If anyone can bring us back
to the simple joy of baseball, it’s this guy. Lee May, an original Big Red
Machine member gets one of those action shots in which Topps liked to inform us
how fallible baseball players were. I want to say his swing and a miss is taken
at Riverfront since that right field dimension is right, but I believe all the
dimension markings at Riverfront were in yellow, so I may be wrong. Regardless,
the shot does give us the chance to see the frame that generated all of Lee’s
power. ’73 was the second year of Lee’s three-year stay in Houston and despite the less favorable
Astrodome dimensions he still brought the big power. The Dome shaved about ten
homers per season from his home run totals but he found other ways to get in
the runs. He put up a then club record 21-game hitting streak during the year
and gets rewarded with a big milestone number from Topps. The card guys taketh
away and the card guys giveth.
Lee May grew up with his
younger brother Carlos in Birmingham,
Alabama. In ’77 when Topps did
those brother cards they said that Lee and Carlos used to go to the ballfield
with their mom, who used to pitch to them, field grounders, and shag flies.
That image used to make me smile (seeing my mom do any of those things would
have been a trip). Lee was signed out of Parker High by Cincinnati in ’61 but only got in a few games
in D ball that summer because he was already playing industrial league ball. In
’62 at that level he hit ten homers and in ’63 in A ball moved up to 18 with 80
RBI’s. Lee was also a pretty good fielder and his only real demerit was a
strikeout tally that ran to about one every six at bats. That would never
really go away, but as he climbed through the minors his numbers got
progressively better: in ’64 he hit .303 with 25 homers and 110 RBI’s in Double
A; and in ’65 .321 with 34 dingers and 103 RBI’s in Triple A. That year he made
his debut for the Reds in a game and in ’66 he hit very well up top before
spending most of the season back in Triple A where he hit .310 with 16 homers
and 78 RBI’s in an abbreviated season.
When May came up in ’67 to
stay first base had recently been shared by Gordy Coleman, a power hitter who
pretty much just ran out of gas, and Tony Perez and Deron Johnson, who both
could also play third. Coleman was done by the time ’67 got rolling, Perez
pretty much took over third from Johnson, and Deron and Lee took turns at first
base. Lee also worked a bunch in the outfield, but he was much better
defensively at first. Still, he showed enough power flashes to get TSN’s Rookie
of the Year in the NL. Tom Seaver won the official award but Lee did also make
the Topps team. In ’68 he spent a lot less time in the outfield and his stats
showed a complete ignorance of the sophomore jinx or the dominance by pitchers
that year. In ’69 he had his biggest offensive year, receiving his first
All-Star nod, and in ’70 he, Perez, and Johnny Bench officially christened The
Machine by combining for 119 homers and 371 RBI’s. Lee got his first whiff of
post-season action and while he had a mediocre playoff he was about the only
Red that remembered his stroke against Baltimore
in the Series. In ’71 his numbers made him team mvp and brought him back to the
All-Star game in an otherwise disappointing year. After that season he went to Houston with Tommy Helms
and Jimmy Stewart for Joe Morgan, Jack Billingham, Ed Armbrister, Denis Menke,
and Cesar Geronimo.
Houston was a tough place to be a power guy but May did an
excellent job in the RBI department though the homer tallies went south. In ’72
he helped get Houston
off to a great start and the team finished with the best record in its history.
In ’73 the team posted its second-best record but by ’74 it became apparent the
team wasn’t going to be able to keep up with Cincinnati and LA through power. So even
though Lee hit 24 out and put up 85 RBI’s he was traded after that year to Baltimore for Enos Cabell
and Rob Andrews. His homer totals remained relatively light compared to his
Cincy years but he got the RBI totals back up. In ’75 he drove in 99 on 20
homers and in ’76 he led the AL
with 109 RBI’s on 25 dingers. That second year he DH’d a bit as Tony Muser got
some starts at first. In ’77 Lee hit 27 out with 99 RBI’s and in ’78 he had 25
homers but the RBI total slipped to 80 since he was now hitting behind Eddie
Murray, who both cleared the basepaths a bit more than Lee was used to and
exchanged positions with him, making Lee a full-time DH. In ’79 Lee’s plate
time decreased by 100 at bats and his totals fell to 19 homers and 69 RBI’s. He
got some playoff work against California
but almost none in the Series since that year was an off one for the DH. In ’80
he was part of a revolving door at DH, splitting time pretty evenly with Terry
Crowley and Benny Ayala. In ’81 he moved on to Kansas City as a free agent and for the next
two seasons hit over .300 in some pinch and DH work. When he was done after the
’82 season Lee had a .267 average with 354 homers, and 1,244 RBI’s. In the
post-season he hit ,263 with two homers and eleven RBI’s in 13 games.
May moved into coaching
shortly after his career ended. In ’83 he returned to Baltimore where he coached in spring training
and then did some roving work during the season. He then sandwiched two stints
with Kansas City (’84-’86 and ’92-’94) around
time back in Cincinnati
(’88-’89). From ’95 to ’99 he coached back in Baltimore
and from 2000 to 2002 with Tampa.
He was inducted into the Cincinnati
hall of fame in 2006 and has done some community work on behalf of the Reds.
His son Lee May Jr. was drafted by the Mets in ’86 and worked his way up to
Triple A but was a light hitter with lots of speed but little power. He is now
a coach.
Lee gets a tie for the shortest
name in the set. Career-wise defensively he is 67th in putouts, 66th
in assists, 55th in fielding percentage, and 47th in
double plays for first basemen. In that last category he also led his league in
’69, ’72, and ’75.
These two nearly played together
at KC in the early Eighties:
1. May and Jim Palmer ’75 to
’80 Orioles;
2. Palmer and Andy
Etchebarren ’65 to ’75 Orioles;
3. Etchebarren and Rusty
Torres ’76 to ’77 Angels.
The park might be Candlestick.
ReplyDeleteLee May gets card #500? That's puzzling.
ReplyDelete