R.I.P. to Rudy May

Now it's the 1981 World Series' turn

Rudy May isn’t a player I knew much about when I was a kid in the 1970s. By the time this card appeared in 1978, he was a seasoned veteran of more than a dozen big league campaigns, dating back to the time before I was even born. And while names like Ruth and Cobb and Gehrig were vaguely familiar to the nine year-old that I was that spring, in no way did I have any idea what baseball in the 60s was like.

I was able to tell a rather interesting story about Rudy May’s first major league start back in 1965 in this space last summer, on the occasion of his 80th birthday. In my admittedly unusual way of collecting cards, turning 80 is enough to move a player out of the Neil Young Club—where nearly 500 players from the 1970s can be found—and into the more exclusive group which I refer to as Moves Like Jagger. There are presently 124 players in this group, each of whom who appeared on a baseball card of their own during the 1970s and are still alive into their 80s or 90s.

Of the three groups of living players in my card collection, those in their 60s are currently, and will forever remain, the smallest group numerically. In fact, by September of 2026 they will cease to be entirely. Those players will either age into the Neil Young Club when they reach 70, or they will join the Order of Lyman Bostock if they don’t make it that far. Experience shows that most of them will probably make it, but we’ll hopefully find out soon enough.

When a player makes it to age 80, they remain in the MLJ group for as long as they can, but the only place they can go from there is into the Tina Turner League. And this has been a busy few weeks for that pathway, as 1975 World Series competitors Luis Tiant and Pete Rose went in within a few days of each other, followed by Fernando Valenzuela and Rudy May from the 1981 Series in the past 48 hours. The symmetry of these passings is striking, particularly when the two teams they played for are getting ready to face off against each other for the first time in a World Series in the 43 years since then. It’s so strange that you couldn’t write a script much more compelling than what is actually going on.

Since Tiant and Rose were a pitcher and a hitter from the days where interleague play didn’t exist, it was possible to nail down when the two competitors faced each other during the 1975 Series. But Rudy May and Fernando Valenzuela were both pitchers, so unless they were pitching in the same game together, it’s very unlikely that one stood in the batter’s box while the other was on the mound during that Series.

In fact, since Fernando only appeared in Game three of the Series, it’s easy enough to determine when the two pitchers confronted each other. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Rudy May was brought in to replace George Frazier, with the score tied 4-4 and the Dodgers threatening to take the lead. May induced Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia to ground into a double play, but Ron Cey also scored on the play, giving the Dodgers a lead they would not relinquish.

With two outs and the bases empty, Valenzuela then grounded to short to end the inning. By the time his spot in the order came up again, May was out of the game. And May’s evening ended when Bobby Murcer pinch hit for him in the top of the 8th inning. Fernando went the distance and got the win, while Rudy May got no decision even though he did allow the winning run to cross home plate.

Rudy May made two other appearances in that Series, and this was the only Series action he saw in his 16-year playing career. He remained with the Yankees for another two seasons after that, and retired at age 38.

With six living players (Steve Carlton among them) scheduled to reach age 80 by the end of this year, and a whopping 25 more hopefully attaining octogenarian standing during 2025, some interesting times are ahead for this existential writing project of mine. I’ll do my best to make it interesting, as always.