Happy Birthday Tim Wallach: Two Autographed Cards

Well, it's my birthday, and as is customary on my birthday, I will be featuring a pair of cards from Tim Wallach, who was also born on September 14th, albeit over 20 years before me:

Since the last time I featured him, he's been named a bench coach for the Miami Marlins, a team I'm surprised still exists, considering it's owned by Jeffrey Loria. This Loria, and this one as well.

His son Chad was a Marlins draftee - which perhaps helped convince him to continue his coaching career there - while his two other sons, Matt and Brett, were drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Matt and Chad are both products of California State University Fullerton, as was their father, the first from that school to hit a home run in his first Major League at-bat.

At 260 career home runs, Wallach is tied with Derek Jeter, Eric Chavez, and Javier Lopez for 195th all-time. He is right outside the top-100 for career doubles and was a force defensively (click on the picture for higher resolution:

Most cards, however, picture him at bat, usually post-swing, wearing the Expos' powdered blue (away) 1980s uniform, as is the case with these two, which he signed in blue sharpie; first, here is card #263 from Fleer's 1983 Fleer set, one that carries a similar design to those of Donruss at the time:

And there's card #198 from Fleer's 1988 Fleer set, with what I felt was a wildly original yet hard on the eyes design at the time, that I now am blasé about in terms of a "wow" factor and just feel looks ridiculous:

I'll never feel blasé about Wallach, however, who definitely makes the starting third baseman position on my All-Expos All-Time team.

Happy Birthday Tim Wallach: 3 Autographed Cards

Famous people born on September 14th include singer Amy Winehouse, rapper Nas, actors Andrew Lincoln (The Walking Dead), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Tyler Perry (Gone Girl), Melissa Leo (The Fighter), and Callum Keith Rennie (Californication), wrestler Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon, and comedian Mike Ward.

Also, myself, and former baseball star third baseman Tim Wallach. When I was a kid, most years, there was a Montréal Expos game at the Olympic Stadium on that day, and I'd go, and they'd say it was his birthday, and I felt special because it was mine too. There was even one year where my name appeared on the scoreboard, and I got to meet him and have him sign cards for me.

I'm not sure if any of these cards are from that day, because as is the case with my favourite player (Tim Raines), I have a ton of Wallach-signed stuff. He, Raines and Gary Carter are my Holy Trinity of baseball players, though I never got to meet Carter.

Wallach was usually among the league leaders in Game-Winning RBIs, and twice led for doubles, with 42 each time. The Expos were always a run-first team, putting emphasis on doubles and stolen bases (of which Raines was the champion) instead of raw power, and #29 also holds the team record for inside-the-park home runs, both in a single season and over a career. He did have some power to his game, however, surpassing the 20-homer mark five times (with a high of 28 in 1982).

He was also a three-time Gold Glove winner, in the Mike Schmidt, Terry Pendleton and Matt Williams era, no less.

Here are the three cards I chose to feature today, all of them signed in blue sharpie, starting with card #685 from Topps' 1986 Topps set:

He's shown from the side of the field near the bench, in his regular batting stance (upright), sporting the team's classic powder-blue (away) uniform, as is the case in the following card, from Fleer's 1990 Fleer set (card #364), except there he's shown mid-swing:

There's also this one where he's wearing the team's 1990s grey (away) uniform, watching a ball he hit go deep into center field:

It's card #570 from Topps' 1993 Topps collection, one of the last baseball sets I tried to complete.

Happy Birthday Tim Wallach: 4 Autographed Cards

My birthday is September 14th. I share it with a number of celebrities, but one that was always somewhat available to me as a child was Montréal Expos five-time All-Star third baseman Tim Wallach. And in most seasons, there was an Expos home game at the Olympic Stadium on that day.

Over the years, I have gotten Wallach to sign a bunch of cards for me, usually during batting practice before games, at times in charity softball games some Expos players took part in with or against local celebrities, be they radio or TV personalities, actors, musicians, or even hockey players (Stéphane Richer was a particularly avid ball player).

I chose to feature these four cards first because, judging by the blue sharpie type of pen used and signature, they seem like they're from the same era. Also, they show him wearing a wide variety of uniforms, something I like.

Let's start with his rookie card, from Fleer's 1982 Fleer:

It's card #210 in the set, and on it he's sporting the Expos' red Grapefruit League (training camp) jersey, with the then-regular powder-blue pants. Oh, and an awesome mustache. You'll notice there's more white on one side of the card than the other; that's not part of the design, the card was just cut off-center - the back has the same defect, one usually more synonymous with the Topps brand...

Speaking of Fleer, there's this card:

It's card #291 in the 1984 Fleer set and shows him wearing the Expos' white (home) uniform. The back of the card mentions he hit a home run in his very first Major League at bat (he also did the same thing in the minors). It's a simple card design, but beautiful and clear; as a matter of fact, the Vachon line of Québec desserts made an Expos team set in the late 1980s using the same scheme, pretty much, as did the Provigo chain of supermarkets.

The next two cards are cool on a whole other level: Wallach was more than just a pretty boy who could hit homers and play in All-Star Games: he was also a three-time Gold Glove winner (1985, 1988 and 1990), in an era when Mike Schmidt, Terry Pendleton and Matt Williams were at their peak and playing in more baseball-friendly markets. They're also from sets I collected over the summer while vacationing in Florida with my parents when I was 9 years old.

On the first one, he has an almost goalie-like stance, reminiscent of Mike Veronon or Ron Hextall when they had that ''I dare you to shoot it glove-side'' look:

It's card 70 of Score's 1988 Score set. The dent at the top is from the plastic penny sleeve, not the card itself, though I'm surprised the card is in the condition it's in: I would actually play with them, laying them on the living room carpet as if it was a baseball field, two opposing teams, throwing a dice and hitting it with the cards, making them run around the makeshift diamond. Most cards I bought that summer have creases and round corners.

But this card really rocks:

Not as crouched, sunglasses under his cap, Wallach looks all-business here, fitting considering he led the Majors that year with 42 doubles and was second in the NL with 123 RBIs. His specialty, actually, was a stat no longer kept track of by MLB, called ''Game-Winning RBIs'', which is exactly what it sounds like, and at which he usually led the majors. Clutch player, right here.

As for the card, it's from Leaf's 1988 Donruss set (card #222).