#MIZHOF17: Tim Laudner

Tim Laudner, All-Big Eight catcher, 1988 American League All-Star, Minnesota Twin, and a 1987 World Series champion. Laudner is all of these things, but most importantly, he is, and always will be, a Tiger.

Laudner is one of six former University of Missouri athletes selected to be inducted into Mizzou's Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame.

“It’s overwhelming, certainly unexpected,” Laudner said. “It’s something that I certainly don’t in any way, shape or form take for granted.”

Laudner saw his beginnings in the sport when he was playing catch with his dad for one of the first times.

“My father was stationed in Japan during the Korean War and was a pitcher on the baseball team,” Laudner said. “And at that time, he had developed a knuckleball and we went out one of the first few times, probably the first time we ever went out in the yard to play catch, he threw me a knuckleball and it hit me right in the mouth. It could’ve been a deal breaker, but for whatever reason it wasn’t. I was able to persevere through that and baseball has been a huge, huge part of my life ever since.”

Laudner played for Mizzou for three years. He was a first-Team All-Big Eight selection in 1979. He was also a member of the All-Big Eight Tournament team in both 1977 and 1978.

He had never stepped foot on the University of Missouri’s campus before deciding he wanted to play for the Tigers. Laudner tells the story of his recruitment.

“Bob Todd called me on Thursday night, and he said ‘I understand you want to come to the University of Missouri’ and I said yes sir, I do. And he said ‘do you want to visit here first?’ and I said no I don’t think that’ll be necessary. And then he said, ‘well I have a three-quarter scholarship, would that work?’ And I said that’s going to work just fine. And he said, ‘you mean if I send you the papers you’ll sign them?’ And I said yes sir, I will.”

Laudner describes his time at Mizzou as “probably really close to the best three years of my life.”

He led Mizzou in batting in 1979 with a .378 batting average. He recorded a team-best 65 hits and also led the team with 19 doubles, seven home runs, 54 runs batted in and 40 walks.

Following the 1979 season, the Minnesota Twins drafted Laudner with their third round selection. Laudner would go on to play nine seasons with the Twins.
During the 1988 season, Laudner was selected to the American League All-Star team. That season, he hit .251 with 13 home runs, 18 doubles and 54 RBI. However, it was the season before he saw victory in the fall classic.

“Well I think I had not had a very good summer,” Laudner said. “I had not hit the ball very well, [but] I had provided some power. I think I hit a career high sixteen home runs that year, but what was clicking was the fact that as much as I did not have a great deal of confidence over that season in the batter’s box, I did have confidence in being able to handle my pitching staff. So, what was clicking was the fact that once we got to postseason for me, the pressure was somewhat off and the fact that anything I could provide offensively was going to be frosting on the cake. To be able to provide some hits, hit a home run in the World Series, was a great thrill.”

During the 1987 World Series, Laudner hit .318, with a double, home run, four runs batted in and scored four runs. The Minnesota Twins defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games to take the series.

Laudner now works for Fox Sports North, a regional sports television network, as as an analyst for the Minnesota Twins pregame and postgame broadcasts.

He may be an analyst now and he may be a World Series champion, but Laudner will always be a Mizzou Tiger. Laudner recalls never having “a bad day since I stepped foot on the University of Missouri campus.”

In regards to his selection to the Mizzou Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame, Laudner is humbled and recalls a special moment he had with another former Mizzou Tiger.

“It’s truly an honor and I’m so humbled by it. One of the nice things was the congratulations that I got from Kyle Gibson, a former University of Missouri pitching product that’s doing a really nice job in a Twins uniform. [Gibson is a] great kid, and [has] a wonderful family. So, to be able to walk out to the ball park one day to go to work and to get congratulations from Kyle Gibson who, it’s arguable that some point in time he may be on that Hall of Fame list himself… That was really, really special.”

The 2017 Mizzou Athletics Hall of Fame Class will be inducted during a ceremony on Friday, Oct. 20, at the Hampton Inn & Suites. Tickets are on sale now here.