Billy Lauder

William Lauder

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 160 lb.
• School Brown University
• Debut June 25, 1898
• Final Game September 26, 1903
• Born February 23, 1874 in New York, NY USA
• Died May 20, 1933 in Norwalk, CT USA

BR page

Biographical Information

". . . easily the best fielding third baseman in the National League." - Sporting Life of July 5, 1902, quoting The Brooklyn Eagle

Billy Lauder played major league ball for five years. Four of his five teams finished over .500. He was well-known as a college-educated man who exhibited gentlemanly behavior on the field and did not get in fights with other players or umpires.

In 1901, Lauder played 2 games for the Philadelphia Athletics, both in a Sept. 14 doubleheader against Baltimore. His appearance at the ballfield while visiting was fortuitous for the Athletics. As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Mack was in a bad way, owing to the enforced absence of Lave Cross and Fred Ely. Lauder, who happened to be making a friendly call upon Dave Fultz, kindly volunteered to help Mack out of his difficulty and went to third. He was given a cordial reception by the crowd. Necessarily Billy was a little rusty, but the old time form was suggested all through the game."

After major league ball he went into the mineral water business. He was the head coach at Columbia University in 1905-06, then later in 1913, and at Yale University in 1916-1917 and 1919-1921. It was reported in 1901 that he was going to coach at Trinity College and in 1910 that he was going to coach at Williams College in the coming spring. He was a Chicago White Sox coach in 1925.

His brother George also attended Brown University and played first base for New Haven in 1903.

Eddie Collins gave Lauder credit for influencing him toward a career in baseball career. Source: Baseball Magazine, March 1915. Sporting Life once called him "the man who developed Eddie Collins".

It was reported in October 1898 that he was planning to study law that winter at Harvard University.