Bill Lindsay (baseball)

William Gibbon Lindsay (February 24, 1881 in Madison, North Carolina – July 14, 1963 in Greensboro, North Carolina) was a Major and Minor League baseball player. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Lindsay played several positions over his career, including second baseman, short stop and third baseman.

Not to be confused with former professional baseball players Bill Lindsay (Negro leagues) or William Lindsay (baseball).
Bill Lindsay
Third baseman
Born: (1881-02-24)February 24, 1881
Madison, North Carolina
Died: July 14, 1963(1963-07-14) (aged 82)
Greensboro, North Carolina
Batted: Left Threw: Right
MLB debut
June 21, 1911, for the Cleveland Naps
Last MLB appearance
July 23, 1911, for the Cleveland Naps
MLB statistics
Batting average.242
Home runs0
Runs batted in5
Teams

Lindsay's baseball career spanned over eight years. The pinnacle of his career was playing for the Cleveland Indians (known then as the Cleveland Naps) in 1911.

Lindsay was often referred to as "The Professor" due to his older age and college education. Lindsay was well educated in an era where few ballplayers experienced a formal education. He graduated from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina.[1] Lindsay also received an undergraduate degree at Haverford College.[2] For post-graduate studies, he attended Harvard University[3] and law school at Tulane University.[4]

Lindsay's first year in professional baseball was 1908, playing for Winston-Salem in the Carolina Association. As the season came to a close his manager took the same job with the Memphis Turtles (later the Memphis Chicks) of the Southern Association.[5] He asked Lindsay to follow and become the everyday short stop. Bill played with Memphis for rest of the 1908 season as well as part of the 1909 season.

In the early summer of 1909 Lindsay was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, also of the Southern Association. Playing on this team is where he gained some of his notoriety. Lindsay remained with New Orleans for parts of 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1914. In 1910, the Pelicans won the Southern Association Championship with Lindsay at short stop. He played that season with a center fielder named Shoeless Joe Jackson.[4]

With injuries to Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Naps during the early 1911 season, Lindsay's contract was bought by the team to help shore up the infield.[4] He played his first major league game on June 21, 1911 against Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers.[6] Players on the Cleveland team during this time were Shoeless Joe Jackson, Cy Young and Nap Lajoie. Once Nap Lajoie recovered from his injuries, Lindsay was made expendable. He played 19 games with the Cleveland Naps. He batted .242 while mainly playing as a third baseman.[7]

After he was made expendable by Cleveland, two separate American League clubs wanted to sign Lindsay but the Cleveland owner, Charles Somers, sent him to Cleveland's new farm team, the Portland Beavers.[8] Charles Somers was one of the first owners to invest in "farm teams" as part of building a major league team. Lindsay spent parts of the 1911, 1912 and 1913 seasons with Portland of the Pacific Coast League.

Lindsay continued to play baseball for about four more years after his brief major league stint. He went back to play with New Orleans in 1914. In 1915 he played with both the Oakland Oaks of the PCL and Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association. Lindsay's last season in professional baseball was 1916. He played parts of the 1916 season with Birmingham and Norfolk (VA) of the Virginia League.

References
  1. "Baseball Almanac: Baseball History, Baseball Records and Baseball Research". www.baseball-almanac.com.
  2. "Haverford College". Haverford College.
  3. "The Official Website of Harvard University Athletics". Harvard.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2019-10-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "The Commercial Appeal - Memphis Breaking News and Sports". The Commercial Appeal.
  6. "Breaking News, World News & Multimedia". www.nytimes.com.
  7. "MLB Stats, Scores, History, & Records". Baseball-Reference.com.
  8. "The San Francisco Examiner - Home". The San Francisco Examiner.


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