Morgan Ensberg, backup third and first baseman for the New York Yankees, knows that fans don’t flock to Yankee Stadium to see him.

“For the fans, I am so overshadowed, which makes sense,” Ensberg said, sitting at his locker with a copy of a Dan Brown novel in his left hand prior to Thursday’s game against Cleveland. “I’m not that big-name guy. They get to see me if somebody is hurt, or needs a rest.”

But unlike the vast majority of players fulfilling a utility role around the major leagues, Ensberg was—very recently—a star. And he is wishful that, just as he lost his job due to a bench player’s hot hitting for Houston back in 2006, he can reverse that process to become a household name in New York.

“I’m hoping to be able to backdoor it and sneak into the lineup more,” Ensberg said. “Joe [Girardi] has said that if I play well, he’ll certainly get me more at-bats.”

The problem for Ensberg, of course, is that he hasn’t played well for the past two years—and his 2008 batting line stood at .226/.250/.274. And the unusually thoughtful 32-year-old doesn’t know why. He is, after all, just two years removed from putting up superstar numbers.

In 2003, Ensberg’s first full season in the big leagues, he hit .291 with 25 home runs in just 391 at-bats, wresting the Astros third base job from Geoff Blum. After a down season in 2004, his 2005 seemed to cement his status as a member of baseball’s elite. He hit .283 with 36 home runs. His patience made him an even bigger threat—85 walks helped him to a .388 on-base percentage, and overall his OPS stood at ninth in the National League.

Though Ensberg played in a lineup with likely future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio and elite hitter Lance Berkman, it was his offense that was most responsible for powering Houston to the National League pennant.

“Part of it was playing every day,” Ensberg said, explaining his career spike. “That gave me the chance to get my swing right, get my timing really good.”

But an astounding thing happened to Ensberg in 2006. He simply stopped hitting, as if a light switch turned off. His average dropped to .235, his home run total fell to 23, and the 2005 All Star lost his starting job to journeyman Mike Lamb.

“As for the down year, I think I just played poorly,” Ensberg said. “It felt like balls weren’t dropping—I mean, clearly, balls weren’t dropping—but I hit a bad streak, and Mike Lamb played great.”

Ensberg is right, incidentally, about the balls not dropping. His 2005 was far from a fluke—his batting average on balls in play, which hitters have relatively little control over, stood at .301, roughly league average. But in 2006, his BABIP was a freakishly low .251, including marks of .211, .189 and .211 in May-June-July, when he lost his job to Lamb.

Odder still, even though his at-bats fell from 526 to 387, his walks actually increased from 2005, from 85 to 101. But Ensberg thinks that may have been the problem.

“I was thinking about this last night,” Ensberg said. “And I think that I am at my best when I am aggressive. I need to be prepared to hit anything at any pitch in the count.”

Still, Ensberg needs to do better when he does make contact. In 2007, his BABIP rose to just .259 for the season. Amazingly, despite playing much of the season in hitter-friendly Minute Maid Park in Houston, his home BABIP was an astonishingly low .219. And the Astros shipped Ensberg, a season and a half removed from his time as cleanup hitter for their pennant-winning team, to San Diego for a player to be named later.

By this past winter, his relatively recent success led a number of teams to offer the free agent a chance to start at third base. Instead, he chose the Yankees. By the time their current third baseman, Alex Rodriguez, comes to the end of his 10-year contract, Ensberg will be 42.

“I think in Houston, I was a medium-sized fish in a small pond,” Ensberg said. “I had my chance to start, I had offers from three other places—but I decided to take the chance to play here.”

Interestingly, the expectations of New York, which many Yankees seem to put up with, are what drew Ensberg here.

“Sure, I’d rather play every day,” he said. “But there’s something about being able to succeed in a difficult place that appeals to me.”

With Alex Rodriguez estimated to be at least a week away from returning, Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi has indicated that Ensberg and Wilson Betemit, who hits better from the left side, will likely platoon. And with Jason Giambi’s average a paltry .157 through 83 at-bats, should they succeed, that pairing could move across the diamond in the near future.

The light switch went on for Ensberg once before: Ensberg made a huge jump in performance as a minor leaguer. After hitting .239 with 15 home runs at high-A ball in 1999, he improved that performance to .300 with 28 home runs at AA in 2000. He said the adjustment he made then was also to be more aggressive.

“My walk numbers were high since I was 7, 8 years old,” Ensberg said. “I got into the habit of thinking I could only drive balls in a very small part of the strike zone. Maybe that’s just my lack of ability,” he added with a smile.

If the switch clicks on again, with Giambi showing no signs of recovery, Ensberg could find himself a big fish in the biggest pond of all.