Born in Birmingham, AL in 1948, Carlos spent most of his very decent, decade-long big league career in the Windy City as a member of the White Sox. He was a number 1 draft pick of Chicago’s in 1966 and the 18th selection overall that year. He lost part of his right thumb during his rookie season, when a mortar misfired during weekend Marine Reserve duty. His best big league season was 1973 when he hit 20 home runs and drove in 96. He came to New York in a 1976 mid-season trade in exchange for Ken Brett and Rich Coggins. Carlos then became the regular DH on that year’s pennant-winning Yankee team, hitting .278. New York sold him to the Angels the following year. Carlos was the younger brother of the slugging first baseman, Lee May.

Carlos was the only Major League baseball player to wear his birthdate on his uniform. During much of his career in Chicago, Carlos wore uniform number 17. The White Sox jerseys also included the last name of the player on the reverse side above the uniform number. So the back of May’s jersey read “May 17” and Carlos was born on May 17, 1948. He shares his birthday with this former long-haired Yankee pitcher, this pitcher who won a World Series game for NY in 1953 and this long-time Yankee co-owner.

Year Tm G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1976 NYY 87 333 288 38 80 11 2 3 40 1 1 34 32 .278 .358 .361 .720 1977 NYY 65 203 181 21 41 7 1 2 16 0 0 17 24 .227 .292 .309 .601 10 Yrs 1165 4723 4120 545 1127 172 23 90 536 85 53 512 565 .274 .357 .392 .749 CHW (9 yrs) 1002 4164 3633 486 1000 154 20 85 479 84 52 456 508 .275 .359 .399 .758 NYY (2 yrs) 152 536 469 59 121 18 3 5 56 1 1 51 56 .258 .333 .341 .674 CAL (1 yr) 11 23 18 0 6 0 0 0 1 0 0 5 1 .333 .478 .333 .812 View Original Table

Generated 5/17/2013. Provided by Baseball-Reference.com Generated 5/17/2013.