1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #481T Rudy May

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #481T Rudy May

For a team destined to finish 10.5 games behind the first-place Yankees, the Baltimore Orioles were busy in 1976. All told, 10 players joined the team that year, including the Dude, Rudy May. May was part of a great acquisition for the O's—netting them an everyday catcher and rainout-entertainment extraordinaire in Rick Dempsey, a young Scott MacGregor, and reliever Tippy Martinez—even though the team sent Doyle Alexander, Ken Holtzman, three sacks of rice, and 20 head of cattle to New York to get it done.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #500T Reggie Jackson

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #500T Reggie Jackson

Charlie Finley's decision to dismantle his championship-winning A's still stings the heart of the baseball fan. No team should be blown up in so public a way: first Reggie was dealt to the Orioles, then the fire sale at the trade deadline in June... it's enough to make an Oakland fan root for the team across the bay. And then, to add insult to injury, the team actually competed in spite of its owner's wrangling, so the added spare parts towards the end of the season hurt all the more when they didn't work out (Nate Colbert, Willie McCovey, Ron Fairly). Painful stuff.

Had Jackson been traded sometime before Christmas 1975, this "Missing Card" would've been an amazing inclusion in the Traded series of 1976.