Tim Wallach Golf Tournament Vest

This item showed up on eBay a few weeks ago. I went ahead and placed a bid and ended up being the only bidder.  So now there is one more piece of clothing that I'll likely never wear in my house.  I don't mind, it's sort of cool, and I may pass it along to my father who golfs daily.

I had never heard of the "Tim Wallach Golf Tournament" affiliated with Cal St.-Fullerton, and the auction details weren't of much help either.  A google search though resulted in this article discussing the 2010 edition of the "annual event" (I'm not sure if it's still a thing).

Here's the description of the event from the article: 

Golfers looking for a tournament that offers a day of contest excitement and benefits a worthy cause can consider the May 17 Tim Wallach Golf Tournament and Auction sponsored by the Titan Athletics Club. The annual event is a fundraiser for the athletics program and student athletes.

I'm somewhat surprised I'd never seen one of these pop up on eBay before.  Then again, maybe this was the only year they gave away branded merch.  In any event, this one can be added to the archives.

Sport Mania No. 38 September 1983

I recently picked up this copy of SportMania on eBay.  It's entirely in French, and I don't speak French.  I ran the cover headline through google translate, and according to them, "femmes de baseballeurs" means "Baseball Women."  Sounds legitimate enough to me.  Here's a look at the two page article with Lori Wallach and Jaque Francona:

If anyone speaks French and feels like translating this in the comments, by all means, feel free.  I'm not going to transcribe the whole article, but here's the opening paragraph:

Jaque Francona and   Lori Wallach who, comfortably seated in front of a hot dog and a soft drink (their supper), explain with a laugh that being the wife of a baseball player does not mean not just go to the stadium and eat popcorn during the game

I imagine the rest of the article goes on like this with nothing too wild or controversial, but I won't be taking the time to find out.   I'm not sure where this magazine fits into my Wallach collection, but it's certainly a unique peice.  That said, there's been a few oddball items over the years that I've throw this offer out on, and am doing so again with this magazine, if a Wallach family member happens to be reading and wants this issue for their own collection, feel free to email me and I'll send it your way.

The rest of the magazine has some articles on topics ranging from tennis to aerobics.  There's a couple of nice posters, including the one below, and a centerfold of a trio of Montreal Canadian Hockey players that is too large to scan.

Topps 1981 Baseball Achievement Awards Program

 

All of the information that I have about this program is contained in the two scanned pictures above (front cover on top, back cover below) and the two pictures below.  The eBay listing suggested it was the program given out at an awards banquet, but I've been unable to confirm if there was actually any sort of banquet.  Ultimately, I don't care, I'm just extremely excited to have this little piece of ephemera in my collection.

That 1981 Topps All-Rookie Team is a pretty impressive line-up.  I'm not going to take the time to look, but I'd go ahead and take my chances with that team against any other Topps All-Rookie Team and feel good about my chances.  You've got a couple of Hall of Famers in Ripken and Raines, and no shortage of All-Star appearances between Wallach, Fernando Valenzuela, Hubie Brooks, and Tony Pena.  Mookie Wilson wasn't too bad either.

The biggest take-away from this little program is the paragraph on the back.  It very clearly states that every player on the Topps Rookie Cup Team was sent an actual Topps Rookie Cup Trophy.  That's a question I've wanted to have answered since the first time I saw the little trophy appear on a 1987 Topps card.  This program appears to have answered it.  As a result, I now have a new "white whale" with regards to my Wallach collection.  I'm hard pressed to imagine something that would serve as better center piece to a baseball card collection of a particular player than their Topps Rookie Cup Trophy.  I'm sort of shocked I've never seen one, for any player, show up on eBay or in someone's Twitter feed before.  Here's a look at the inside of the program:

It may be hard to read, but at the bottom of the right hand page (just above), Topps names All-Stars for each level of the minors and there are some pretty big names to be found, including Brett Butler, Terry Francona, Steve Sax, Gary Gaetti, Julio Franco, Ron Kittle, and Kent Hrbek, to name a few.

I could be misreading above, but it seems clear to me that the player and their scout both got actual an actual trophy cup, or plaque.  As my collection stands, my "flex" items (beyond cards) are a game worn batting helmet, and a 1988 Expos road jersey.  Given the nature of my collection, it's not hyperbole to say that the Rookie Cup would pass both of them and take the top spot on that list.  Unlike a Gold Glove or Silver Slugger, I wouldn't feel guilty about bidding on the Cup if it ever showed up on eBay either.  While the latter items I feel strongly belong with the family of players or on display in public places such as stadiums, museums, and similar public forums, the Topps Rookie Cup is ultimately a rather goofy piece of memorabilia arbitrarily created and awarded by a third party.  It's not showing up on anyone's baseball reference page or being mentioned on Hall of Fame plaques in Cooperstown.

If anyone knows anything more about this program, or existence of an actual ceremony or these trophies, please fill me in.  I'd love to hear about it.

Expos 50th Anniversary Illustration by Josée Tellier

I picked up this "Expos 50th Anniversary Illustration" by Josée Tellier up on eBay awhile back.  If there was a public sale of these prints, I was asleep at the wheel and missed it, so I was sort of excited when this popped up on my eBay "Wallach Alert."  It measures 6"x9" and the autograph appears to be authentic in blue sharpie.  I'll probably end up framing this at some point as I like it a lot more than I expected to when I ordered it.  In fact, I'll probably try to track down a few more of the prints in the series that Ms. Tellier did, perhaps try to frame 3 or 4 of them together.  Here's a link to a galley of them on her website: Expos 50th Illustrations

You can find more of Ms. Tellier's other work on her Instagram page: @MissJoJo76  or by following her on Twitter: @MissTellier

Here are some more close up shots of the illustration:

Rawlings Glove

Last April (2019) I posted photos of a Tim Wallach model Rawling Glove that I had found on eBay.  It was something that I always figured must exists somewhere, given the fact that Wallach won three (should of been more) Gold Gloves during his career, but something I had never actually seen a picture of let alone owned.  

So after 35 years of searching, with Little League and Varsity careers wasted wearing a Kirby Puckett Wilson model glove on my hand (it was actually a great glove), I finally had a Wallach glove.  As chance would have it, it didn't take long to have two Wallach model gloves.  Literally before I could even publish the post for the first glove, this one showed up on eBay.  Naturally I bought it.  While it's in better shape, and used less, I like the first one better.  The first one actually looks like same model Wallach wore.   There's nothing wrong with this one, and given my preference for center field over shortstop (where I was usually forced to play), the web of this glove probably would have suited me better, but I still prefer the other model.  That said, this a very nice leather Rawlings if great shape.    I didn't post it right away because I wanted to give the first one it's proper deference, not water down it's significance.  Also, this is a baseball card blog, not baseball glove blog, so I figured some breathing room was in order.

I asked last time and didn't get much in the way of feedback, but if any of you are glove collectors (I am not), and know more about these gloves, please let me know.  Any information on this or the other one would be greatly appreciated.  Here are some more pictures:

Tim Wallach Rawlings Glove

This is NOT a game worn glove.  Well, at least not worn by Wallach in an MLB game.  Somebody wore it at some point, but more likely in some American Legion game by an anonymous teenager.

I wasn't sure if these existed.  When I saw it pop up on ebay, I did a double take and hit "Buy It Now" faster than I ever have in my live.  As a Little Leaguer, my general assumption was that anyone who won a Gold Glove also had a Rawlings glove that could be bought and worn.   I would have loved to have played with this glove.  I just never saw one, and came to accept that while my teammates had Jose Canseco, George Brett, Ozzie Smith, and other names proudly printed in the palm of their Rawlings gloves, that I would never get to sport "Tim Wallach" in mine.

Granted, I never had a Rawlings glove.  They were too expensive.  I suspect my parents would have found a way to buy me one had I stumbled across the Wallach model, but as I never did, it was never an issue.  My last year of Little League, my father bought me a new glove.  It was a black Wilson with Kirby Puckett's name in the palm.  I wore it through the end of Little League, all of Pony League, and a few years of varsity baseball until it was ultimately lost in a bag that was stolen out of a dugout in college.  I loved that glove and was sad to lose it.  Still, this glove feels really nice on my hand, and definitely would have been more suited for my last year varsity ball when I was forced to play shortstop than my Puckett outfielders glove was.  I have had one round of catch with it, but have retired it to a shelf now as I don't want to wear it out anymore than it already is.

I'm not very good at reading the markings on these gloves, so if anyone out there is, and can give me more info on it (or better yet point me in the direction of a new one) please let me know.

Mira Foundation Button

This is button was (apparently) put out by the Mira Foundation.  A quick google search shows that the Mira Foundation is still very much an active group.  Per their web page, "The MIRA Foundation is totally dedicated to helping disabled individuals by pairing them with dogs bred and fully trained to respond to their adaptation and rehabilitation needs. All of MIRA’s services are made available free of charge to individuals with one or many visual or motor disabilities, and to children presenting an autism spectrum disorder (ASD)." 

Occasionally I'll do a "Montreal Expos" search on ebay to see if anything interesting pops up.  It's rare that I find something Tim Wallach related, but that's how I found this button.  The listing made zero mention of Tim Wallach in the title or description.  But that's definitely Wallach.  This is easily my biggest success to date on the generic "Montreal Expos" search.  I love odd ball items like this and really don't have very many of them. 

The button is two inches in diameter and has a generic silver back.  I have no idea how these were distributed or wha it's from.  My best guess is about 1986 or '87.  I'm basing that guess on Wallach's stirups and nothing more, so it's not exactly "scientific."

Big Blue Review, January 25, 1993

I recently picked up this copy of "Big Blue Review" from January 1993 on eBay.  This was an old Dodger publication, that appears to no longer be in print.  Which is a shame, because leafing through this, it's a lot more interesting than collection of blogs that have more or less eliminated the demand for these things.  Yes, I'm complaining about blogs on a blog.  But I do my part to support print publications as well, subscribing to two newspapers (the local rag, and NYT), and four magazines (Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Mad, and Ranger Rick).  

The cover story is about the December trade that brought Tim Wallach to the Dodgers.  It's actually a very nice article.  I'm not sure it's possible to read from the picture I took (it's too big to scan), but here it is if you want to give it a shot:

Being a winter publication, there was a good amount of coverage of the various minor leaguer's and their development.  The Dodgers seemed high on this Piazza kid.

The full stats for the Winter Ball Report has no shortage of familiar names as Mondesi and Offerman would both be everyday starters for the Dodger that would make back to back playoff appearances in '95 and '96 (and would of course won the NLCS in '94 on a Tim Wallach walk-off against the Expos).

St. Joseph, Michigan

This box arrived nicely folded inside an envelope this week.  My detective work, as there was no name on the envelope, tells me this was sent by Rob of St. Joseph, Michigan (if that's wrong someone please correct me).  Upon opening it, I was struck with the sudden realization that I didn't already have one of these.  I have an uncut bottom of the box, and 16 of the cut-out cards, but I didn't have an intact box.  This realization made feel kind of silly, why didn't I have one?  They're really cool, and I immediately found a spot to display this one on my bookshelf (where it looks great) and it's easy to display as it stands up on it's own.  So thank you very much Rob, it's really appreciated and a great way to wrap up the year.

At one point in time, I had two of these boxes.  I bought them as a kid in 1988 at a card shop called "Umpire's Choice" which used to be located on Cactus Rd in Phoenix.  I of course, enlisted my mother to neatly cut out the cards the moment I got home with them.  I remember also cutting out the Dawson on the front.  "Umpire's Choice" wasn't our primary shop, that title belonged to "The Batters Box" (which still exists and is the best vintage shop in all of Phoenix).  My brother and I were ultimately forced to stop going to "Umpire's Choice" after they took us for $4 a pack of 1990 Upper Deck when it was first released and was sure to have the "next Dale Murphy" error.  They called my mother a name when she complained and that was the end of our shopping days there.

It took about twenty years of not trying, but it's nice to finally have one of these boxes again.  And for those keeping track, I don't count the box or uncut bottom sheets towards the card total.

Updated Totals:

1988 Fleer: 228
1989 Fleer: 296

1991 Positive Proof Films

This was a bit of an impulse purchase several months ago.  Curiosity got the better of me, and I spent way too much on this thing.  I wasn't really sure what it was when I bought it, and when it arrived it was a little bit underwhelming.  So without even so much as opening it, I stuck it somewhere to deal with later.  Only, I forgot where I stuck it.  Which happens from time to time, but usually not with items this large.  After a few weeks of looking, I resigned myself to the fact that it had probably been thrown out by mistake along with the packaging it came in.  Then showed it up this weekend, in a perfectly logical location that should have been the first place I looked for it.

Upon taking it out of the bag, I discovered that it was actually more interesting than I initially thought.  I still overpaid, but it's not a complete disaster.  What it is, is four clear film sheets, layered to create the image.  I may actually end up having a print made and then framing it with the four sheets horizontally.  Though, I'm not in a huge hurry to do so.

I bought it long enough ago, that the original ebay listing is gone, but I found one for a Darryl Strawberry that's still up.  Here's how it reads: 

1991 Norman James Positive Proof Films...

This lot consists of a set of 1991 Norman James Positive Color Proof Films of Los Angeles Dodgers' Darryl Strawberry.  There are four films, yellow, blue (cyan), Red (magenta), and black, which when placed carefully on top of each other make a beautiful full color proof.  The end product was probably a full size poster, but this set measures 9 1/4"x10 3/4" and has a black outer border which leaves an 8x10 image, but does not have the league, MLB Players' Choice, or Norman James logos on the bottom, which as an officially licensed MLB supplier, they almost always have.    We're not sure what the actual year of issue was as it is undated. This is a specialist item and came from the pre-press package of the larger poster, and of course is a One-Only Item.

So, whatever, I guess.  It all sounds very fancy.  I'd be curious to see if there was ever actually a poster made of this print, and by "poster," I mean a 24x36 poster.  I've never actually come across a Wallach poster that size.  Something I spent the better part of my childhood wishing someone would produce.  Here are some more pictures showing how the films flip. They're just held in place by a couple staples that could easily be removed.