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 - #25T Mike Torrez

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #25T Mike Torrez

While Torrez will forever be remembered by Red Sox fans as the guy who gave up Bucky Dent's home run in the one-game play-off in 1978, he really should be remembered as a 20-game winner and sturdy, top-of-the-rotation-type pitcher. With 185 career wins to his credit, not including a pair of victories in the 1977 World Series, the Bear was great. As a sidebar, it's crazy to think about the talent that changed teams in the Reggie Jackson trade to Baltimore: Reggie and Ken Holtzman to the O's and Baylor, Torrez, and Paul Mitchell to the A's. And none of these players ended the 1977 season on either of these teams! Amazing!

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #90T Sal Bando

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #90T Sal Bando

As part of the Great Fire Sale That Wasn't, Charlie Finley let the White Sox kick the tires on Sal Bando. Bando was granted free agency after the 1976 season and signed with the Milwaukee Brewers.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #268T Del Unser

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #268T Del Unser

Here's something: Baseball Reference lists Unser one place in front of Ozark Ike, Gus Zernial, on its All-Time Rank (among Batters) list.

Here's something else: If you're not following The Baseball Card Blog on Facebook, you're missing some great stuff, including a few of these "Missing Cards" that won't be posted on the Blog until the series is complete.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #319T Larry Gura

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #319T Larry Gura

Though he'd been in the league for a handful of years prior to joining the Royals in May 1976, Larry Gura never found sustained success until he donned the Kansas City blue and white.

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.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #520T Willie McCovey

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #520T Willie McCovey

After the A's aborted fire sale at the June 15th trade deadline, Oakland made a push for the division title. Part of that push was the purchase of Willie McCovey's contract at the end of August. It didn't end up working out for either party. Big Mac hit just .208 in just 11 games. 1977 found him back in a Giants uniform, where he returned to form, smacking 28 home runs and finishing in the top 20 most valuable players in the league.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #125T Don Baylor

The seminal Oakland/Baltimore trade of April 1976 is often remembered as Reggie Jackson's departure from Oakland. But what about Baylor? Here was a slugger entering his prime, two years away from being named American League MVP (1979). And while Baltimore essentially leased Jackson for the 1976 season, it was really that both teams were lessees: by the start of the 1977 season, of all the players involved in the trade only one player remained with his team: Paul Mitchell with the A's, and even Mitchell was gone midway through 1977 in a trade with Seattle. Baylor signed with the Angels and Ken Holtzman, Reggie Jackson, and Mike Torrez all joined the Yankees.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #94T Jim Dwyer

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #94T Jim Dwyer

Jim Dwyer was a decent utility player, with his best seasons coming with the Baltimore Orioles in the early 1980s. He bounced around before and after his seasons with the O's, as this card suggests.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #643T Minnie Minoso

Minnie Minoso made history in September 1976, when White Sox owner Bill Veeck, Jr., activated the great hitter. Veeck did it to let Minoso lay claim to competing in four decades. This feat was highlighted as part of the "Record Breaker" subset in the 1977 Topps set (card #232).

Because Minoso's last regular-player card came in the 1964 Topps set, I checklisted this Missing Card on #643, a checklist.

NEW 1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards up on Facebook!

Don't forget to visit The Baseball Card Blog's Facebook outpost for the next installment of our 1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards project—cards posted there won't be posted on the blog until the project is complete!

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1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #63 Bobby Darwin

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #63 Bobby Darwin

In June 1976, the Red Sox traded its pinch-hit hero of the 1975 World Series, Bernie Carbo, to the Milwaukee Brewers. In exchange, Milwaukee sent Boston outfielder Bobby Darwin and pitcher Tom Murphy. Darwin wasn't spectacular for the Red Sox, hitting a combined .183 during his season and a half with the team.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #140 Vida Blue

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #140 Vida Blue

As part of the Great Finley Fire Sale of 1976, the Oakland A's sold Vida Blue to the New York Yankees on June 15th. Three days later, the league voided the sale, returning Blue to Oakland. This custom card is how I think Topps would've handled it.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards

1976 Topps Traded Ray Fosse (real card)

I was reading somewhere online today about the 1976 Topps Traded set, and how lots of guys who were traded that year didn't make it into the set. Granted, this is easily explained away that guys who were traded after Topps went to press weren't going to have a Traded card, but still.

So I've decided that over the next few months I will create 44 additional traded cards for the 1976 Topps set, in a little project I'm calling "1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards."

I've written before about how the original 1976 Topps Traded series, though laden with stars of the day, including Rusty Staub, Fergie Jenkins, and Willie Randolph—is lacking considerable superstar power, power that could've been provided by guys like Don Baylor, Reggie Jackson, Willie McCovey, Nate Colbert, and Mike Torrez; all of whom were traded at some point in 1976. And what about guys like Vida Blue and Bert Blyleven, or the ballyhooed free agent? Topps missed a grand promotional blitz by not including Andy Messersmith on his new team (the Atlanta Braves).

Sure, for every missed Messersmith and McCovey there was a missed Drago and Meoli. Don't worry, those three will get their Missing Cards too. Look for the first cards this weekend here on the blog and over on the blog's Facebook page!