1977 Topps #279 Joe Wallis
About Joe Wallis
Wallis played 121 games for the 1976 Cubs, 90 of them in the outfield. He batted .254 with 5 home runs and 21 RBI. He also scored 51 runs and stole 3 bases. The 1977 Topps issue has him at #279, printed with the Chicago Cubs.
Joe Wallis was a switch-hitting center fielder who played 329 major league games for the Chicago Cubs and Oakland Athletics from 1975 to 1979. A native of East St. Louis, Illinois, he attended McCluer High School and Southern Illinois University Carbondale and played summer ball for the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League in 1971 and 1972. The Cubs took him in the sixth round of the 1973 draft. He was nicknamed Tarzan for his cliff diving, and a college press release listed his favorite pastime as taking dives off 100-foot cliffs into rock-filled quarries. At Wrigley Field the Cubs once played a loud Tarzan yell over the public address system during one of his at-bats, and he said he did not even like the name. His relationship with Cubs manager Herman Franks was fractured, and Franks was none too pleased when Wallis tried to catch a spring training fly ball behind his back. Wallis finished with a .244 average, 16 home runs and 68 RBI, and he played his last game on September 30, 1979, after batting .141 in 23 games that year.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · The Hardball Times
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 101 | 8 | 49 | 36 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
Team card: #518 Chicago Cubs Team
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #1 1976 Batting Leaders
- #64 Larry Biittner
- #92 Dave Rosello
- #124 George Mitterwald
- #144 Bruce Sutter
- #169 Darold Knowles
- #190 Ray Burris
- #219 Joe Coleman
- #250 Bill Madlock
- #302 Mike Garman
- #333 Paul Reuschel
- #360 Rick Monday
- #395 Manny Trillo
- #419 Steve Swisher
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1977 Topps #279 card?
It is card #279 of the 660-card 1977 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Wallis of the Chicago Cubs.
How many cards are in the 1977 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, numbered 1 through 660 with none skipped and distributed as a single series. No card carries a catalogued print variation, so the base set and the master set are the same 660 cards.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, BaseballCardPedia, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-25.