Edd Roush
Roush might have swung the heaviest bat in baseball history — a 48-ounce lumber that would make modern players wince. The dead-ball era center fielder made it work, posting a career .323 average across 19 seasons while patrolling center field with unusual skill for such a big stick hitter.
His peak came during the 1910s and early 1920s, when he won back-to-back National League batting titles in 1917 (.341) and 1919 (.321) with Cincinnati. Those Reds teams reached two World Series, winning it all in 1919. Roush accumulated 2,376 career hits despite playing in an era when 68 home runs over nearly two decades was considered solid power production.
What separated Roush was his combination of contact hitting and defensive range in center field, a rare pairing that made him valuable enough to earn Veterans Committee induction in 1962. He lived to see baseball evolve dramatically, passing away in 1988 at age 95.
Career · Batting
18 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1913 | CWS | 9 | 10 | 0 | 0 | .100 | — | — |
| 1914 | IND | 74 | 166 | 1 | 30 | .325 | — | — |
| 1915 | NEW | 145 | 551 | 3 | 60 | .298 | — | — |
| 1916 | CIN | 108 | 341 | 0 | 20 | .267 | — | — |
| 1917 | CIN | 136 | 522 | 4 | 67 | .341 | — | — |
| 1918 | CIN | 113 | 435 | 5 | 62 | .333 | — | — |
| 1919 | CIN | 133 | 504 | 4 | 71 | .321 | — | — |
| 1920 | CIN | 149 | 579 | 4 | 90 | .339 | — | — |
| 1921 | CIN | 112 | 418 | 4 | 71 | .352 | — | — |
| 1922 | CIN | 49 | 165 | 1 | 24 | .352 | — | — |
| 1923 | CIN | 138 | 527 | 6 | 88 | .351 | — | — |
| 1924 | CIN | 121 | 483 | 3 | 72 | .348 | — | — |
| 1925 | CIN | 134 | 540 | 8 | 83 | .339 | — | — |
| 1926 | CIN | 144 | 563 | 7 | 79 | .323 | — | — |
| 1927 | NY1 | 140 | 570 | 7 | 58 | .304 | — | — |
| 1928 | NY1 | 46 | 163 | 2 | 13 | .252 | — | — |
| 1929 | NY1 | 115 | 450 | 8 | 52 | .324 | — | — |
| 1931 | CIN | 101 | 376 | 1 | 41 | .271 | — | — |
| Career | 1967 | 7363 | 68 | 981 | .323 | — | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.