Former Yankees pitcher Rudy May died at the age of 80 on Saturday.
May played 16 years in Major League Baseball, including seven with the Yankees over several stints in the 70s and 80s. He also suited up for the California Angels, Montreal Expos and Baltimore Orioles.
A cause of death was not given, though the southpaw reportedly dealt with diabetes.
During the course of his career, May went 152-156 with a 3.46 ERA and 1,760 strikeouts and was a member of Yankees squads that lost in the American League Championship Series in 1980 and the World Series in 1981.
May began his first stint with the Bronx Bombers on June 15, 1974, when he was purchased from the Angels and remained a member of the club until he was traded to the Orioles two years to the day that he was acquired on June 15, 1976.
The lefty eventually returned to the Yankees in the winter of 1979 when he signed with them as a free agent.
In an interview with the New York Times just days before he inked a contract with the Yankees, May expressed plenty of excitement over the prospect of returning to the Bronx.
“It sounds awful good to me,” he said. “I always did like playing in New York and I liked playing for the Yankees. It was unfortunate that I was traded to Baltimore. I know the Yankees are going to have a good ball club next year. George Steinbrenner seems to be making sure of that.”
May ended up being part of two Yankee teams that made deep runs in the postseason, even leading the American League in ERA during the 1980 regular season by posting a career-best 2.46 mark.
He went 54-46 across seven seasons with the Yankees with a 3.12 ERA.
May discovered he was unable to pitch anymore during spring training in 1984 and retired, briefly serving as pitching coach at Yosemite High School in California before quitting after one season and eventually taking a job as a manager at Circle K, the Fresno Bee reported in 1990.
He worked his way up to a marketing consultancy position at Circle K and then with British Petroleum.
“My wife, my grandchildren, fishing and work in the yard: that’s my life now and what really enhances me,” May told Jeff Pearlman in a 2014 interview. “At this point, I take more pride in my fishing accomplishments than anything I did in baseball.”