Hobart Neal Landrith (born March 16, 1930) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1950 through 1963 for the Cincinnati Reds/Redlegs, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, and Washington Senators. He batted left-handed, threw right-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg).\n', '

For most of his career the well-traveled Landrith was a second- or third-string catcher, but he is best known as the first pick of the New York Mets in the 1961 expansion draft. He was a backup catcher for Andy Seminick and Smoky Burgess in Cincinnati, and later a regular with the Cubs in 1956. The following two years he backed up All-Stars Hal Smith and Walker Cooper with the Cardinals. He then had a three-season campaign in San Francisco, including his most successful season in 1959. Landrith closed out his career with short stints with the Mets, Orioles, and expansion Senators before drawing his career to a close. In a career that spanned 14 seasons, Landrith had a career .233 batting average with 34 home runs, 203 runs batted in, and 450 hits in 772 games played.\n', '

Originally from Decatur, Illinois, Landrith from age 10 to 14 played for the "Firemen\'s Midgets" team in the Detroit Amateur Baseball Federation. From 15 to 18, he played with a Class D advanced simon-pure group and as a catcher for Northwestern High School in Detroit, Michigan. At 15, he also would go to Briggs Stadium and help warmup starting pitchers for the Detroit Tigers and help to get Hank Greenberg into shape after Hank returned from military service. Landrith was discovered by the Cincinnati Reds after leading his Detroit team to a second-place finish in the 1948 National Junior Amateur Federation Tournament. That year he also participated in the annual East-West all-star game in New York City, being voted the city\'s most outstanding amateur player by the Detroit Sports Guild.\n', '

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