1979 Topps #406 Joe Wallis
About Joe Wallis
On June 15, 1978, the Cubs sent Wallis to Cleveland for Mike Vail, and the Indians sent him on to Oakland for Gary Alexander an hour after the first deal. Between the Cubs and Athletics he played 113 games that season and batted .249 with 7 home runs. Once in Oakland he grew a beard and became part of the club's Bearded Bunch, 11 players who sported facial hair. Topps printed him with the Oakland Athletics on #406 in 1979.
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 | 83 | 4 | 40 | 28 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 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: #328 Oakland A's / Jack McKeon
More Oakland Athletics cards:
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- #54 Dell Alston
- #78 Elias Sosa
- #163 Glenn Burke
- #191 Mike Norris
- #201 Mike Edwards
- #224 Dave Revering
- #261 Mario Guerrero
- #295 Mitchell Page
- #352 Steve Renko
- #378 Rob Picciolo
- #432 Dave Heaverlo
- #458 Jim Essian
- #487 Miguel Dilone
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1979 Topps #406 card?
It is card #406 of the 726-card 1979 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Wallis of the Oakland Athletics.
How many cards are in the 1979 Topps Baseball set?
726 cards, numbered 1 through 726 with none skipped and issued as a single series, tracked as 727 collectible states: #369 Bump Wills comes with a Rangers or a Blue Jays team banner, and the master set counts both.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA, 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.