Redman remains at the ready in Norfolk

Tike Redman likes playing in Norfolk's Harbor Park. But he is quick to point out the one problem he has with the stadium. The one major problem.

"The field is nice, but it's a graveyard," said Redman, a 31-year-old outfielder who has spent parts of six seasons in the Majors. "If I hit a ball real good, hopefully it will be a double off the wall. You got it good enough to hit it out of any other park, but here, it might get over his head for a double."

The left-handed-swinging Redman knows Harbor Park's predominant wind blows in off the water in right field, cooling his already tepid power. When the leadoff hitter does hit one out, there's only one way to describe it.

"Sometimes you hit it real good and it goes over the fence, and you're shocked."

Redman hit his first homer of the season in Norfolk's last homestand against Pawtucket, a solo shot that surprised him. Other than the difficult wind, however, the .281 lifetime hitter in the Majors doesn't have any qualms about playing in Norfolk.

After all, he spent much of four seasons in Nashville with the Sounds. And while he enjoyed the city, the stadium was a different story.

"The field was horrible. I'm not gonna lie about that," Redman said. "You can ask anybody about the field in Nashville and they'd say the same thing."

The payoff for his time in Nashville, however, was well worth it: a spot in the everyday lineup for the Pirates in 2004. As Pittsburgh's starting center fielder, Redman hit .280 with eight home runs and 51 RBIs in 546 at-bats. He also got the chance to play in PNC Park, which he still considers the best in the bigs.

"It's my best field to play in, ever. I've never played on a field better than that," Redman explained. "I just like how the background is at night, with the city and the bridge. It's a beautiful sight."

Unfortunately, Redman didn't get to enjoy the scenery in the Steel City as long as he wanted. After splitting time in center field in 2005, Redman was the odd man out as the Pirates decided to get younger, and they sent him to the Mets in the offseason. New York released Redman, and he spent 2006 playing in the Minors with Tigers and Astros affiliates.

He didn't stick with either, and found himself without a team in early 2007. That's when he joined the York Revolution of the Atlantic League, beginning a season in which he'd make the rare leap from independent ball to the Majors.

The Orioles signed Redman in mid-May, then called him up in August to be their starting center fielder for the last month and a half of the season. Redman obliged, hitting .318 over the final 40 games in the schedule.

"I never expected I would [get called up]," Redman said. "It just felt like the first time I ever got called up, the same excitement, the same shock."

His performance, however impressive, was still not enough to earn a spot on the 2008 roster, as Baltimore, like Pittsburgh three seasons earlier, decided to skew younger in the outfield. But, frustration at the business side of the sport is something to which Redman has become all too accustomed.

"Some people always work as hard as they can just to get up to the big leagues, but different circumstances and business moves always require you might be sent down again, or put on waivers and stuff like that. Some people are real disappointed, because you worked so hard to get up there, and when you go up there you do well," Redman said. "You've just got to swallow your pride and come back and do it again, work hard for it again, and see what happens."

It's that kind of attitude that's helped Redman persevere through the peaks and valleys of his baseball career, which started in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

He and his brother Prentice grew up on the diamond, Tike always a level ahead of his younger sibling. And while Prentice, who currently plays for Tacoma in the Pacific Coast League, may have caught up now, it wasn't that way when they were kids.

"He couldn't beat me," Tike said with a smile. "He always wanted to challenge me all the time. And I was, like, 'Yeah, keep working, keep watching.'"

Tike got some of his perseverance from the gridiron after he started playing football at the age of 12. Redman fell in love with the sport in the heart of Crimson Tide Country, where the annual Iron Bowl played between Alabama and Auburn is, as Redman will sternly remind you, "the best rivalry in college football."

Redman's football career nearly didn't last long, however, once he took his first big hit.

"Somebody hit me so hard I almost quit," he said. "But I didn't give up; I just got better and better at it."

Redman eventually did give up on football, after the Pirates took him in the fifth round of the 1996 draft, but he's never abandoned the "Don't quit" attitude his time in the sport helped develop. It's what's allowed him to overcome obstacles throughout more than a decade spent in the Minors, including the chants of fans who make fun of his nickname -- taken off a toy when he was a kid.

Now if only he could get rid of that wind coming in off the water.