A Westchester County native, Bob Crescenzo got his start playing baseball on the sandlots of Mount Vernon, N.Y., where such legendary greats Ralph Branca and Ken Singleton also hailed from. As a first-baseman for the Flyers, Crescenzo quickly became key asset in building the Mercy baseball program’s prowess in the early 1980s, including helping the Flyers to compete on an NCAA Division II level.
A two-year captain, Crescenzo helped Mercy College eclipse the .500 mark for the first time in program history in 1981, as the Flyers finished 18-12-1. He was a part of several big wins against strong Division I and II programs, such as Monmouth, Pace, Fordham, New Haven, St. Francis and Iona. He possessed a power-hitting stroke, which also complemented inaugural Hall of Famer, Jim Schult, to give the Flyers a powerful 1-2 punch.
Under the tutelage of 2008 Hall of Fame inductee and former Mercy College head coach Rick Wolff, Crescenzo recorded a .345 career batting average with eight home runs, 14 doubles, five triples and 70 RBI. Crescenzo was noted by Wolff as a "A superb clutch hitter with men on base," in the 1980 Mercy College baseball yearbook.
“My brother Joe was Ken Singletons catcher and best friend throughout Little League and Pony League,” said Crescenzo. “When I was eight years old, Joe took me to see Ken play at Mount Vernon High School. From that time on, all I wanted to do was play baseball.”
As a member of the Mount Vernon Travelers Baseball Club, Crescenzo played next to another future collegiate baseball Hall of Famer, Fred Opper, of Fordham University, whom he faced as a Mercy College Flyer almost a decade later. Crescenzo was presented the Mount Vernon Little League’s Most Valuable Player award in 1970 by Tony Veteri, another Mount Vernon sports figure who was a head linesman in the AFL at the time. As a 13-year-old, he pitched a no-hitter in the inaugural first game in Mount Vernon’s Babe Ruth League history. Crescenzo went on to play his high school baseball at Mount Vernon High School, pitching yet another no-hitter as freshman, and giving up no more than three hits in a game in his entire pitching career. An arm injury would put his baseball career on hold for more than a year.
After rehabilitating his injury, Crescenzo played junior college ball for one year at Westchester Community College before traveling to Florida in 1977 to pursue his dream of playing professional baseball. As a walk-on at a Cleveland Indian tryout, Crescenzo was asked to play in the instructional league as an unsigned free agent by then Cleveland Indians Scouting Supervisor and legendary baseball scout Leon Hamilton. A few months later, at the advice of his father, Crescenzo decided to make the trip back home to go back to school.
Crescenzo came to Mercy College in the fall of 1978, after a phone call from a former Mount Vernon High School teammate, Dave Rocco, about a new coach and new baseball program forming at Mercy College, which immediately caught his attention. In the spring of 1979, Crescenzo batted .416, which ranked him 28th in the United States, with an additional 20 runs driven in. That same year, he posted six doubles, three triples and three home runs. He had his career-best game against the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on April 18, 1979 in Kings Point. N.Y., when he batted 7-for-8 in a double-header with four doubles, two singles, and a home run with eight RBI.
As team captain in 1980, Crescenzo batted .327 and collected 26 RBI, had four doubles, two triples and three home runs, and crossed the plate 16 times for Mercy College. On March 26, 1980, Crescenzo hit the game-winning two-run home run for a 5-3 victory over Pace University. Inaugural Hall of Fame inductee and long-time Mercy College Director of Athletics Dr. Neil Judge called the win against Pace Mercy College’s “biggest win ever.” The same year, Crescenzo’s base hit in the bottom of the seventh scored Schult to defeat Manhattan College, 10-9.
In 1981, his final season with the Flyers, Crescenzo batted .304, with 24 RBI, 26 runs scored, four doubles and two home runs. Some of his most memorable moments from his final season with the Flyers included a game-winning two-base hit in the 10th inning to break an 8-8 tie between Mercy College and Monmouth. In the dark, his hit gave the Flyers an 11-8 victory. On May 7, Crescenzo followed home runs by teammates Schult and Bob Ryder, with a second-inning grand slam against Wagner College. In a protest game against Iona College, Crescenzo hit a ninth inning homerun “sending a chill through the Iona club,” according to sports writer Tony Davenport.
Crescenzo graduated in 1982 with a B.S. in management and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in childhood education with a dual certification for students with disabilities, anticipated in May 2010. Still bitten by the baseball bug, he currently owns and manages the New Jersey Cyclones Baseball Club, a 14-under tournament team, which competes up and down the eastern seaboard. Crescenzo currently resides in Clark, N.J., with his wife Darla, of 18 years, and children Robert (13) & Michael (10).
