Joseph Oden Rudi (born September 7, 1946 in Modesto, California) is a former left fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Kansas City & Oakland Athletics (1967–76, 1982), California Angels (1977–80) and Boston Red Sox (1981). He batted and threw right-handed. He currently works in real estate in Baker City, Oregon. Rudi batted a career-high .309 in 1970 and had a career-best 181 hits in 1972. 
That year, he helped the Athletics win the World Series and made a great game-saving catch in Game 2 that would be the highlight reel for many Major League Baseball films. With Tony Perez on first and Oakland leading 2-0 in the ninth inning, Rudi raced to the left-field fence and made a leaping, backhanded catch of Denis Menke’s smash to save a run. Earlier in the game, Rudi had a solo home run. In 1974 he had a career best 22 home runs and 99 runs batted in and hit a home run in Game 5 of the 1974 World Series off Mike Marshall that would turn out to be the game winner and Series clincher. Rudi’s Athletics became the first team since the 1949-1953 New York Yankees to win 3 straight World Championships.
Always have loved this card, would be even better if the picture on it was actually Joe Rudi! As a kid, he was my favorite player on the Angels. Thanks for the nice write up!
I'm pretty sure I have more Joe Rudi cards. I was a huge A's and Reds fan back then