Billy DeMars
American baseball player and coach
William Lester DeMars (August 26, 1925 – December 10, 2020) was an American shortstop and coach in Major League Baseball. He threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighed 160 pounds (73 kg) during his playing career. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended New Utrecht High School.
Career
Originally signed by his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers during the Second World War, DeMars was selected by the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1947 rule 5 draft after batting .328 with 88 runs batted in for the Class B Asheville Tourists of the Tri-State League – DeMars' best overall season in professional baseball. He played in 80 big-league games over three seasons (1948; from 1950 to 1951) for the A's and the St. Louis Browns, batting .237 with 50 hits, five doubles, a triple, no home runs and 14 RBI in 211 at bats. He spent the prime of his career with the Triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League from 1952 to 1955.
On May 25, 1958 DeMars began an 11-year minor league managerial career in the Baltimore Orioles' farm system with the Class C Aberdeen Pheasants of the Northern League, who had lost 23 of their first 25 games. While the Pheasants continued to flounder under DeMars, winning only 37 of 100 games, the improved performance earned DeMars an invitation to return to the Orioles' system with the Class C Stockton Ports of the California League in 1959, where he posted a winning record. He managed in the Baltimore organization through 1968 — working alongside future major league managers such as Earl Weaver, Joe Altobelli, Darrell Johnson, Jim Frey, Clyde King, Cal Ripken Sr., and Billy Hunter.
The public source identifies “Billy DeMars” as american baseball player and coach. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Billy, DeMars and American.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4912444. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 2020, 1947 and 1948.
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This entry incorporates text from “Billy DeMars” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.