Ernie Riles

[Michael Trzinski]

Ernest Riles was born in 1960 in Cairo, Georgia. After high school, Riles attended Middle Georgia State University and was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 21st round of the 1980 MLB Amateur Draft by elected not to sign. The following year, Riles was selected by the Brewers in the third round of the January Draft-Secondary Phase.

The lefty-hitting infielder batted .348/.413/.453 in his first year at Butte (Montana) in the Rookie Pioneer League. He moved steadily up the chain and made his major league debut in 1985. Riles began with a bang, hitting .364 (12-for-33) in his first two weeks before cooling off. He finished the year with a slash line of .286/.339/.377 and finished third in the AL ROY voting.

Riles had a nice sophomore campaign, slashing .252/.321/.357 across 524 at-bats. After two seasons as the Brewers shortstop, Riles moved to third base in 1987. But his season didn’t start until late June due to an off-season finger injury on his right hand. Riles ended with a slash line of .261/.329/.351 in 83 games.

The Brewers traded Riles to the San Francisco Giants in June 1988 for outfielder Jeffrey Leonard. Riles lasted for three seasons in San Francisco, playing in 293 games, mostly in a utility role. After the 1990 season, Riles was traded to the Oakland Athletics.

With his career winding down at the youngish age of 30, Riles played one season each for Oakland, Houston, and Boston.  He signed with California and Cleveland, respectively, for the next two seasons and played at the Triple-A level. In 1996, Riles played a few games in the independent Big South League and called it a career after that.

Riles finished his nine-year career with a slash line of .254/.319/.365 across 2,504 at-bats, including 92 doubles, 20 triples, and 48 home runs.

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