Roberto Clemente couldn't do it. Willie Stargell missed the cut. So did Barry Bonds.

Name any former Pittsburgh Pirate, and, no matter how exulted, Jason Bay now has something they never got: the National League Rookie of the Year award, which he received Monday from the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Bobby Crosby, shortstop for the Oakland Athletics, earned the AL honor.

"It means the world to me," Bay said. "You walk into the locker room and you see all those jerseys hanging up, it's kind of amazing it never happened."

Bay, the first Canadian to win the award, received 25 of 32 first-place votes.

Bay hit .282 with 26 homers and 82 RBI. The 26-year-old outfielder from Trail, British Columbia, had the most homers by an NL rookie since Albert Pujols hit 37 three years ago. Bay started the season on the disabled list while recovering from surgery on his right shoulder and didn't play until May 7.

His sister, Lauren Bay, was a pitcher for Canada's Olympic softball team, making it two star athletes for a town with a population of about 10,000.

Bay got married in Seattle on Saturday to his college girlfriend, Kristen. He was trying to sleep late Monday when he got the call.

"November 2004, especially in a two-day span, is something I'll never forget," he said.

Crosby, selected by his peers as the Players Choice rookie of the year last week, got all but one of 28 first-place votes following an impressive season in which he filled the big shoes of departed 2002 AL MVP Miguel Tejada, now with Baltimore.

After a slow start and the fear he might be sent down to the minors because of his offensive struggles, Crosby batted .239 with 22 homers and 64 RBI, his average the lowest for any non-pitcher to win the award.

He led AL rookies in hits (130), doubles (34) and walks (58), and was third among all AL players with 4.17 pitches per plate appearance. However, his 141 strikeouts were the most for Oakland since Jose Canseco's 152 in 1991 and he had a streaky season that included a 1-for-23 slide.

Crosby became the sixth A's player to earn the honor, following Harry Byrd (1952), Canseco (1986), Mark McGwire (1987), Walt Weiss (1988) and Ben Grieve (1998).

"This is awesome," Crosby said. "It's something at the beginning of the year I would have liked to achieve and now that it's happened it's pretty unreal."