Billy Ott

Who is Billy Ott?

William Joseph Ott is a retired American professional baseball player, an outfielder whose six-season career included stints with the 1962 and 1964 Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball. A switch hitter who threw right-handed, Ott stood 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed 180 pounds in his playing days. He signed with the Cubs after graduating from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx and attending St. John's University.

Ott earned a late-season recall to Chicago after his best minor league campaign, when he hit 23 home runs and compiled 88 runs batted in for the 1962 San Antonio Missions of the Double-A Texas League. He appeared in 12 games and on September 17 he hit his only Major League home run, a solo shot off Ray Washburn of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1964, he was called up from the Triple-A Salt Lake City Bees in June and was the immediate successor to Lou Brock as the Cubs' starting right fielder on June 16. Brock had been traded to the Cardinals a day earlier in what would come to be considered as one of the more one-sided transactions in MLB annals. Ott collected one hit, a double, off left-hander Dennis Bennett of the Philadelphia Phillies on the day. He would start four more times in right field during the next week, but collected only four hits in 22 at bats during that time, and he returned to the minor leagues after his final Cub appearance in mid-July.