The first Little Leaguer to make it to the Majors, pitcher Joey Jay passed away Sept. 27 at the age of 89. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times by Richard Goldstein.
Jay made his debut at the tender age of 17 with the Milwaukee Braves in 1953. He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 1960 and won 21 for the pennant-winning team the next season, which was the only time he was selected to the All-Star team. He won the Reds’ only game against the Yankees in the ’61 World Series. He won 21 the next season as well.
He returned to the Braves in the middle of the 1966 season — his last — to finish with a record of 99-91 in 13 seasons, out of the game by the age of 30. He had an interesting perspective about life after baseball. From the Times‘ piece:
“I don’t live in the past, like most ballplayers,” The Middletown Press quoted him as saying. “I don’t wear my World Series rings; my mother has my scrapbooks, and if someone offered me a baseball job, I’d turn it down in a minute.
“When I made the break, it was clean and forever,” he added. “It’s infantile to keep thinking about the game. It gets you nowhere. Most ex-ballplayers keep on living in some destructive fantasy world. Not me. I’m happier than ever since I left.
Given his LL accomplishment, I would have thought there’d be a bio on him, at least from McFarland, which is known for covering unusual and eclectic topics, but no. The best I could find was this entry on the SABR Bio Project site.
I found his 1959 Topps card quite interesting given that he’s posing with a bat. Normally, you would think a pitcher making such a decision would be good with the wood, but Jay — a switch-hitter — had a lifetime average of just .114. He did have two home runs, though, both coming in 1962.
Jay also had the distinction of being the last remaining living member of that first Milwaukee Braves team after it relocated from Boston, according to his obituary in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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More recently, Rudy May — who pitched for the Angels, Yankees, Expos, and Orioles in his 16 big league campaigns — died Oct. 19 at the age of 80. Here’s his Times’ obit, by Alex Williams.
May came along just as Jay was winding down. The 6’2″ lefty won a career-high 18 games with Baltimore in 1977. He led the American League in ERA in 1980 when he went 15-5 in his second stint with the Yankees. He finished with a record of 152-156.
Again, from the Times:
When May made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Angels (who would change their name to the California Angels during his tenure with the team) in 1965, he had an impressive fastball. But after tearing ligaments in his left shoulder early in his career, he refined his approach and eventually learned to dominate with pinpoint control and a nasty curveball, which he honed with help from the Yankee Hall of Fame pitcher Whitey Ford.
Tagged as:
Joey Jay,
Rudy May
Recently heard from Peter Anthony Holder, host of The Stuph File podcast. I was a guest on his program back in 2017 to discuss “Anti-Semitism in Baseball,” based on my book Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War.
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Fernandomania.
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is available on Amazon.com,
