Bill Sodd

William Sodd

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 210 lb.
• School Texas A&M University
• Debut September 27, 1937
• Final Game September 27, 1937
• Born September 18, 1914 in Fort Worth, TX USA
• Died May 14, 1998 in Fort Worth, TX USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Bill Sodd played nine years (1933-1941), three in college (1933-1935); seven in the minors (1935-1941) and a cup of coffee in 1937. Sodd was born on Friday, September 18, 1914, in Fort Worth, TX. He attended Texas A&M University (1933-1935), where he starred in baseball. He broke into Organized Baseball in 1935 at age 20 with Zanesville in the Middle Atlantic League. He played for Zanesville (1935-1936); and Wilkes-Barre New York-Pennsylvania League (1937).

At 23 years old he broke into the big leagues on September 27, 1937, with the Cleveland Indians. He pinch hit in one game for the Indians and struck out. He returned to the minors with Oklahoma City in the Texas League (1938); Wilkes-Barre in the Eastern League (1938); Knoxville in the Southern Association (1939); the Buffalo Bisons of the International League (1939); Albany in the Eastern League (1939-1940) and Albany, Scranton and Hartford in the Eastern League (1941); ending his baseball career at age 27.

In 1936, his best year in the minors, he had 30 home runs and 120 RBI at .333. Overall in the minors, he had 107 home runs and 524 RBI.

Sodd served in the U.S. Army during World War II (BN). He later worked for Consolidated Aircraft and was also the owner of a chain of six supermarkets in Fort Worth, retiring in 1977. He died at age 83 at a Hospital in Fort Worth on May 14, 1998 and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort Worth.

Notable Achievements

• Led Eastern League in home runs (21) and RBI (108), 1937
• Led Eastern League in RBI (88), 1940

Sources

Principal sources for Bill Sodd include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) ; The Texas League in Baseball, 1888-1958 by Marshall D. Wright; The Southern Association in Baseball, 1885-1961 by Marshall D. Wright; The International League: Year-by-year Statistics, 1884-1953 by Marshall D. Wright; and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Bill Sodd at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• Bill Sodd at Historic Baseball
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)