Milt May Marquee

b. August 1, 1950 · Pittsburgh Pirates 1970–1973, 1983–1984, Houston Astros 1974–1975, Detroit Tigers 1976–1979, Chicago White Sox 1979, San Francisco Giants 1980–1983

He came up with Pittsburgh at nineteen and had his best offensive season in 1974 with Houston, driving in 54 runs, but his highest average came late: .310 for San Francisco in 1981, in the strike-shortened season, at thirty.

Fifteen seasons gave him 971 hits, 147 doubles, 11 triples, 77 home runs, 443 runs batted in, 305 walks and a .263 average across 1,034 games behind the plate. He appeared in 1,192 games overall. He was traded four times across his career and split most seasons as a personal catcher or platoon partner rather than an everyday starter.

He finished with San Francisco in 1984 at thirty-three. He is not on a Hall of Fame ballot.

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1970	PIT	5	4	1	2	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	.500
1971	PIT	49	126	15	35	1	0	6	25	9	16	0	.278
1972	PIT	57	139	12	39	10	0	0	14	10	13	0	.281
1973	PIT	101	283	29	76	8	1	7	31	34	26	0	.269
1974	HOU	127	405	47	117	17	4	7	54	39	33	0	.289
1975	HOU	111	386	29	93	15	1	4	52	26	41	1	.241
1976	DET	6	25	2	7	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	.280
1977	DET	115	397	32	99	9	3	12	46	26	31	0	.249
1978	DET	105	352	24	88	9	0	10	37	27	26	0	.250
1979	CHW/DET	71	213	24	54	15	0	7	31	15	28	0	.254
1980	SFG	111	358	27	93	16	2	6	50	25	40	0	.260
1981	SFG	97	316	20	98	17	0	2	33	34	29	1	.310
1982	SFG	114	395	29	104	19	0	9	39	28	38	0	.263
1983	PIT/SFG	73	198	18	49	6	0	6	20	22	24	2	.247
1984	PIT	50	96	4	17	3	0	1	8	10	15	0	.177
Career	—	1192	3693	313	971	147	11	77	443	305	361	4	.263

On this day & linked events

1950

Born August 1, 1950

Gary, IN, USA

1970

Major-league debut: Milt May

Milt May made a major-league debut on September 8, 1970.

1984

Final major-league game: Milt May

Milt May played a final major-league game on September 30, 1984.

Image: Barry Colla, public domain