert Shield Topps, and others. A lot of the cards listed below are the first one's I've received since their initial post in the early days of this blog. I started this blog in 2011, and it took about two years for me to work my way down to the more obscure cards.
1st since 2012
1991 Topps Desert Shield1st since 2013
1989 O-Pee-Chee Stickers
1990 Bowman Tiffany
1993 Topps Finest Refractor
1995 Topps Finest Refractor
1st since 2014
2014 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Card
Top Card Added Each Year
This is a new list I decided to add this year. Below is the card I added the most copies of each year since I started tracking in 2015. I think of it as sort of a list of World Series Winners.
2023: 1990 Fleer (113 copies added)
2022: 1983 Fleer (832)
2021: 1985 Topps (92)
2020: 1987 Indiana Blue Sox (325)
2019: 1982 Fleer (134)
2018: 1987 Topps (100)
2017: 1982 Topps (163)
2016: 1982 Topps (312)
2015: 1982 Topps (407)
2014: 1986 Topps All-Star (97)
Top 15 All-Time Most Sent Cards
Finally, my favorite list of all the numbers I track. The all-time tally for copies of cards that have been sent to me by generous readers. I mention this every year, but I feel like this list offers the best insights into the junk wax era and what people were buying, and to some extant the production numbers. It's obviously not perfect, or all that scientific (as evidenced by the 1987 Blue Sox card that a reader was nice enough to send me 325 copies of a few years ago), but I still find it to be a useful tool, or at least, an interesting list to track.
1. 1989 Topps .................................. 451
2. 1987 Topps .................................. 445
3. 1988 Donruss............................... 427
4. 1988 Topps All-Star .................... 404
5. 1988 Topps .................................. 392
6. 1990 Fleer ...…….....................… 375
7. 1990 Topps .................................. 344
8. 1990 Donruss .............................. 341
9. 1991 Upper Deck ......................... 326
10. 1987 Indiana Blue Sox .............. 325
11. 1986 Topps All-Star ................... 321
12. 1986 Topps ................................ 293
13. 1989 Donruss............................. 279
14. 1991 Donurss MVP ................... 273
15. 1991 Donruss............................. 267
Finally, thank you to everyone who continues to send cards, or even just continues to occasionally check in on this blog. It's now been up for over a decade, which really blows my mind.
Glad to see the Year in Review post is well on its way to becoming a regular feature on your blog.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos! Looks like the last one is at the Transit Museum?
ReplyDeleteI miss going to Yankee Stadium, haven't gone since 2019. Maybe this year. I miss the old ballpark but this new one is still plenty nice on it's own.
Good eye, it is from the transit museum.
Delete832 1983 Fleer in 2022!! I searched for a post on what I assumed was a massive send of '83 Fleer Wallachs but didn't find one.
ReplyDelete