Friday, June 14, 2013

Ty(e) Waller

I have a dilemma on this one. When I did my research on Elliot Tyrone Waller, he was listed as Ty on his 1982 Fleer and Topps cards. If you look for him on Baseball Reference, he also comes up as Ty. So that's what I put on my card.

However, when I got this one back signed, you can see he added an "e" on the end of his first name so that it reads Tye. When I looked at his bio page on the Oakland A's website, he is listed as Tye. Listings on eBay go both ways. Minor league issues seem to lean towards Tye as that's how the name is spelled on the card while the Topps and Fleer issues go by Ty. A few were even smart enough to list it both ways in the header.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I'm very tempted to make another one. Thoughts?


Waller came to the Cubs as the player to be named later in the Leon Durham and Ken Reitz for Bruce Sutter swap with the Cardinals. He played parts of the 1981 and 1982 season with the Cubs, mostly at third base but also rotating into the outfield occasionally.

He spent 19 seasons in the Padres organization as a coach but has been with Oakland since 2007.

Despite a short career, he had a few highlights. When I get around to making the back for the card, I will include a tidbit like he had a pinch hit double in his first Cubs at bat and later scored. Or he had a career high 4 RBIs in a 14-0 drubbing of the Philadelphia Phillies on September 27, 1981.

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