The Trading Post #67: Tim Wallach - An attempt to collect them all

Like most of us, anytime I run across a Tim Wallach duplicate, it goes in a very specific pile for trade to a particular lawyer down in New Mexico. He's probably the most famous of all of us, having been written up in Sports Illustrated and the Los Angeles Times for his collection of Tim Wallach cards. He's not just a supercollector, going after one of every card of that player. He's a super-super collector, going after every copy of every card.

While I'm sure he's aware of the futility of that mission, he's still racked up close to 17,000 cards thanks to us readers (and a few eBay purchases). My initial shipment put Colorado on his map for the first time, and I sent four more cards down a few months ago. Yes, I've done my part twice, and in return, Stack22, the writer of that world-famous Tim Wallach blog, returned the favor recently with a few Rockies cards.

2011 Topps ToppsTown #TT-44 Ubaldo Jimenez

Like Pacific Online cards, the website on ToppsTown cards no longer resolves. The URL on those Pacific cards at least has a redirect to the MLBPA, but ToppsTown.com just serves up a basic 404 page. The code on this card expired in early 2012 anyway, but I don't recall ever seeing the live site, or what you could really do there. Topps' digital efforts have since shifted to the BUNT app, but it would be nice to at least have an idea of what went on there. I haven't opened much 2016 product yet, but I hear that there are BUNT codes to be found in physical packs these days. Hopefully the app sticks around long enough not to make those cards obsolete in a few years.

ToppsTown cards are pretty easy to come by. They still turn up in discount boxes quite regularly, and though they look a bit plain except for the bright blue background, I have the complete 50-card insert set found in 2011 Topps Series 1 packs. In fact, Tulowitzki's card was an Eight Men Out card that was filled by two separate traders. Series 2 and Update each got their own 50-card sets that year, but I've only run across one or two from those later series. For some reason the Series 1 stuff seems to be everywhere.

1994 Topps Gold #135 David Nied

Also in this envelope was a ToppsGold parallel of David Nied, who remains the first player selected in the Expansion Draft. Though his career didn't pan out, he'll always have that fact to throw around.

One-per-pack inserts, like ToppsGold, were a fairly common fixture in the hobby by 1994, and that was also long before gold foil was played out. Even though it was the first factory set I ever owned, I still opened packs once in a while just to get these gold cards. And I wouldn't be opposed to doing that even today, although 1994 Topps is rather scarce in unopened form, quite unlike Stadium Club, Upper Deck, Leaf, and Fleer Ultra from just a year or two prior.

I'd know 1994 Topps in my sleep. I don't remember dreams that well, so for all I know, I literally have known it in my sleep. But I'll need some help identifying these next cards.

2015 <unknown> #NNO Corey Dickerson

I know Corey Dickerson was one of the members of the stacked Rockies outfield. I also know that he's on the Rays now. He's even on my Fantasy team, though I've benched him in recent weeks. But I don't recognize this card, nor is there really any way to identify it. No card numbers, no logo, no copyright. Just perforations on all sides, leading me to believe it is some sort of promotion or giveaway, and a small symbol in the lower left that looks vaguely like the Coors logo crossed with a stock chart.

2015 <unknown> #NNO Charlie Blackmon

Here's one of Charlie Blackmon, a current member of that strong outfield, in front of the right field scoreboard. Same logo, but no other identifying marks, but this scan shows the perforations better. Oddballs have always sort of been lost on me, and when I can't even identify them or figure out where they came from, I just end up puzzled.

Ideas, anyone?

Antique Mall Mystery Pack: Expos

We're past the two-year anniversary of Infield Fly Rule, a date in mid-January that I blew past about six posts ago (and long before the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50!). I did a giveaway and everything for my first anniversary, but this one slipped my mind. Once Off Hiatus Baseball Cards and Bob Walk The Plank write their anniversary posts, I know I didn't miss mine by much. The three of us entered this community right around the same time, though they've both done way more posts than I have.

But I have plenty of material to keep going, though perhaps not at the frenzied pace of others in the Cardsphere.

1994 Triple Play #91 Moises Alou

Material like yet another Mystery Pack from the antique mall. Obviously this one is of the Montreal Expos, the team that moved to Washington over a decade ago to become the Nationals. Perhaps no team suffered as much from the Strike as the Expos. As the 1994 season came to an abrupt close in mid-August, they had a commanding lead of the NL East, the best record in baseball, a small but passionate fan base, and a giant helping of bad timing.

Alou was one of the key members of that 1994 Expos team, but didn't get his chance to shine in the postseason until he joined the Marlins for their 1997 World Series championship. And I'm sure if you're a Cubs fan, all I have to do is say Moises Alou's name to trigger some unhappy memories. He did end up with his ring, though some other players from that team never did.

This might be the first time that I used the same set to end one post and begin the next. 1994 Triple Play must look a bit familiar by now, as the impact of those big cutout letters can't be missed.

Also, is it just me, or does the Expos logo look like a "JB"? A kid in my third grade class used to wear an Expos hat, and I spent months wondering what the heck JB stood for. I finally did see the puffy-looking "M" in that logo, but I don't remember who finally clued me in, whether it was my classmate, my dad, or someone else entirely.

1994 Triple Play #289 Cliff Floyd

Anyway, I thought I knew 1994 Triple Play pretty well until I saw this Rookie Revue subset card. It's part of the base set, but it's the first time I ever ran across anything like it. Upper Deck did some Star Rookie subsets that looked pretty much like this, didn't they?

1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #19 Michael Jordan

That's right, 1994 Upper Deck! Those are some pretty similar designs, which makes me wonder if one copied the other, or if they came to this independently. Of course, this is one of Michael Jordan's more well-known baseball cards (perhaps second only to his 1991 Upper Deck card), but this happens to be the Electric Diamond parallel—UD's answer to Topps Gold.

1993 Ultra #420 John Wetteland

Alou and Floyd both won their World Series rings with the '97 Marlins, Jordan almost has too many NBA championships to count (fine, six), and Wetteland took home MVP honors for the 1996 Yankees, their first World Series in almost twenty years. Wetteland was a stellar closer, though he passed the baton to the legendary Mariano Rivera after that.

I am guessing that this photo from 1993 (not 1992!) Fleer Ultra was taken at Wrigley Field. The slope of that foul territory wall looks about right, and it's definitely a day game, still a common thing in Chicago. Plus Fleer shot a ton of photos in Wrigley Field. Go check 1991 Fleer Ultra to see what I mean.

1993 Topps #69 John Vander Wal

We saw a card of John Vander Wal not long ago, as one came via trade from Brad. But before he was a Rockie, he was an Expo, reaching the Bigs for the team that drafted him.

Flip this card over and you'll see a strong influence from Leaf's Studio brand, as we get John's player data, complete professional stats, and fun facts like how he studied Civil War History, and enjoys snowmobiling and RC cars and airplanes in his free time.

If that's not a complete ripoff of 1991-1993 Studio, I don't know what is.

Topps has consistently been my favorite card brand, and honestly, if someone besides them had the exclusive MLB license right now I might be less interested in the hobby, but you have to admire all the competition and one-upmanship that was going on back then. Sure, they all printed billions of cards that are now pretty much worthless, but there was a firestorm of new ideas that hit the hobby in the space of a very few years. Pictures on the back and white card stock from Score in 1988, holograms from UD in 1989, right through the first relics and serial numbered cards in the mid 1990s.

Compared to that, new sparkly patterns and border colors don't really capture the imagination in the same way as seeing competitors push the limits of innovation. Or even blatantly rip off each other's ideas.

1993 Topps #89 Eric Anthony

Whoops, looks like an Astro snuck into this pack!

Though their team colors are quite different, and they played home games about two thousand miles apart, "Astros" and "Expos" sound enough alike to be confused from time to time. As I recall, my dad often mixed the two up, so whoever put this pack together had the same thought process. But I still have to pause when considering whether the Astros are playing an interleague game or not.

1991 Score #210 Tim Wallach

1991 Score is on my list of completed sets, so like everyone's Tim Wallach extras, this one will be headed to Corey at the Stackhouse Law Office. Happy to help the cause!

1993 Upper Deck #635 Kent Bottenfield

I don't know if Kent Bottenfield has British ancestry, but his name certainly sounds British. And not long after this card was printed, the Rockies traded a 2-8 Butch Henry to Montreal for Bottenfield, who ended up going a decent 6-6 in two seasons for the Rockies. One of those eight losses that Henry gave up was June 15, 1993, a game Tim Wallach also happened to play in.

Turns out a decent number of these Expos guys made it to Denver at some point in their careers. And we're not done yet!

1994 Collector's Choice Silver Signature #293 Rondell White

I don't remember much about Rondell White other than recognizing his name from a bunch of Expos cards in 1993-1994, though he had a surprisingly long career, and even made it to an All-Star Game in 2003. Just one of those guys that would pop up from time to time on some random team and you'd wonder aloud, "Oh, is that guy still playing?"

The image on this Silver Signature card was probably taken during his rookie year of 1993. He's just a righty, but it looks like he's wearing a switch-hitter's helmet with ear flaps on both sides. But if you look really closely, you'll notice that he's using Tim Wallach's bat!

I'm actually starting to have a bit of an affinity for this Wallach fellow. He's turning up everywhere. That's the third time he's turned up in this post alone.

1993 Score #488 B.J. Wallace

Remember that Kirby Puckett insert from 1993 Score I had never seen before? Well, here's a subset from 1993 Score I have never seen before. I have a good sixty-plus cards from that set, plus a few from the Dream Team subset, and plenty of the caricature All Star cards, but never a Draft Pick card. B.J. Wallace was picked third overall in 1992, but never made it past Double-A.

At least Greg Reynolds, picked second overall by the Rockies in 2006 ahead of Kershaw, Scherzer, and others, made it to the Majors. To snag B.J. Wallace, the Expos passed on Jason Kendall, Charles Johnson, Johnny Damon, Preston Wilson, Jeffrey Hammonds, and, most notably, Derek Jeter.

Oops. Clearly the best in the business get it wrong pretty often.

1993 Topps Black Gold #7 Marquis Grissom

1993 marked the debut of Topps Black Gold, the awesome insert set of my childhood. I pulled a few of them from packs, but I always stared longingly at the Ken Griffey, Jr. in the card shop, the one that always had a pretty hefty price tag for a nine-year old.

A guy like Marquis Grissom was much more reachable, and like many Expos players of this era, he did go on to win a World Series after the strike. In fact, he did so the very next year with the Braves, the only time Atlanta won a World Series during their decade-plus of dominating the NL East.

1993 Topps Black Gold #22 Larry Walker

Sadly, unlike many of the players you see in this post, Larry Walker never won a World Series. In fact, he never even won a World Series game, as the Cardinals were swept by the curse-breaking Red Sox in 2004, his only appearance in the Fall Classic. The Cardinals did end up winning in 2006, one year after Walker's retirement. That has to be quite a disappointment for a borderline Hall of Fame candidate. Still, he was a well-liked player in Colorado, one of the few stars to play in both the Blake Street Bomber era and as a contemporary of Todd Helton.

If I had a time machine, or at least an alternate-universe machine, I'd want to see what would have happened in 1994. And I bet Larry Walker would too.

Antique Mall Mystery Pack: Giants

The holidays are a busy time. I've been keeping up with the blog, but thanks to all the trade posts, holiday gifts, group breaks, and milestones, the Mystery Packs from a not-that-recent trip to the antique mall have taken a back seat. I still have several of those, two of which I haven't even opened yet. And the San Francisco Giants have been sitting at the top of that stack since before the World Series started.

1994 Topps #574 Willie McGee

Which means this glamour shot of Willie McGee has been pretty conspicuous on my side table for some time now. There are actually quite a few photos like this in 1994 Topps; as they seem to have tried mimicking the Studio brand (and the especially odd 1992 Studio that Mint Condition wrote about a couple weeks ago). At least he has a bat barely visible under his left hand. Otherwise this photo would hardly have anything to do with the sport.

1994 Topps #240 Will Clark

Will the Thrill's card looks a lot more like an actual baseball card, as he's definitely got a little "Just Hit a Home Run" swagger. Or at least a long fly ball. Interestingly, the back of this card has plenty to say about Will Clark's home runs. His first swing as a professional resulted in a home run, as did his first Major League swing, a pitch from Nolan Ryan himself. There is actually a surprisingly large list of players who performed that feat in their first at-bat, though not necessarily against The Ryan Express. There are even a few pitchers on there, including some, like Hoyt Wilhelm, who never hit another.

1994 Topps #550 Matt Williams

This card really doesn't seem that old, but looking at the men behind the plate, you can see that it's from the days before hockey helmets migrated over to baseball. It's a really well-framed shot, though Williams looks a bit early on this swing, as I can't see the ball anywhere, unless he already made contact and sent it rocketing off to the outfield. That is probably Don Slaught catching, who was toward the end of his career. Both these players have long since retired, and even the windy Candlestick Park, the setting for this photo, was torn down a few years ago.

So I guess a lot can happen in 22 years.

1994 Finest Pre-Production #169 Rod Beck

Then, as now, I really like green cards, though sadly reliever Rod Beck is no longer with us. He was a fierce competitor, racking up close to 300 saves before hanging them up. And his intensity clearly comes across on this card, a preproduction example of Topps Finest, noted by the red lettering on the back. Beck had a few postseason appearances for the Giants, Cubs, and Red Sox, playing his last postseason game against the Yankees, who would go on to win the World Series that year.

1993 Ultra #134 Darren Lewis

I don't recall much about Darren Lewis, but I vividly remember 1993 Ultra. Despite its similarity to 1992 Ultra, I'm one of those people that can tell those two apart at a split-second glance. The color schemes and some of the design elements are just different enough to stick out in my mind. Plus, it was one of only a couple sets from my original 1993 collection that came in foil packs, the other being the legendary 1993 Upper Deck. So I had to save up for those. And I still have relatively few cards from that set, compared to others from that era.

1994 Score #641 Salomon Torres

These Mystery packs have added quite a bit to my 1994 Score collection, as I've been finding three or four in each one of them, though they don't always make it to the blog. Though the dark borders chip like crazy, the photography is pretty darn good for such an under-the-radar brand like Score. Torres looks like he's about to do some one-handed juggling.

I remember quite a bit of hype around Torres early in his career; in fact he might be the first pitching prospect I ever paid attention to. But a lot of that went out the window in the last game of 1993, when he had a pretty bad performance in a loss to the Dodgers, allowing the Atlanta Braves to win the NL West by a game. Say what you want about the current wild card system, but winning 103 games and missing the playoffs like the Giants did that year is just wrong. Although the fact that the Rockies didn't win a single game against the Braves that entire season definitely spoiled things for the Giants a bit, which is about the only thing the Rockies have consistently done throughout their history.

1994 Score #596 Steve Scarsone

Steve Scarsone isn't a legend in Giants lore, but I like this action shot of the long-time Minor League veteran who finally broke into the Majors for a few years. This double play shot features a cameo of #25 on the Dodgers, who happens to be none other than Tim Wallach.

I don't know if the Tim Wallach super-supercollector in our community collects cameos, but I just might find a copy of this card to send his way.

As a side note, that commemorative #52 patch on Wallach's sleeve is for Tim Crews, a Dodgers pitcher who died in an accident in the 1992-1993 off-season, along with Steve Olin of the Indians. I remember reading about that shortly after it happened, but in the days before the Web, it wasn't so easy to figure out what those patches were for. You usually just had to listen to the broadcast and hope a color analyst would mention it from time to time.

1994 Score Gold Rush #448 Royce Clayton

Like most brands in 1994, Score had a one-per-pack gold variant, their version of which was the Gold Rush parallel you see above.

Royce Clayton, who shared the middle infield with Steve Scarsone on occasion, might even be preparing to field a throw from him on this exact picture. I remember Clayton primarily as a Giant, even though he spent a year on the Rockies toward the end of his career. He even portrayed Miguel Tejada in the film adaptation of Moneyball after his retirement.

1993 Donruss #524 Robby Thompson

To wrap things up, how about another Giants' middle infielder? Thompson split time with Scarsone after this season, but he was a very, very consistent performer. He even led the league in triples in 1989, thanks to that famous Donruss asterisk, which you'll see on the back.

1993 Donruss #524 Robby Thompson (Reverse)

Though Donruss finally made significant changes to the backs in 1993, they still stuck with five years of recent stats, and those numbers are precisely what I'd want out of a second baseman. But what most stood out to me is that huge commemorative patch on the left sleeve. It's for the Baseball Centennial (1839-1939), and though that date for the origin of baseball is highly questionable, the Giants still wore some throwback New York Giants jerseys in the 1992 season, which had a nice white and blue color scheme, though the current San Francisco helmets were still used. These uniforms were found more commonly in 1993 Upper Deck, as you can see below.

1993 Upper Deck #160 John Burkett

It's odd not seeing those iconic black and orange colors the Giants are known for today, and their time in New York isn't as well remembered by today's fans as, say, the Brooklyn Dodgers, though they won five World Series before moving to the Bay Area. But you can always count on 1993 Upper Deck to make your point.