Rudy May obit

MLB News: Former Yankees Pitcher, ERA Champion Dies: Report

 He was not on the list.

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers will meet in the World Series beginning with Game 1 on Friday in Los Angeles. The evening was already scheduled to include a time to mourn.

Fernando Valenzuela, who started and won Game 3 of the 1981 World Series — the last time the Dodgers and Yankees played for a championship — passed away on Tuesday. Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement that Valenzuela's memory would be honored during the World Series.

According to a report, another participant in the last Dodgers-Yankees World Series has passed away. Author and journalist Jeff Pearlman relayed the sad news about pitcher Rudy May on his TikTok account Wednesday:

May was 80 years old.

Although his cause of death is not known, according to Montreal Expos historian Danny Gallagher, May had been suffering from diabetes.

May won an ERA title and appeared in three World Series games, all in 1981, during his career with the Yankees, California Angels, Baltimore Orioles, and Montreal Expos.

In a 16-year big league career, May went 152-156 with a 3.46 ERA. He led the American League in ERA in 1980.

An Oakland native, May was confronted with the harsh realities of segregation in the South when he reported to his first spring training in Florida with the Minnesota Twins in 1962. He was unaccustomed to the separate clubhouse entrances, separate hotels, and separate drinking fountains for Black and white players enforced at the time.

Two years later, May was playing for a Chicago White Sox minor league team when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. As he told Pearlman in a 2014 interview: "We were in Kinston, North Carolina, and we were checked out of the black hotel in the middle of the afternoon and walked through the town to the white hotel—we were scared to death!"

May debuted in April 1965 with the Angels, who had acquired him in a trade with the Phillies the previous December. He spent parts of the next 10 seasons in the Angels organization before his contract was sold to the Yankees in June 1974.

With the Yankees, he became the starting pitcher in the first game at the refurbished Yankee Stadium on April 15, 1976. He also pitched three games in the 1981 World Series, which the Dodgers won in six games.

May pitched his final major league game with New York in Sept. 1983.

May enjoyed fishing and diving in his retirement from baseball. He also enjoyed a long career in the convenience store business that began in a single Circle K outside Fresno, California before he ascended the corporate ladder.

According to the Society for American Baseball Research, May ultimately managed three stores and moved up the corporate ladder to a marketing consultancy position. In 1993, he joined British Petroleum as a Franchise Business Consultant and remained there until his 2014 retirement.

He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher in 1965 and from 1969 to 1983 for the California Angels, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, and Montreal Expos. Early in his career, May had a live fastball, but was known best for his sharp-breaking curveball.

May played high school baseball at Castlemont High School in Oakland, California. One of his high school teammates was future Hall-of-Famer Joe Morgan. Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in 1962, May was one of the last players in Major League Baseball to be exempt from the later adoption of the Major League Baseball draft (which was formalized in 1964). He pitched in 32 games for Class A Bismarck-Mandan Pards, with 11 wins and 11 losses, pitching 168 innings in 24 games.

In 1963 May was selected first in the 1963 first-year player draft by the Chicago White Sox. He pitched over 300 innings in 1964, split between the Single-A Tidewater Tides and Triple-A Indianapolis Indians, with 17 wins and 8 losses in 207 innings in 30 appearances.

After the 1964 season, May was traded by the White Sox to the Philadelphia Phillies for catcher Bill Heath and a player to be named later (Joel Gibson). The Phillies then traded May to the California Angels for pitcher Bo Belinsky.

May made his Major League debut in 1965 at the age of 20, starting for the Angels against the Detroit Tigers. He pitched 9 innings, gave up one run and one hit, struck out 10 batters, walked 5, threw 139 pitches, and received a no-decision. May appeared in 30 games for the Angels in 1965. May pitched in the Angels minor league system from 1966 to 1968, including a stint with the Seattle Angels. He appeared in 45 games over three seasons. He won 18 games and lost 10, in 248 innings.

May returned to the Major Leagues for good in 1969 with the Angels and appeared in 200 games between 1969 and the beginning of the 1974 season as a starter and reliever. Over 1,013 innings, May posted a record of 47 wins and 67 losses with California.

The New York Yankees purchased May's contract from the Angels on June 15, 1974. He posted 22 wins and 16 losses in 326 innings over 49 appearances with the Yankees.

The Yankees traded May with Rick Dempsey, Scott McGregor, Tippy Martinez, and Dave Pagan to the Baltimore Orioles for Ken Holtzman, Doyle Alexander, Elrod Hendricks, Grant Jackson, and Jimmy Freeman at the trade deadline on June 15, 1976. He had fallen out of favor with Yankees manager Billy Martin over being removed prematurely from starts. He appeared in 58 games posting a record of 28 wins and 21 losses over 403 innings with the Orioles.

The Orioles traded May along with Randy Miller, and Bryn Smith to the Montreal Expos for Don Stanhouse, Joe Kerrigan and Gary Roenicke at the Winter Meetings on December 7, 1977. May pitched primarily out of the bullpen for Montreal and recorded 18 wins and 13 losses, appearing in 49 games and recording 237 innings.

May re-signed with the Yankees on November 8, 1979. During the 1980 season with New York, May led the American League with an earned run average of 2.46, which was his best career mark. Through his final four seasons in Major League Baseball, May won 28 games and lost 27. In the minors he also played with the San Jose Bees and the El Paso Sun Kings.

In 1965 with the Angels, May earned a salary of $6,000. In 1983, his final year with the Yankees, his salary was $620,000.