Lafayette Napoleon Cross (born Vratislav Kriz, May 12, 1866 – September 6, 1927) was an American professional baseball player.

Cross has the distinction of being the first player of the Philadelphia Phillies to hit for the cycle, doing so on April 24, 1894, against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

[1] During this period, major league rules did not restrict the size of infielders' gloves, and he continued to use his catcher's mitt in the field; on August 5, 1897 he set a still-standing record at second base with 15 assists in a 12-inning game.

Cleveland played even worse afterwards, ending the season at 20–134 and being promptly dissolved, later becoming known as the worst club in major league history.

Cross jumped to the Athletics franchise in the new league and became one of the veteran leaders on Connie Mack's club.

On April 23 of that year he began a streak of 447 consecutive games (all but one of them at third base), then one of the ten longest in history, which ended on May 8, 1905.

But in the 1905 World Series, batting cleanup, he collected only two singles in the five games as the Athletics were crushed by the New York Giants, being shut out three times by Christy Mathewson and outscored 15–3.

[2] In January 1906 he was sent to the Washington Senators; he led the league in fielding average for the fifth time at age 40, and ended his career in 1907 after hitting .199 in 41 games.

The Cross family resided in Toledo, Ohio after he retired from baseball; he worked as a machinist at an automobile factory.