No game today, so let’s remember a forgotten Yankee: Bubba Crosby

"People in New York appreciate someone who comes home dirty." — Joe Torre on Bubba Crosby

Fan favorite Bubba Crosby homered in his first at-bat as a Yankee… then, in the very next game, he hit another… and made a highlight reel catch, diving face-first into the Yankee Stadium wall to help Mike Mussina win his 200th game!

Two home runs in his first three at-bats as a Yankee. But as it turned out, those two home runs represented half of all the home runs he'd hit in pinstripes. Bubba's time as a fan favorite was brief but intense!

Richard Stephen Crosby was born August 11, 1976, in Houston, Texas. He played for Bellaire High School, one of the best high school baseball programs in Texas. They won the Texas 5-A sports state high school championship while he was there; his coach was Ray Knoblauch, whose son is former Yankee Chuck Knoblauch.

He then went to Rice University, where he was a two-time All-American, had a 30-game hitting streak, and still ranks among the all-time career leaders in many categories. (He's second in home runs, RBIs, total bases, and slugging percentage, all to a future Yankee named Lance Berkman.)

Crosby went to the Dodgers in the first round, #23 overall. (Berkman, his Rice teammate, went to the Astros the previous year at #16 overall.) His professional career didn't get off to a great start as he hit .216/.274/.281 in A-ball; he repeated the level in 1999 and hit a more promising .297/.376/.377. Still, the Dodgers were hoping for more from a first round pick, and they kept him in A-ball for one more season, and he hit .266/.351/.451.

Finally promoted to Double-A in 2001, the 24-year-old Bubba hit .302/.369/.432 in 384 at-bats and ended the season in Triple-A, hitting .214/.233/.310 in 42 at-bats in homer-happy Las Vegas. (The team collectively hit .276/.343/.462 that season.)

Bubba's status as a prospect was fading fast. In 2002 he went back to Double-A, where at 25 he was now a year older than the league average. He hit .260/.317/.367 and got a second chance in Triple-A, hitting .262/.312/.409. He was a good enough defensive centerfielder that the Dodgers kept him around.

Back in Vegas in 2003, Crosby finally had the monster season everyone expected of a first-round pick: He hit .361/.410/.635 in 277 at-bats! Called up to the Show at the end of May, Crosby got one start and five pinch-hit appearances over the next 10 days, going 1-for-9, then went back to the minors. He got another brief call-up during the last week of July, going 0-for-3.

On July 31, the Dodgers traded Crosby and pitcher Scott Proctor to the Yankees for corner infielder Robin Ventura. A free agent signing that off-season, the 35-year-old Ventura had opened the season in a third base platoon with Todd Zeile but was now expendable thanks to the simultaneous acquisition of Aaron Boone from the Cincinnati Reds. Both Crosby and Proctor were assigned to the minors.

Crosby was supposed to stay in Columbus to open the 2004 season, but after a hot spring training — he .357 with 11 RBIs in Spring Training, winning the James Dawson Award as the Yankees' top rookie in camp — he made the Opening Day roster. (He beat out Homer Bush and Darren Bragg for the final roster spot.) Crosby said he thought he was "a million to one shot" to make the team, but the Yankee captain disagreed with that assessment, noting Crosby's speed, defense, patience, ability to bunt, and especially, hustle.

“We all saw what he could do. The odds were pretty good from where we were standing.” — Derek Jeter

Over the first week of the season, Bubba was on the bench, only used twice as a pinch-runner for Jason Giambi. In the sixth game, on April 9, 2004, he was sent out in the 9th inning as a defensive replacement for Bernie Williams in a blowout loss, and homered in his first Yankee at-bat. (Charley Steiner — remember when he was the Yankee play-by-play guy with John Sterling? — incorrectly calls it Bubba's first major league at-bat, as he had gone 1-for-12 with the Dodgers the previous season. It was his first Yankee at-bat, though, and his first career home run.)

Crosby got the start two days later, on April 11, and that was the game where he became a Yankee legend. He dove into the wall to make a catch in the third inning, hit a home run off the facing of the upper-deck in right field in the fourth, and then made wall-crashing catch in the eighth. And remember, this was his first start as a Yankee! The fans were going absolutely bonkers.

"It seemed like every other inning I was tipping my cap." — Bubba Crosby

Despite his heroics, Crosby barely played the rest of that season. The Yankees had a crowded outfield with Hideki Matsui, Bernie Williams, and Gary Sheffield all playing almost every day, and Kenny Lofton as the fourth outfielder… plus Jason Giambi and Tony Clark sharing first base, and Ruben Sierra occupying the designated hitter spot.

Crosby was the low man on the totem pole. He rode the Columbus shuttle a couple times that year and even when he was in the Bronx, he was frequently on the bench. He got just 53 at-bats and had eight hits… half of them coming in April.

Yet Bubba was a surprising addition to the Yankees playoff roster in 2004, getting into two games against the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series and one game against the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. He didn't get a plate appearance but did score as a pinch runner.

Sadly the postseason ended for some reason after Game 3 that year…

Between all the bouncing around from the minors to the majors, the 27-year-old hit a decent .276/.365/.379 in 116 at-bats in Columbus and still had a good enough glove that the Yankees wanted him around as a just-in-case guy. Once again he was to open the 2005 season in Triple-A, but another hot spring training got him on the Opening Day roster. Once again he got very little playing time, going 2-for-12 over the first five weeks of the season and then going back to Columbus. He came back up in July and this time got a little more playing time, but after going 5-for-24 (.208) was again turned into a pinch runner and defensive replacement.

During the final month of the 2005 season, batting coach Don Mattingly noticed Crosby was lunging at the plate and worked with him on patience, having him hit off a tee set deeper than Crosby was used to. It forced him to shorten his stroke, Bubba told the New York Post:

"I wasn’t letting the ball get deep in my stance, wasn’t trusting my hands. I felt I needed to hurry up and get it, didn’t want to strike out, wanted to show I belonged. I put a lot of pressure on myself. Going up and down [to the minors], it was difficult to have a whole lot of confidence."

Crosby hit .327 in September that season, lifting his batting average from .200 to .276. And the biggest highlight of the month — if not his career — came on September 19, 2005, what Michael Kay would call "the Bubba Crosby Game."

In the bottom of the 9th of a 2-2 game, Crosby was due to lead off the inning. Jorge Posada told him in the dugout to look for a breaking ball early in the count from reliever Eric DuBose. The 1-0 pitch was a breaking ball, and Crosby crushed it, sending it into the right-field bleachers for a walk-off win!

"I've never hit a walk-off homer, ever, in my whole life, not even in Little League. To do it at Yankee Stadium, this time of year, when it counts, it just doesn't get any better than this."

It was Crosby's only home run that season and just the third of his career after those two in his first three at-bats as a Yankee the previous season. ("The last thing you think is home run," Alex Rodriguez said. "Nothing against Bubba, but you're hoping for a walk, a hit-by-pitch, a broken bat, a bunt single. And then he hits the ball like Darryl Strawberry.")

Rounding the bases, Bubba said he tried to force himself to run slowly so he could soak in the moment. But as he rounded third and saw his teammates waiting at home plate, he broke into a run to join in the celebration.

"Everybody was screaming and hugging, clapping and banging my helmet," he said. "It's just one of those things every kid dreams of."

His hot September propelled him to a starting role in the 2005 post-season as the Yankees took on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the best-of-five American League Division Series. In Game 1, Crosby started in center field, with Bernie Williams moved to designated hitter.

Joe Torre explained the move as wanting to get better defense in center:

“We talked about it a lot. With [the Angels’ speedy] ballclub, we thought it might make sense to do that. We will look at it today and go from there. Taking nothing away from Bernie, but he doesn’t have the speed this kid has.”

Crosby, batting 9th, went 0-for-4 with a strikeout in the Game 1 win, and was back on the bench for losses in Games 2 and 3. He was back in center to start in Game 4 and went 0-for-1 with a sac bunt. He was lifted in the 7th inning for pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra, who singled in a run.

Crosby had gone 0-for-5 in the postseason but on the other hand, the Yankees' only two wins had come in the games he started. So naturally he was out there again in the winner-take-all Game 5.

In the top of the 2nd, Bubba had his first-ever post-season hit, a one-out single to right off Ervin Santana that knocked in Bernie Williams from second base.

With two out and two on in the bottom of the 2nd inning, Adam Kennedy hit a long fly ball to right-center. It appeared either Crosby or Sheffield would catch it — but instead they collided.

"I think it's Gary Sheffield's ball because the ball is hooking back to Gary, but there is no way with the crowd sound here at Angel Stadium for either to hear each other." — Tim McCarver

Had it been the slower Bernie in center, Sheffield likely makes the catch to end the inning. Instead, the ball bounced away and by the time Crosby threw it back in, Kennedy was on third base with a triple and two runs had scored to give the Angels a 3-2 lead.

Joe Torre and Gene Monahan ran out to the outfield to check on the two players, but they both stayed in the game.

The Angels tacked on two more in the bottom of the 3rd, knocking out Mike Mussina. It was the shortest post-season start of his career.

Crosby reached on a two-out bunt single in the top of the 4th, but Derek Jeter grounded out to end the inning. Crosby grounded out in the 6th, and was lifted for pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra in the top of the 8th. Jeter homered to lead off the top of the 7th to make it a two-run game.

Jeter then singled off Francisco Rodriguez to lead off the 9th, but Alex Rodriguez hit into a 5-4-3 double play. Back-to-back singles by Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield put the tying runs on base, and then the guy you absolutely want up in that situation — Hideki Matsui — came to the plate… and he grounded out to first base to end it.

After the Yankees' disappointing first-round loss to the Angels, it looked like Bubba would be the starting centerfielder in 2006. Bernie Williams was a free agent after the Yankees declined to pick up his option, and Johnny Damon — the most coveted free agent centerfielder on the market that off-season — was asking for a seven-year deal.

Joe Torre in The New York Post on December 1:

"I am comfortable with Crosby. Sure, he’s not an offensive player but he is not a give-up [out] like he used to be. What we need is a guy who can catch the ball and keep the opposition to three outs. We have offense at first, short, second, third, right field, left field, catcher and DH. If we need the ninth-place hitter to be an offensive player then we aren’t doing a credible job [above]. If nothing else [develops], we will give it a shot. I don’t want to move [Hideki] Matsui back and forth.”

If the job was open, Bubba said he wanted it. “I want to be an every-day player; that’s every kid’s dream,” he told the New York Post. “But I know in this organization things can change like the wind. I could be the starting center fielder and in two weeks somebody could be available.”

It wasn't two weeks, but four. A month after that article appeared, the Yankees signed Damon to a four-year, $52 million deal, and Bernie to a one-year, $1.5 million deal, and just like that, Bubba had gone from the starting centerfielder for the New York Yankees to a bench player.

But then on April 29 the Yankees lost Gary Sheffield for most of the season, and on May 11 they lost Hideki Matsui for all of it, both with wrist injuries. After starting just one game in all of April, Bubba started in nine of 16 games in May and went 8-for-28 (.286) with a triple and two RBIs. Just as it seemed it was once again "Bubba time" in Yankee Stadium, Crosby strained his hamstring on May 19. When he returned a month later, 21-year-old rookie Melky Cabrera had won the left field job. Meanwhile, a hot streak from previously forgotten Yankee Andy Phillips had allowed him to take over at first base, pushing Jason Giambi to designated hitter and moving Bernie Williams to right. Phillips cooled off in July, but by then the Yankees had acquired rightfielder Bobby Abreu and first baseman Craig Wilson in deadline deals.

That said, Crosby wasn't exactly forcing his way into the lineup either. Since returning from the Disabled List on June 15, he hit just .163/.196/.265. On July 15, Bubba was sent in as a defensive replacement for Johnny Damon in the top of 7th inning of a game the Yankees were winning 11-3. Crosby led off the bottom of the inning with a home run to right field. It was the last home run of his career.

On August 4, the Yankees designated him for assignment. He cleared waivers and was sent to Columbus.

"He had a certain amount of appeal for us. It's very difficult. That's the part of my job, when I leave this stuff, that I'm not going to miss." — Joe Torre

That was it for Bubba. He hit .238 in Columbus and was released. Now 30 years old, the following season he signed a minor league deal with the Reds, hit .128 in 13 games, and then had season-ending shoulder surgery. The next year he tried to come back with the Mariners, but he failed his physical, and retired. His baseball career was over.

After hanging up his cleats, Bubba — who loved to get his uniform dirty — kept at it. He went to work in his family's landscaping business!

Bubba Bullets

• Michael Kay said he was once asked if Bubba Crosby was from New Jersey. "Are you kidding me?" Kay replied. "With a name like Bubba?"

• Crosby told the Daily News in 2004 he got the nickname from his 18-month-old sister, Charmin, who couldn't pronounce "brother". But he was hardly the only Bubba around. "Almost everyone in Texas is Bubba when you are growing up," he said.

• He said he went by his real first name in school, but when friends called the house and asked for Richard, "my parents would burst out laughing and say, 'You mean Bubba?'"

• Old Time Family Baseball ranked all the baseball-playing Bubbas and decided 1950s Phillies pitcher Bubba Church was the best, followed by Bubba Phillips, a utility man for the Indians, White Sox, and Tigers from 1955 to 1964. But he gave bonus points to Crosby for being a fan favorite.

• Bubba Crosby's career confusingly overlapped with Bobby Crosby, an infielder for the Oakland A's who was somehow the A.L. Rookie of the Year in 2004 despite hitting .239/.319.426. (Zack Greinke, with a 120 ERA+ and 1.166 WHIP in 145.0 innings, would have been a much better choice.) Over his eight-year career, Bobby hit .236/.304/.372 in 2,846 career plate appearances.

• And don't confuse Bubba Crosby with Bubba Trammell, who played from 1997 to 2003 with the Tigers, Devil Rays, Mets, and Padres. Trammell ended his career playing 22 games with the Yankees in 2003 — meaning he and the other Bubba were teammates for about two months!

• There's also Bubba Thompson, a former 1st round pick by the Texas Rangers who was a Yankee for about three weeks this off-season. Taken #26 overall by the Rangers in 2017, Bubba spent the next six years bouncing between the minors and majors. Finally out of options, the Rangers tried to sneak him through waivers last summer and the Royals claimed him on August 13. Then the Royals put him on waivers and the Reds claimed him on October 26. Then the Reds put him on waivers and the Yankees claimed him on January 4. Then the Yankees put him on waivers and the Twins claimed him on January 24. And then on February 13, the Reds claimed him off waivers from the Twins.

• As a sophomore at Rice University, Crosby played for Team USA in 1997. He hit .322 with eight home runs and six stolen bases in 121 at-bats. He was a first-team All-American at Rice. He wore #9.

• As noted above, the Dodgers took Bubba with their 1st round pick (#23 overall) in 1998. They drafted 50 players that year, but only two reached the majors with the Dodgers. (The other was seventh round pick David Ross, a catcher.) Another player they drafted that year was pitcher Scott Proctor, who was still in the minors when he was traded to the Yankees along with Crosby. The three combined for 9.2 career bWAR — 10.0 from Ross, 0.8 from Proctor, and -1.6 from Bubba.

• But still, it was a better draft than the Yankees had. Of the 50 players we drafted, only half signed, and of those, only four reached the majors — Brandon Claussen, Drew Henson, Brett Jodie, and Randy Keisler. Those four combined for a grand total of -1.5 bWAR.

• The 20.0+ bWAR players in that year's draft: Mark Mulder (#2 to the A's); J.D. Drew (#5 to the Cardinals); Carlos Pena (#10 to the Rangers); C.C. Sabathia (#20 to the Indians); Aaron Rowand (#35 to the White Sox); Aubrey Huff (#162 to the Devil Rays); Matt Holliday (#210 to the Rockies); and Jack Wilson (#258 to the Cardinals). Mark Teixeira was drafted by the Red Sox that year out of high school, but he didn't sign and went to Georgia Tech instead.

• The website dodgersnation.com called Bubba one of the Dodgers' biggest draft busts of all time. Also on the list: Preston Mattingly, Donnie's kid, who the Dodgers took with the #31 pick in the 2006 draft. He never made it above A-ball.

• Bubba said after his walk-off home run against the Baltimore Orioles on September 19, 2005, he took the subway home and then stayed up to watch the game re-broadcast on YES.

• The night after his walk-off home run, Bubba again got the start against the Orioles. He dropped a bunt down the first base line, and Baltimore first baseman B.J. Surhoff charged in to field it. Second baseman Brian Roberts — a future Yankee — ran over to cover first. The previous night, Bubba had beat out a bunt single by diving head first across the bag. This time he ran through it. Surhoff's throw had pulled Roberts into the baseline, and he and Bubba collided. Roberts went down immediately with a dislocated elbow; he missed the rest of the season. Crosby, who had been roommates with Roberts when they played for Team USA in 1997, went after the game to see him in the hospital. "I apologized, but of course he told me not to," Crosby told The New York Times. "He said it's part of the game."

• In 2016, Bubba was at Old-Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium. At age 39, he was the youngest "Old Timer" there. Some of his former Yankee teammates to attend that year were Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, Ramiro Mendoza, Tanyon Sturtze, and Homer Bush, as well as manager Joe Torre.

• Crosby was inducted into the Bellaire High School Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Rice Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015.

• Bubba was popular enough to inspire a blog, All Things Bubba, that ran from 2006 to 2017.

“I didn’t know how the city of New York would accept a redneck with the name of Bubba. They have been unbelievable.” — Bubba Crosby

Yankee fans of a certain age will never forget you, Bubba!