[1] During his playing career in Major League Baseball, Lau appeared in 527 games as a catcher and pinch hitter over all or portions of 11 seasons for four clubs.

Born in Metro Detroit, in Romulus, Michigan, he was signed by the nearby Tigers as an amateur free agent after graduating from high school.

He began his playing career in the Tigers' farm system in 1952, missing 1953 and 1954 due to military service, and was called up for his first major league audition in September 1956.

Lau had shown flashes of power in the Tigers' farm system, reaching double figures in home runs three times between 1955 and 1959.

Given more playing time as a left-handed-hitting platoon catcher, starting 49 games over the 1963 season's final three months, he batted .294 in a Kansas City uniform.

In 1965, Lau began the transition to full-time pinch hitter, working in 35 games as a catcher, and collecting eight hits and seven bases on balls in 36 appearances as an emergency batsman; he batted a career-best .295.

Appearing in only 18 games, all in the pinch, he collected six hits and four bases on balls as Baltimore won its first pennant and World Series championship.

He held the post through 1978, with the exception of the early part of the 1975 season, when he was the team's roving minor-league hitting instructor after his temporary ouster from the Royals' staff by then-skipper Jack McKeon.

"[7] After spending three seasons (1979–1981) with the New York Yankees, reunited with Piniella, Lau became the Chicago White Sox' hitting instructor in 1982, where his pupils included Greg Luzinski, Carlton Fisk, Steve Kemp, Harold Baines and Ron Kittle.