Welcome to the championship round of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus one guy in limbo (again)) faced off in a single-elimination tournament that culminates with tonight’s match up.

This is it. The final round. Your votes this week will decide who is the NLC’s hottest honey and who is just a modestly famous athlete with a bunch of online fans.

Bubba Crosby has been the cult hero of the competition, and certainly wasn’t a favorite at the beginning, considering that he hasn’t truly been a member of an NLC team the whole time. Now, it’s looking like he’ll sit a year out while he rehabs his shoulder, which at least would give him more time to enjoy his inappropriately named reign as NLC’s Hottest Baller, should he win. And right now I’d give him the odds; no other player has been able to rally the groundswell of support.

Brandon Phillips has been a front-runner from the beginning of the competition. Most recently, he nudged out perennial hottie Jason LaRue with 51% of the vote. As the Reds’ second baseman for years to come, Phillips certainly seems to be a more natural choice for the competition, but it’s going to take an inspired populous of Phillips fans to overcome the Crosby mafia.

Bubba Crosby
ht: 5-11 wt: 195 dob: 8/11/1976

Brandon Phillips
ht: 6-0 wt: 195 dob: 6/28/1981

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Welcome to the semifinals of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus the newest ex-Mariner) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

Brad Ausmus comes to the final four by way of the nonReds bracket. He defeated Sean Burnett in the first round and Chris Duffy in the second round. Ausmus brings a very traditional tall-dark-and-handsome kind of hotness to the competition.

Even so, Ausmus has his work cut out for him against…

Bubba Crosby is a cult favorite in the competition. He’s already taken down Bronson Arroyo and Matt Belisle, two very well-liked Reds’ pitchers, to make his way into the final four.

Brad Ausmus
ht: 5-11 wt: 190 dob: 04/14/1969

Bubba Crosby
ht: 5-11 wt: 195 dob: 08/11/1976

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Welcome to round 2 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus the newest Mariner) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

Our final match of the quarterfinal round is going to be a doozy. Matt Belisle, hottie starting rotation candidate for the Reds goes up against cult hero Bubba Crosby. Belisle has been a fan favorite at Red Hot Mama since he came up, but Crosby brought down 78% of the vote in the first round against Bronson Arroyo is the most heavily voted-in contest of the tournament so far.


Bubba Crosby
ht: 5-11 wt: 195 dob: 08/11/1976

Matt Belisle
ht: 6-3 wt: 230 dob: 06/06/1980

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I met Bubba Crosby at Redsfest before the 2007 season and had the opportunity to ask him a few questions for a special edition of the Red Hot Broadcast. You can check it out here.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has a little profile of one of our more popular outfield hopefuls, Bubba Crosby. Most of the stuff already appears in his human league profile, but there are a few additional tidbits.

5-11, 195 pounds
…
Favorite movie: Braveheart

Talent other than baseball: “I can’t cook. I can’t golf. I can build things around the house.”

Childhood hero: My dad, Steve.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has a little profile of one of our more popular outfield hopefuls, Bubba Crosby. Most of the stuff already appears in his human league profile, but there are a few additional tidbits.

5-11, 195 pounds
…
Favorite movie: Braveheart

Talent other than baseball: “I can’t cook. I can’t golf. I can build things around the house.”

Childhood hero: My dad, Steve.

Player Profile on Reds.com
Bubba Crosby on Wikipedia
Bubba Crosby on Baseball-Reference.com
Stuff posted on RHM by KC2HMZ
Stuff posted on RHM by BubbaFan

Richard Stephen Crosby, affectionately known as “Bubba,” was born August 11, 1976 in Bellaire, Texas. Or perhaps Houston, Texas, depending on whom you ask.

Crosby attended Rice University where, as a junior in 1998, he earned All-American honors after hitting .394 with 25 HR and 91 RBI. Bubba was drafted by the Dodgers in the 1st round (23rd pick) of the 1998 amateur draft, signed June of 1998 and debuted in the majors on May 29, 2003.

For even more information about Bubba Crosby, visit All Things Bubba, a blog entirely in his honor.

Crosby came into the services of the Reds on November 11 when Wayne Krivsky signed him as a free-agent to a 1-year, $400,000 major league contract. He sports a career .216 average and .255 On-Base Percentage.

Bubba Crosby is currently listed as a right fielder on the Reds’ 25-man roster. However, in his four-year major league career, he’s played in only 205 games and never more than 76 in one year, so it’s sort of hard to believe that he’s going to be the everyday right fielder going into 2007. If he makes the team out of spring training, it’s more likely that he’ll split time there with Ryan Freel and (hopefully) Chris Denorfia. First base is always an interesting option as well, especially given the Reds’ traditionally nontraditional choices for first. However, since Crosby is a lefty, he would fail to provide the righty side of a lefty-righty platoon with Scott Hatteberg.

HMZ, affectionately known ’round these parts as the “Crack Hard Facts Staff,” had this to say about Crosby:

They didn’t just pull this guy’s name out of a hat, that’s for sure. For one thing, Reds’ bench coach Bucky Dent was his manager at AAA Columbus in 2004 and in 2005. For another thing, he was the Dodgers’ first round pick in the 1998 amateur draft. We can safely assume the Dodgers scouting department that year had something on the ball, based on our observations this year of another guy they drafted in 1998 – David Ross, who they took in the 7th round. So it really wouldn’t surprise me if whoever it was (presumably on the west coast) who tipped Kriv-Dawg off about Ross just threw Wayne another bone (pun intended, Bubba’s full name is Richard Crosby – if you don’t get it go read the thread about the Reds’ new pitching coach).Crosby twice made the Yankees’ Opening Day roster in spring training, which can’t be easy to do considering the Yankees are a team with deep pockets that prefers to spend big bucks on established free agents rather than taking chances with rookies. He finished last season Red hot, hitting .321 (17-for-53) in 23 September games and .345 (20-for-58) over his final 31 games of the season. He also gained postseason experience by playing in three games in the ALCS in 2004.

Crosby has committed two errors in 182 major league games, and no errors in 245.3 innings in right field, where the Reds presumably have a hole to fill if they don’t convince Griffey to move over.

I guess this move also tells us something about what the Reds think of Heartthrob, as well as of Norris Hopper.

BubbaFan, affectionately known ’round these parts as “The Guy With the Bubba Crosby blog,” had this to say about Crosby:

Bubba made quite a splash when he first came up. He homered in his first at-bat as a Yankee, then homered again in his first start two days later. He also made some exciting, crashing-off-the-wall catches in that game, helping Mussina secure his elusive 200th win. A lot of Yankee fans fell in love with him that day. It was truly amazing that he made the team out of spring training; rookies just didn’t do that in the Torre era.Bubba is never going to be a slugger, but he hits all right if given a chance to play regularly. He’s had only 250 at-bats in four seasons.

He’s a good bunter, and has great speed. He was the best defensive CFer in the Yankees system. He gives 110% to everything he does, and is well-liked in the clubhouse and by the fans. He’s a really nice guy.