Benny Joe Edelen (born September 16, 1955) is a former
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...
relief pitcher who pitched for the
St. Louis Cardinals and
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...
and was touted as one of the all-time great high school athletes in the state of Oklahoma. A recipient of the Jim Thorpe award, Joe excelled in basketball and baseball receiving All-State and All-America honors in both sports. The Cardinals drafted him in the 1st round (12th pick) of the 1973 amateur draft and he debuted for them on April 18, 1981 against his future team, the Reds. During the 1981 season he was traded by the Cardinals with
Neil Fiala to the Reds for
Doug Bair. His major league career was brief as he pitched his final game the next year. He now teaches art and coaches golf at Washington Oklahoma.
External links
Cincinnati Reds players
St. Louis Cardinals players
Indianapolis Indians players
St. Petersburg Cardinals players
Major League Baseball pitchers
1955 births
Living people
Baseball players from Oklahoma
Arkansas Travelers players
Gulf Coast Cardinals players
Springfield Redbirds players
{{US-baseball-pitcher-1950s-stub