Rich Croushore

Richard Steven Croushore

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 210 lb.
• School Hutchinson Community College, James Madison University
• High School Mount Vernon (TX) High School
• Debut May 18, 1998
• Final Game October 1, 2000
• Born August 7, 1970 in Lakehurst, NJ USA

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Biographical Information

Rich Croushore pitched in the major leagues from 1998 to 2000, for three different teams.

He was undrafted out of James Madison University and signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals on May 27, 1993. He was used exclusively as a reliever his first two seasons in the minors, then was turned into a starter with the St. Petersburg Cardinals of the Florida State League in 1995. He went 8-7, 3.63 in 31 games, including 22 starts, between two teams in 1997, finishing the season in AAA with the Louisville Redbirds of the American Association, in that circuit's final season.

He was back to relieving full-time in 1998, starting the year with the Memphis Redbirds of the Pacific Coast League. He was promoted to St. Louis in mid-May, making his big league debut on May 18th and went 0-3, 4.97 in 41 games, picking up 8 saves. In 1999, he pitched 59 games for St. Louis, going 3-7, 4.14 with 3 saves. On November 16th, he was traded to the Colorado Rockies along with Manny Aybar, Brent Butler and José Jimenez in return for Luther Hackman, Darryl Kile and Dave Veres in the rare trade that involved seven players, all major leaguers. He only stayed in the Rockies' system for half a season, however, and pitched only 6 times for the big club, going 2-0, 8.74. The rest of the time he was in AAA with the Colorado Springs SkySox where his ERA was 7.36 in 33 games. On July 27th, he was included in his second major trade in less than a year, going to the Boston Red Sox with Rolando Arrojo and Mike Lansing for Jeff Frye, Brian Rose, John Wasdin and minor leaguer Jeff Taglienti. He only pitched five times for Boston, going 0-1, 5.79, and was 0-1, 3.43 in 11 games for the Pawtucket Red Sox.

Rich was traded again in January of 2001, this time heading to the New York Mets for a minor leaguer, but he would not pitch in the majors again after that. Injuries limited him to just 12 games in 2001, mostly with the AAA Norfolk Tides, then he was with the Durham Bulls, the AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, in 2002, where he went 5-4, 3.38 with 7 saves in 36 games. the Devil Rays were an awful team at the time, one that could have used all the pitching help it could find, but he was not called up in spite of his good numbers. He pitched one final professional season in 2003, when he was with four different teams across three organizations - the Florida Marlins, the Baltimore Orioles and the Cincinnati Reds - including each of these three teams' AAA affiliate. He was still effective when he was able to take the mound, with a 1.93 ERA in 18 games covering 18 2/3 innings, but he retired after that season.