1977 Topps #98 Milt May
About Milt May
A broken ankle ended May's 1976 after six games with the Tigers, in which he went 7 for 25. He recovered in 1977 to catch 111 games, hit 12 home runs and record 12 double plays with no passed balls. He is pictured on #98 with Detroit.
Milt May was a left-handed-hitting catcher who played 15 seasons, 1970 to 1984, for the Pirates, Astros, Tigers, White Sox and Giants. The Pirates drafted him as an infielder in the 11th round in 1968 out of St. Petersburg High School and converted him to catching. He was known as a good handler of pitchers and a line-drive hitter who rarely chased bad pitches, though also reputedly the slowest runner in the majors. At 21 he was on the 1971 World Series champions. With San Francisco he hit the 9,000th home run in Giants history in 1980, and in 1981 he hit .310, the highest mark ever by a Giants catcher. The Giants traded him back to Pittsburgh in August 1983 for Steve Nicosia. His father, Pinky May, was a professional third baseman, and Milt was his bat boy as a youth. He retired with 971 hits, 77 home runs and a .263 average, and later spent ten seasons as the Pirates' hitting coach and two with Florida.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 66 | 1 | 26 | 34 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| SGC | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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: #621 Detroit Tigers Team
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- #43 Ray Bare
- #69 Jim Crawford
- #122 Ben Oglivie
- #145 Tom Veryzer
- #173 Chuck Scrivener
- #240 Ron LeFlore
- #265 Mark Fidrych
- #291 Jason Thompson
- #311 Vern Ruhle
- #363 Dave Roberts
- #420 Rusty Staub
- #453 Pedro Garcia
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1977 Topps #98 card?
It is card #98 of the 660-card 1977 Topps Baseball set, picturing Milt May of the Detroit Tigers.
Is #98 the 1977 Topps Dennis Eckersley rookie card?
No. #98 is Milt May of the Detroit Tigers. The 1977 set has no Dennis Eckersley rookie card - his rookie card is #98 in the 1976 Topps set - and his 1977 card is #525; at least one dealer key-card list for 1977 still prints the Eckersley rookie as #98.
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.