Cards in the Mail

These cards arrived from an old college buddy in Brooklyn who stumbled onto this blog.  Andrew is a diehard Mets fan and being about my age, he is very familiar with Wallach's career, as Wallach had a lot of big games in Shea over the course of his career.  I don't think he knew I was still actively collecting Wallach cards while we were in school (class '03) but he knew I was a Wallach fan. 

There were a handful of guys that I would go to games with a couple of times a season.  They all happened to be Mets fans, so I ended up going to Shea a lot.  Typically we sat in the upper deck along the right field line.  Shea is one of the steeper stadiums I've ever been to, and tumbling down 14 flights of cement steps and right over the railing always felt like a very real possibility.  I didn't take the picture below but it's not atypical of where we usually sat, though we were always on the other side of the foul pole.

I'm no huge Mets fan by any means, and Shea was undeniably a dump.  The cement concourses that always seemed to have a bit of standing water were nothing to celebrate.  But none the less, I was sad to see it go.  It was a fitting home for the Mets and their fans, I do not mean that in any sort of disparaging way.

New Totals:

'89 Topps: 277

'93 Leaf: 12

1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #85

Card Review: 3.6  I slightly prefer the O-Pee-Chee to the Topps.  The only real difference is the logo on the back, I just like that circle OPC logo better than the Topps.  Otherwise they're the same.  I've got 2 of these and they both have George Brett on the back.  I don't know if that's random or by design.  I do know that the "Super Star" card of Wallach has different stickers on the back, so I'm guessing it's random.

Number of this card in my collection: 2

2014 update: n/a

2015 update: n/a

2016 update: n/a

2017 update: n/a

2018 update: n/a

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: 3

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: n/a

2024 update: 4

1988 Topps U.K. Mini Tiffany #84

Card Review: 4.3  This is the Tiffany variation that nobody asked for, for that matter, I'm pretty sure we could have all lived without  the regular card too.  But they printed these up, so I'm going to track them down.  At least we get another care featuring Shea Stadium base running on an '88 Topps product.

Number of this card in my collection: 2
2013 update: 3

1988 Topps Stickers #85

Card Review: 3.5  It was always a welcomed event to see Wallach get a full size sticker in the annual sticker book.  There was usually one full size player sticker per team, everyone else was half this size (two to a card).  Jack Morris finds himself on the back of this one.  I'm sure it's a different player on the back of all them.  I only have one of this sticker, but I have multiple copies of the Wallach "Super Star" and they all have different stickers on the back.  I need to find a Wallach sticker with a Wallach "Super Star" on the back, then go all chicken and the egg trying to decide which one to count it as.

This is another example of Wallach running the bases in Shea on an '88 Topps product.  The photographer must have snapped off a bunch of photos at once and Topps used them all.  Today they'd just re-crop the same photo.

*update*  I'm currently at 24, and am yet to find one with a Wallach "Super Star" on the back.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2014 update: 16
2015 update: 20 
2016 update: 24
2107 update: n/a
2017 update: 25
2018 update: n/a
2019 update: 26

2020 update: 27

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: 29

2024 update: 30

2025 update: 31

1991 Classic #2

Card Review: 8.9  This card wasn't really on my radar as far as knowing it even existed until it showed up in a random lot of Wallach's I bought on ebay.  That kind of thing used to happen quite a bit back around 1999, when ebay (and pretty much the internet too) was new.  I spent a lot of time buying postal money orders because paypal didn't exists back in those years.  The card design is rather weak, complete with the stupid box for an "autographs" on the back.  I would argue it's to fill space for a company too lazy to print career stats.  But the photo is above average, and the purple, if nothing else, is at least different. 

Fun Facts: *This is the lowest card number of any Wallach in my collection

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2012 update: 2
2014 update: 3
2015 update: n/a
2016 update: 5

2017 update: n/a

2018 update: n/a

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: 6

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: n/a

2024 update: 7

2025 update: 9

2026 update: 10

1988 Topps U.K. Mini #84

Card Review: 4.4  I'm not wild about "mini" cards.  As far as they go, I guess this one is better than most.  These are called "UK" mini's, so I assume they were sold in England (can't imagine they were a big hit).  Perhaps lack of sales over there led to so many being readily available over here.


Number of this card in my collection: 5
2012 update: 7
2013 update: 11
2014 update: 75
2015 update: 76 
2016 update: 84
2017 update: 86
2018 update: 89
2019 update: 90
2020 update: 98

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 100

2023 update: 101

2024 update: 102

2025 update: 105

2026 update: 106

1989 Topps Baseball Talk #117

Card Review: 9.0,  the only knock on this card, besides the "record" on the back is it's size.  It's about twice the size of a regular card.  As far as I know Topps only did these for one year, 1989.  I bought the little record player (which is long gone) and one pack of these.  I'm pretty sure they came in packs of 3.  I don't remember for sure.  In any event, the Wallach is the only one that survived.

I listened to this a few times though I can't remember details (I'm tempted to get on ebay and buy a player, but then I'm sure I'd discover the card no longer works).  I know Wallach talked about not really knowing who the Montreal Expos were when they drafted him and that they weren't really on his radar.  I believe it also went into stuff like favorite food (mexican), number of kids, and the like.  If anyone knows where to get these recordings on mp3, please let me know.





Number of this card in my collection: 1

2012 update: n/a

2013 update: n/a

2014 update: n/a

2015 update: n/a

2016 update: n/a

2017 update: n/a

2018 update: n/a

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: 2

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 4














***UPDATE JUNE 2013***
Someone was nice enough to post a video of the card playing onto youtube

1988 Topps Mini Leaders #58

Card Review: 8.1  A rare base-running shot of Tim Wallach.  This photo would have made for a fantastic base card in the '88 Topps set.  I don't have any issue with the photo Topps did use in 1988, it's just that this one would have been great.  Then again maybe the cropping wouldn't have worked so well on a larger card.  At some point when I have time I intend play with photoshop and find out for sure.  The photo used on the back was likely from the same sequence that was used for the '88 Topps All-Star card.

Fun Facts: *This shot was taken at Shea Stadium.
*The '88 Topps UK mini uses a photo that appears to have been taken during the same sequence.
*The photo on the back looks like it was taken at the same time as the one Topps used for his '88 All-Star card (and I use for the banner on this site)
Number of this card in my collection: 2 
2013 update: 5
2014 update: 22
2015 update: 28 
2016 update: 31
2017 update: 32
2018 update: 33
2019 update: 36

2020 update: 39

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 42

2023 update: 46

2024 update: 47

2025 update: n/a

2026 update: 48

1991 Stadium Club #463

Card Review: 9.6 This set blew my mind when it was released.  Yet to this day I've never bought so much as single pack of it as it also blew my budget when it was released.  Topps put out some amazing cards in this set, and at the time I felt disappointed because I didn't think the Wallach just isn't one of them.  But since then, this card has grown on me perhaps more than any other in my collection.  It just screams New York and Shea Stadium to me now, and has become one of my favorite Wallach cards8

In Cooperstown where I was living at the time, all the local card shops were charging $8 a pack for this stuff and the tourist were paying it.  So I didn't see too many examples other than the ones in glass cases in the card shops.  It wasn't until a local derelict up the street shoplifted an entire box of the stuff that I was able to get my hands on a Wallach.  I didn't feel guilty about it at the time, and still don't today.  Not at $8 a pack.

Fun Facts: *The Expos were forced to play a disproportionate number of road games in 1991 due to collapsing concrete walls in Olympic Stadium.
*1991 was Montreal's only last place finish in the NL East during Tim's tenure with the club.

Number of this card in my collection: 10
2012 update: 27
2013 update: 32
2014 update: 46
2015 update: 57 
2016 update: 70
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: 123
2019 update: 138
2020 update: 145

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 156

2023 update: 158

2024 update: 179

2025 update: 180

1990 Topps #370

Card Review: 9.0  Not a great picture on this card, but I find it to be a Topps design that has aged very well.  From the taxi cab checkers on the back to the perfect period design on the front, I find it to be similar to the the way the '68 and '72 designs fit the year.  I would have just preferred a different photo to go with the great design.  I know this upsets some collector's to no end, but I really find the '90 Topps set to be the sister design to the '75 set.

Fun Facts: *Tim's 2003 Topps fan favorites card was done in the mold of the '90 Topps (and featured much better photo selection)
* Tim was an an All-Star, won a Gold-Glove, and finished 10th in MVP voting in 1990
* Despite being an All-Star and Gold-Glove winner in '89 Tim was not featured on an All-Star card in the 1990 set. 

Number of this card in my collection: 130
2012 update: 136
2013 update: 205
2014 update: 252
2015 update: 353 
2016 update: 407
2017 update: 447
2018 update: 503
2019 update: 554
2020 update: 617

2021 update: 642

2022 update: 704

2023 update: 743

2024 update: 781

2025 update: 783

2026 update: 784