Roush, Edd J.
Baseball
b. May 8, 1893, Oakland City, IN
d. March 21, 1988
Roush played briefly for the AL's Chicago White Sox in 1913 and then joined the Indianapolis team in the new Federal League in 1914. After batting .325, he went to the league's Newark franchise when the Indianapolis team folded.
The Federal League lasted just one more season and the New York Giants bought Roush for $7,500. He hit only .188 in 39 games with New York before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds, where he became the team's starting center fielder.
A left-hander, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Roush led the NL in hitting with a .341 average in 1917, his first full year with Cincinnati. He had the league's top slugging percentage, .455, in 1918, and led in batting average again in 1919, when he hit .321. Roush batted only .214 but scored 6 runs and had 7 RBI when the Reds beat the Chicago White Sox five games to three in the World Series that went down in history as the "Black Sox" series.
Roush batted over .300 for each of the next eight seasons, leading the league with 41 doubles in 1923 and 21 triples in 1924. He was one of the few players of his time who ever held out for more money. Roush did it almost every year, in part because he hated spring training, but in 1922 he waited until August to sign a new contract and played in only 49 games that year.
In January of 1927, Roush was traded back to the Giants. He held out once more until he received a three-year contract for $70,000. After hitting .304 in his first season, Roush played in only 46 games in 1928 because of illness, and he left the team in another contract dispute after batting .324 in 1929.
Roush sat out the entire 1930 season and returned to Cincinnati in 1931. He hit .271 in one season there before retiring.
In 1,967 major league games, Roush batted .323 with 2,376 hits, including 339 doubles, 182 triples, and 68 home runs. He stole 268 bases, scored 1,099 runs, and had 981 RBI.