With a .383 batting average, he was the third baseman and the leading hitter on the 1909 Michigan Wolverines baseball team that finished with a record of 18–3–1.

After retiring from baseball in 1913, Lathers worked for the Ford Motor Company for several years, served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and operated a dairy farm in northern Michigan from 1925 to 1962.

[1] At age 16, Lathers played for the 1905 Cass club baseball team that won the city championship of Detroit, Michigan.

[3] He was enrolled at Michigan in the engineering program from 1907 to 1910 and was described as "a major contributor" to the success of the 1909 Wolverines baseball team.

Because of the expulsion of Lathers, Rickey, who was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, was deprived of the services of the team's best batsman.

[7] As a result, Lathers spent most of the 1910 season, as one newspaper put it, "on the Tiger bench learning the rudiments by observing.

Press accounts suggested that, if the injured legs of Delahanty and Bush had healed, there was "no chance" of Lathers taking their starting spots.

However, one newspaper opined that Lathers "is a much better batter than O'Leary and if he could learn some of the fine points of the game while South, would have the call" at second base.

[8] As the spring progressed, Detroit manager Hughie Jennings tried moving Lathers to first base to find a spot for him in the starting lineup.

[10] Lathers was joined in Providence by two other Detroit cast-offs, catcher Boss Schmidt and outfielder Delos Drake.

By late July, newspapers reported that the three former Tigers playing in Providence were "fairly burning up the International League with their hitting.

[1] In December 1912, Lathers was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the Indianapolis baseball team run by Mike Kelley.

Lathers reported that he was attached to the Kalamazoo, Michigan, store of the Ford Motor Company as a salesman.

Lathers and a group of northern Michigan businessmen formed a non-profit corporation to raise the funds from local residents and tourists.