finalyear bats death_date death_place birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date image article_title debutteam name throws
1888 right 7 october 1900 chicago , illinois saint john , new brunswick , canada 1879 october 3 .266 1,130 562 first baseman kansas city cowboys batting average hits runs may 1 april 1857 bill phillips - first baseman.jpg bill phillips -lrb- first baseman -rrb-
 cleveland blues bill phillips right
bill phillips -lrb- first baseman -rrb-

william b. `` bill '' phillips -lrb- april 1857 -- october 7 , 1900 -rrb- , also known as silver bill , was a canadian professional baseball first baseman from the mid-1870s until the late 1880s .
from 1879 to 1888 , he played for three major league teams ; the cleveland blues of the national league -lrb- nl -rrb- from 1879 to 1884 , the brooklyn grays of the american association -lrb- aa -rrb- from 1885 to 1887 , and the kansas city cowboys of the aa in 1888 .
a native of saint john , new brunswick , canada , he has the distinction of being the first canadian to play in the major leagues .
as a batter , phillips finished in the top-ten among league leaders on multiple occasions , including triples four times , and games played , at bats , doubles , runs batted in -lrb- rbis -rrb- , and extra base hits three times each .
additionally , as a fielder , he finished among the defensive leaders for the league 's first baseman in double plays for three consecutive years , and twice finished first in putouts and fielding percentage .
he died in chicago , illinois at the age of 43 .
he was later enshrined into the canadian baseball hall of fame in 1988 for his accomplishments , and is considered by some to be greatest canadian first baseman in baseball history .
