All Things Bubba

Two and a half years ago, Bronx Banter marked Bubba's first start by declaring "A folk hero is born in the Bronx." Yesterday, they marked the end of his career in pinstripes with an article called 2006 Post Mortem: Outfielders:

Bubba Crosby .207/.258/.299 (.206) 87 AB

For the third year in a row, Bubba made the team as the fifth outfielder out of spring training. But whereas he earned the spot the previous two years, this spring he was outplayed in Tampa by Kevin Thompson, Kevin Reese and even Mitch Jones, all of whom are younger than Crosby. The emergence of the Kevins should have pushed the 29-year-old Crosby out of the picture in the spring. Instead, it was a poorly timed hamstring injury, one that came just one week after Hideki Matsui's injury, that did the job. Crosby hit .290/.333/.387 while starting half of the Yankees' games in the stretch between Sheffield's injury and his own, but by the time he returned to action in mid-June, Melky Cabrera had claimed the left field job and Bernie Williams was in the middle of a brief hot streak as the Yankee right fielder.

Bubba made just nine starts in his final 34 games with the team and was designated for assignment in the wake of the deadline deals for Abreu and Craig Wilson. Though he hung on with Columbus for the remainder of the season, he hit just .238/.347/.393 there. A six-year minor league free agent, Crosby, now 30, has likely played his last game in a Yankee uniform.

To be fair, Bubba missed a lot of spring training this year due to various injuries. (A foreshadowing of things to come?) But they're probably right about Bubba not being back in a Yankee uniform.