Donald Charles Lang (March 15, 1915 – September 1, 2010) was a

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

who played for the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

(1938) and

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

(1948). Born in

Selma, California Selma is a city in Fresno County, California. The population was 24,674 at the 2020 census, up from 23,319 at the 2010 census and 19,240 at the 2000 census. Selma is located southeast of Fresno, at an elevation of 308 feet (94 m). Geograph ...

, he batted and threw right-handed. Listed at and , Lang had a 12-season baseball career between 1936 and 1950 which was interrupted by serving to his country during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

, 1943–45), while property of the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

. He played 10 seasons in the minors, including nine of Triple-A ball, and two in major league ten years apart. Lang entered in the majors in 1938, appearing in 25 games with the Cincinnati Reds. In 1948 he became the everyday third baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals due to a career-ending injury to incumbent

Whitey Kurowski George John "Whitey" Kurowski (April 19, 1918 – December 9, 1999) was an American professional baseball third baseman. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals from to and was an All-Star in five ...

. In 138 major league games, Lang posted a .268

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(100-for-373) with five

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 42 RBI, including 35 runs, 17 doubles, two

triples TripleS (; ; stylized as tripleS) is a South Korean 24-member multinational girl group formed by Modhaus. They aim to be the world's first decentralized idol group, where the members will rotate between the full group, sub-units, and solo activi ...

and a .355

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batting (baseball), batter reaches base (baseball), base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA ...

References

Baseball Reference
Cincinnati Reds players St. Louis Cardinals players Major League Baseball third basemen United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Baseball players from Ventura, California 1915 births 2010 deaths People from Selma, California Baseball players from Fresno County, California 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-third-baseman-stub