Louis Frank Klein (October 22, 1918 – June 20, 1976) was an American professional baseball player, manager, coach and scout. During his active career he was an infielder in the Major Leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Athletics and was known as one of the players who "jumped" to the Mexican League in 1946. He was subsequently suspended by Commissioner of Baseball Happy Chandler for a five-year span (though the suspension was later reduced). Born in New Orleans, he attended Peters High School in that city. As a player, he was listed as 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and 167 pounds (76 kg) and threw and batted right-handed.

Klein's professional career began as a shortstop at age 21 in the Cardinals' farm system. He rose from Class D, the lowest level, in 1940 all the way to the top-level Columbus Red Birds in 1941, and needed only three years of minor league seasoning to reach the big leagues.

In his rookie season in the Majors, with the defending world champion 1943 Cardinals, Klein was a strong contributor to the Redbirds' successful defense of the National League pennant. He appeared in 154 of the club's 157 official games, started 32 games at shortstop, and then succeeded Jimmy Brown as St. Louis' regular second baseman (119 starts) when Brown entered World War II military service. Klein hit a career-high .287 and was second on the Cardinals in hits (180), runs scored (91) and triples (14)—behind only Stan Musial, an eventual Baseball Hall of Famer. During the 1943 World Series against the New York Yankees, he started all five games at second base but he collected only three hits, all singles, in 22 at bats and the Cardinals fell to the Yankees, four games to one. Klein then joined the United States Coast Guard, serving in Maryland and Florida, and missed all of 1944 and most of the 1945 season.

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