Jerry Lee May was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 professional

Professional baseball

Baseball is a team sport which is played by several professional leagues throughout the world. In these leagues, and associated farm teams, players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system....

 baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 player who played as a catcher

Catcher

Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...

 in the Major Leagues

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 from 1964 to 1973. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates

Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...

, New York Mets

New York Mets

The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...

, and Kansas City Royals

Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1973 to the present, the Royals have played in Kauffman Stadium...

. May was known primarily for his defensive skills and ability to handle a pitching staff.

Baseball career

Originally a pitcher

Pitcher

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...

 and an outfielder

Outfielder

Outfielder is a generic term applied to each of the people playing in the three defensive positions in baseball farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder...

, May threw six no hitters in American Legion Baseball

American Legion Baseball

American Legion Baseball is a variety of amateur baseball played by teenage boys in 50 states in the USA. More than five thousand teams participate each year. The American Legion Department of South Dakota established the program in 1925 at Milbank, South Dakota...

. In 1961

1961 Pittsburgh Pirates season

- Notable transactions :* May, 1961: Don Williams was purchased from the Pirates by the Chicago White Sox.* June 20, 1961: Gene Baker was released by the Pirates.* June 24, 1961: Ron Woods was signed by the Pirates as an amateur free agent.- Roster :...

, he was contracted as an amateur free agent

Free agent

In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....

 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who converted him to a catcher. The scout who signed him for the Pirates organization was Syd Thrift

Syd Thrift

Sydnor W. Thrift Jr. was an American scout and executive in Major League Baseball who served as the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1985 to 1988, and the de facto general manager of the Baltimore Orioles from 1999 to 2002...

, who would later serve as general manager of the Pirates and Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...

.

May began his playing career as a reserve catcher to Jim Pagliaroni

Jim Pagliaroni

James Vincent Pagliaroni was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1955-1969 for the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Pilots....

, before becoming the Pirates' regular catcher from 1967

1967 Pittsburgh Pirates season

‎The Pittsburgh Pirates season was the 86th season in franchise history. The sixth-place Pirates finished at 81-81, 20½ games behind the National League and World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals.- Offseason :...

 to 1969

1969 Pittsburgh Pirates season

The Pittsburgh Pirates season was a season in American baseball. It consisted of the Pirates finishing in third place in the newly-established National League East, twelve games behind the eventual World Series champion New York Mets...

. May was the Pirates' catcher on June 12, 1970

1970 Pittsburgh Pirates season

The Pittsburgh Pirates season resulted in the team winning their first National League East title with a record of 89-73, five games ahead of the Chicago Cubs...

, when pitcher, Dock Ellis

Dock Ellis

Dock Phillip Ellis, Jr. was a professional baseball player who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among other teams in Major League Baseball. His best season was 1971, when he won 19 games for the World Series champion Pirates and was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star...

 threw a no-hitter

No-hitter

A no-hitter is a baseball game in which one team has no hits. In Major League Baseball, the team must be without hits during the entire game, and the game must be at least nine innings. A pitcher who prevents the opposing team from achieving a hit is said to have "thrown a no-hitter"...

—a game in which Ellis would claim to have been under the influence of LSD. Ellis, unable to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or May, claimed that May wore reflective tape on his fingers to enable the pitcher to see his target. By the 1969 season, Manny Sanguillén

Manny Sanguillen

Manuel De Jesus Sanguillen Magan, better known as Manny Sanguillen or "Sangy" , is a former professional baseball player who was a catcher in the Major Leagues. He was named to the All-Star team three times, in , , and . He played primarily for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but also for the Oakland...

 had taken over as the Pirates' regular catcher, and in December 1970, May was traded along with Fred Patek to the Kansas City Royals.

Career statistics

In a 10 year career, May played in 556 games

Games played

Games played is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated ; the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested.-Baseball:In baseball, the statistic applies also to players who, prior to a game,...

, accumulating 357 hits

Hit (baseball)

In baseball statistics, a hit , also called a base hit, is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches first base after hitting the ball into fair territory, without the benefit of an error or a fielder's choice....

 in 1527 at bats for a .234 career batting average along with 15 home runs, 130 runs batted in and a .307 on base percentage

On base percentage

In baseball statistics, on-base percentage is a measure of how often a batter reaches base for any reason other than a fielding error, fielder's choice, dropped/uncaught third strike, fielder's obstruction, or catcher's interference In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) (sometimes...

. While May wasn't a strong hitter

Batting (baseball)

In baseball, batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher...

, he was valued for his defensive skills, posting a .990 fielding percentage

Fielding percentage

In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball...

 over his career. He threw out 42.57% of the base runners

Baserunning

In baseball, baserunning is the act of running around the bases performed by members of the team at bat.In general, baserunning is a tactical part of the game with the goal of eventually reaching home to score a run. In fact, the goal of batting is generally to produce baserunners, or help move...

 who tried steal

Stolen base

In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate...

 a base on him, ranking him 11th on the all-time list. May led National League

National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

 catchers in with a 50% baserunners caught stealing

Caught stealing

In baseball, a runner is charged, and the fielders involved are credited, with a time caught stealing when the runner attempts to advance or lead off from one base to another without the ball being batted and then is tagged out by a fielder while making the attempt...

percentage.

May died in a farming accident on June 30, 1996 at the age of 52.