Vintage Fridays: Dave May, 1970 Topps #81

Happy May Day, folks! Unlike last year, I'm not going to regale you with sordid tales of nudity and bacchanalia. Sorry. Dave May was the first of the three Mays to play for the Orioles (the others, as previously mentioned, were his son Derrick and of course the powerful Lee May). Unfortunately, none of the Baltimore trio of Mays were born in their namesake month, which would have allowed for some creative uniform design. But Lee May's younger brother had the chance and took the initiative.

Carlos May was born on May 17, 1948. He was a decent player in his own right, hitting .274 in a ten-year career and being selected as a two-time All Star despite losing his right thumb in a mortar accident while in the Marine Reserves. But many fans (particularly the trivia-crazy) know him best as the only player in major league history to wear his birthday on his back: MAY 17. I couldn't find a rear view of him, but here's a frontal shot. As somebody who has a fixation on uniform numbers, I think that's pretty cool.

I don't want to give Dave May short shrift, since this very well may be the first and last time he's featured on this blog. He never did much for the O's, hitting .216 with 5 home runs in parts of four seasons at the beginning of his career, but his last home run for the Birds was a game-winning two-run shot in the bottom of the tenth on June 14, 1970. It came off of Fred Talbot of the A's, who incidentally was featured on my 1965 Topps blog today. Dave also was an All-Star for the Brewers in 1973. That year, he hit .303 with 25 HR and 93 RBI and led the American League with 295 total bases. A year later, he was traded to the Braves for none other than Hank Aaron. That's a feather in your cap, I'd have to think.