Biography

Redus, a star at Tanner, Alabama High School, was originally drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 1977 but did not sign, opting to attend Athens State University. The Cincinnati Reds drafted him in the fifteenth round the following year, drafting and sent him to their Pioneer League farm club in Billings, Montana. Redus (who was nearly 21 and thus a few years older than most of the other players in the league) hit for a .462 batting average with 17 home runs and 62 RBI in just 253 at-bats. Redus' average set an all-time professional league record, which still stands.

After working his way up the Reds' ladder and hitting .333 for AAA Indianapolis in 1982, Redus was recalled in September of that year, staying with Cincinnati through the 1985 season, when he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies traded him to the Chicago White Sox in 1987, and Chicago traded Redus to the Pittsburgh Pirates to 1988. He had his best offensive season in 1989 and helped the Pirates to three straight National League Eastern Division titles from 1990-92, but his production was hampered by injuries. Redus led all batters with a .438 average through the first six games of the 1992 NLCS, but a broken foot kept him out of the decisive seventh game, when the Atlanta Braves scored three times in the bottom of the ninth to erase a 2-0 Pirates lead and snatch the NL pennant. Redus opted for free agency at the end of 1992, playing two injury-plagued seasons with the Texas Rangers before retiring at the end of the 1994 campaign.

In 1987, Redus finished third in stolen bases in the American League with 52 for the White Sox. On August 25, 1989, Redus hit for the cycle for the Pirates in a 12-3 victory over the Reds.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]