Greatest Reds of All-Time: #8

This is number three of a ten week series detailing the greatest Reds of all time. Number eight on the Reds all time greatest list is Edd Roush.
Roush played twelve seasons for the Reds between 1916 and 1931.

Year	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP
1917	522	82	178	19	14	4	67	21	27	24	.341	.379
1918	435	61	145	18	10	5	62	24	22	10	.333	.368
1919	504	73	162	19	12	4	71	20	42	19	.321	.380
1920	579	81	196	22	16	4	90	36	42	22	.339	.386
1921	418	68	147	27	12	4	71	19	31	8	.352	.403
1922	165	29	58	7	4	1	24	5	19	5	.352	.428
1923	527	88	185	41	18	6	88	10	46	16	.351	.406
1924	483	67	168	23	21	3	72	17	22	11	.348	.376
1925	540	91	183	28	16	8	83	22	35	14	.339	.383
CIN (12 yrs)	5384	815	1784	260	152	47	763	199	354	170	.331	.377

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/17/2010.

Edd Roush (Photo courtesy of the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library)

The centerfielder, Roush, had his best seasons between 1917 and 1925, and he is often forgot about in the discussion of the greatest Reds of all time because of the long time ago that he played. The Reds acquired him from the New York Giants in the summer of 1916 along with Christy Mathewson and Bill McKechnie.
However, Roush holds the second best batting average, .331, in Reds history. For 9 straight seasons in a Reds uniform he hit above .320. Perhaps what is most staggering is the lack of strikeouts that he had in his career. For example in 1921, he had 418 AB’s and struck out only 8 times.

This past season, Drew Stubbs struck out 8 times in 9 AB’s (I like Stubbs but just to prove a point…). Roush never struck out and was the type of contact hitter that is rare in modern baseball. He was not glamorous and did not hit anywhere near the number of home runs that Stubbs will probably hit in his career, but he was as consistent of a hitter as has ever worn a Redlegs or Reds uniform. In 1921, Roush went a staggering 52.3 AB’s in between strikouts on average.

In 1917 and 1919, Edd Roush led the National League in batting, and his career reached its pinnacle when he led the Redlegs to the 1919 World Series title.

For being one of the most consistent hitters in Reds history, for his speed on the basepaths, superb defensive ability, and for leading the Redlegs to the 1919 World Series Title, Roush is the 8th greatest Red of all time.

If you have missed any of the others in the Greatest Reds of All-Time, you can click the links below to take you directly to that post:
#10
#9