Carlos May Beat the Odds

Carlos May is another of those players who will always be special to me. I grew up on the south side of Chicago and as a White Sox fan. May was a solid performer during my first several years of following the Sox.
My played briefly in 1968, then suffered a possible career-ending injury while in the Marine Reserves in August of '69. A mortar misfired and blew off most of May's right thumb. May worked extremely hard to recover and overcome the obstacle. May came close to winning the Rookie of the Year Award (finishing behind Lou Piniella).
In 1970, he rejoined the Sox and proceeded to have another 6 solid seasons. May's numbers were very good for that period, highlighted by 20 homers and 96 rbi's in 1973. In mid-1976, May was traded to the New York Yankees and finished his mlb career with the California Angels before playing in Japan for 4 seasons.
One interesting piece of trivia regarding May revolves around his number 17. May's birthday was 5/17. Therefore, he literally wore his birthday on his jersey...May 17.
May's brother Lee was an even better player player for a lot of years. The brothers never played on the same team together.
When I met May at AU Sports, we reminisced about his former teammates (and my former favorites), like Pat Kelly, Buddy Bradford, Ken Henderson and Dick Allen. Those are some great memories.

Carlos May and me in Skokie, IL-Early 00's.