Billy Herman, 83, a Hall of Fame second baseman with the Chicago Cubs in the 1930s who played in three World Series for the North Siders, died Saturday in Florida from cancer.

Mr. Herman, a resident of Palm Beach Gardens who played with the Cubs from 1931 to 1941 and whose 15-year major league career also included stints with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates, died at the Hospice of Palm Beach County.

His lifetime batting average of .304 included 1,163 runs scored, 839 RBIs, 2,345 hits, 486 doubles, 82 triples, 47 home runs, and 67 stolen bases.

Mr. Herman, born in 1909 and raised in New Albany, Ind., and named after three-time Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, began his professional baseball career in the Cotton State League with the Vicksburg, Miss., team.

In September 1931 he was brought to Wrigley Field by Cub President William Veeck, father of the late White Sox owner. In his first at-bat, Mr. Herman fouled off an inside pitch that bounced into his jaw and momentarily knocked him unconscious.

By 1934 he had begun a string of seven straight appearances in the All-Star Game, representing the Cubs on the National League team. His National League All-Star Game batting average of .433 still stands as the record.

He played with the Cubs in their unsuccessful World Series bids in 1932, 1935 and 1938.

In 1941, after being named Cub team captain and becoming embroiled in a contract dispute, he was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers under manager Leo Durocher. The Dodgers also won the pennant, but also failed to win the World Series.

After three years as an all-star second baseman for the Dodgers, he joined the Navy for two years in World War II.

In 1946, he was traded to the Pirates and became a player-manager. In 1947 he left the Pirates and entered private industry with a Louisville paint company, but within a year he had begun coaching minor league baseball teams. In the 1950s he was third base coach for the World Series-bound Milwaukee Braves, and in the 1960s, he managed the Boston Red Sox for several seasons.

In 1975 he was elected by the Veterans Committee to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Mr. Herman was considered a hard-nosed player in an era known for hard-nosed players and managers, including his Cubs managers Rogers Hornsby, Charlie Grimm and Gabby Hartnett and Brooklyn`s Durocher.

Marion Grimm, widow of the former Cubs manager, said Sunday that ''Billy had . . . lots of fond memories from Chicago and he loved coming back here, as he did several years ago to manage in a charity game. If Billy and any of the other old-time players got together, they could tell interesting stories for hours, and no one would get bored.''

In the 1935 World Series, he was fined $200 by Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis for using ''vile and unprintable language'' in the third game of the series in Detroit, after Detroit star first baseman Hank Greenberg started to ride Phil Cavaretta. At the time, the $200 fine was the heaviest ever given a player in the history of the World Series.

Mr. Herman, asked after the game which words he had used, answered ''all of them.''

Several years ago when asked about letting the fans choose the players for the All-Star Game, he said the game had become a ''popularity contest.''

But, he said, while the best team would have been chosen by the players, ''it is a fan`s game and it still works out pretty well.''

Mass for Mr. Herman is to be said at 10 a.m. Tuesday, at the Chapel of St. Ignatius of Loyola Catheral in Palm Beach Gardens. Interment will follow in River Memorial Park, Jupiter.

Survivors include his wife, Frances; a brother, Frank; two granddaughters, Cheri Daniels and Terry Herman; and four great-granddaughters.