Jason_Bay

Jason Bay

Jason Raymond Bay (born September 20, 1978 in Trail, British Columbia, Canada) is a Major League Baseball player for the Boston Red Sox.

In his young major league career, Bay has demonstrated well above average power to all fields. He has also shown good discipline at the plate — in , he ranked in the top ten in the National League in walks — although he does also strike out more often than the average hitter. On the bases, although he is not exceptionally fast, Bay is a very effective basestealer; in 2005, until he was picked off in the last week of the season, he had tied the major league record for most steals in a season without getting caught (21). Defensively, Bay was adept at handling the large outfield in Pittsburgh's PNC Park and is a dependable fielder. Through , he has made only eighteen errors in 6283.7 innings in left field (.986 fielding percentage). For a left fielder, he has a below average throwing ability according to The Hardball Times.

Baseball career

Early years

Bay experienced success as a player very early, playing on a Trail team that reached the 1990 Little League World Series. He was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 22nd round of the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft from Gonzaga University and was assigned to the Expo's Short-Season A team in Burlington, Vermont (The Vermont Expos). In , Bay was assigned to the Expos’ High Single-A team in Jupiter. He began the year slowly, and in May he was moved to Clinton of the Midwest League. Bay reached base in his first 26 games, then went on to hit .362 and win the league batting title. In all, he batted .315 with 14 homers and 75 RBI on the year. He was dealt to the New York Mets on March 24, , for Lou Collier. The Mets dealt him to the San Diego Padres for Steve Reed at the 2002 trading deadline. He debuted with the Padres on May 23, , getting his first major league hit, a home run, in the 9th inning. Two days later, he suffered a broken right wrist after a hit by pitch.

Pittsburgh Pirates

On August 26, 2003, Bay was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, along with Óliver Pérez and Cory Stewart in August in exchange for Brian Giles. He finished the season with a .287 batting average, four home runs, and 14 RBI in 30 games.

Bay began the season on the disabled list due to surgery during the off-season, and did not join the team until May. Despite missing the beginning of the season, he still produced the best offensive numbers of any National League rookie. He hit .282 in 120 games, leading all major league rookies in home runs (26) and RBI (82). He also led all NL rookies in slugging percentage (.550), extra base hits (54) and total bases (226). With his 26 home runs, Bay broke a Pirates rookies record of 23 set by Johnny Rizzo in and matched by Ralph Kiner in . Selected the NL rookie of the year by The Sporting News, Bay was the third Pittsburgh player honored with the award, after second baseman Johnny Ray (1982) and catcher Jason Kendall. Bay was also the first Canadian player to win the award.

In 2005, Bay was selected to his first Major League Baseball All-Star Game as a reserve outfielder. He was the only player on either roster not to appear in the game at all. Bay also appeared in the 2005 Century 21 Home Run Derby, representing Canada in the nationality-themed contest; he was eliminated in the first round after hitting no home runs. Bay finished the season with a .306 average, 32 home runs, and 101 RBI, leading the Pirates in every major hitting category.

Through the season, Bay was a career .292 hitter with 97 home runs and 306 RBI in 471 games over three seasons. Bay enjoyed an exceptional May of the 2006, when he hit .321 with 12 home runs (a Pirate record for home runs in a month) and 35 runs batted in. From May 22 to May 28 he hit home runs in six consecutive games, two short of the major league record held by Dale Long, Don Mattingly, and Ken Griffey, Jr. He had actually hit 10 home runs in ten games, but he had failed to hit a home run in one of the games (and hit two the next day).

Following an aggressive Public Relations campaign by the Pirates in 2006, Jason Bay led all National League outfielders in All-Star voting. Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder even urged fans to vote for Bay during a summer concert at Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena. Bay became the first member of the Pittsburgh Pirates voted into the All-Star game as a starter since Andy Van Slyke. In the game, Bay went 1 for 3, with a single.

After battling injuries, Bay's season was less productive, hitting .247 with 21 home runs and 84 RBI.

Bay has had a much more productive 2008, hitting .282 with 22 home runs and 64 runs batted in through the All Star break. In a May series against the Chicago Cubs, Bay had extra-inning walk-off hits in back-to-back games; the first two walk-off hits of his career. A month later, he got his third walk-off hit of the season and his career with a 13th-inning solo home run against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Boston Red Sox

On July 31, 2008, Bay and a player to be named later (Josh Wilson) were traded to the Boston Red Sox in a three team deal that sent Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris to the Pittsburgh Pirates from the Dodgers and Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen to the Pirates from the Red Sox. In his Red Sox debut, Bay scored both runs, the second coming after he hit a triple in bottom of the 12th inning and thus winning the game on a Jed Lowrie RBI infield single. The Red Sox snapped a three-game losing streak with the 2-1 victory over the visiting Oakland A's. In his second game he hit a 3-run home run in the first inning. On August 18th Jason Bay homered off of Jeremy Guthrie twice and had four RBI against the Baltimore Orioles, the Red Sox won 6-3. On August 26th Jason Bay played the Yankees the first time in a Red Sox uniform, Bay went 2-For-4 with two RBIs and a run, and a 7-3 victory over the Yankees. The Red Sox won the first out of three remaining games the Red Sox play at Yankee Stadium.

On September 8, Bay went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a home run as the Sox won 8-2 against the Texas Rangers. Later that month, when the Red Sox traveled to Tropicana Field to play the Tampa Bay Rays, they had a veritable home run derby on September 15; Jason Bay had his 8th home run as a Red Sox player, and the 30th of the season, as the Sox beat the Rays 13-5. Bay ended up 1-for-4 with an RBI and a home run.

The Sox' 2008 American League Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was the first playoff series of Bay's career. Bay hit a home run in each of the first two games of the series; in Game 2, on October 3, 2008, Bay hit a 3-run homer to give Boston an early 4-0 lead. On October 6, in Game 4, Bay scored the walkoff run to break a tie game on a single by Jed Lowrie in the bottom of the 9th. The win clinched the Sox a berth in the American League Championship Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Bay finished the series batting 7 for 17 (.412), with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, and 5 RBIs.

Personal

Bay and his wife, Kristn, have two daughters, Addison, who was born on November 19, 2006 in Pittsburgh, and Evelyn, who was born on September 16, 2008 in Boston.

Bay's sister, Lauren Bay Regula, is a professional softball player who pitched for Canada in the 2004 Olympics, and was on the Olympic team as well.

Bay remains friends with Edmonton Oilers center Shawn Horcoff, who was also born in Trail.

In Bay's opening interview with the Boston media, he stated that his father was a die-hard Red Sox fan who had bought him a Red Sox onesie to wear when he was young. Bay believed it was still in his parents' basement along with his two childhood bedroom posters of Red Sox greats Jim Rice and Carl Yazstremski.

Awards and honors

Three-time NL Rookie of the Month (June, July and September, 2004)
National League Rookie of the Year (2004)
The Sporting News NL Rookie of the Year (2004)
Tip O'Neill Award winner (2004 and 2005) - given to the top Canadian baseball player each season.
National League All-Star (2005, 2006)
Represented Canada at the World Baseball Classic
Represented Canada in the 1990 Little League World Series
May 2006 Player of the Month
Represented Canada at the 2005 Home Run Derby
The 2008 Chuck Tanner Award for "professionalism, cooperation and availability to and with Major League writers best assists them in carrying out daily responsibilities.

Records

Holds the record for most home runs at PNC Park with 61.
Second most Home Runs (14) by a visiting player (behind Lance Berkman- 18) and the highest batting average of any player with more than 100 at bats (.363, 58 for 160) at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
4th all-time in Home Runs hit by a Canadian born player behind Larry Walker (383), Matt Stairs (252), and Jeff Heath (194).

Pittsburgh Pirates

4th all-time with .515 slugging percentage
8th all-time with .890 on-base plus slugging (min 100 AB)
8th all-time with 139 Home Runs
10th all-time with 682 Strikeouts
12th all-time with .375 on-base percentage
15th all-time with 34 sacrifice flies
15th all-time with 35 hit by pitches

Career statistics

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	SF	SH	HBP	IBB	GDP
2003	SD	3	8	2	2	1	0	1	2	0	0	1	1	.250	.400	.750	1.150	6	0	0	1	0	0
2003	PIT	27	79	13	23	6	1	3	12	3	1	18	28	.291	.423	.506	.929	40	0	0	0	0	0
2004	PIT	120	411	61	116	24	4	26	82	4	6	41	129	.282	.358	.550	.908	226	5	5	10	2	9
2005	PIT	162	599	110	183	44	6	32	101	21	1	95	142	.306	.402	.559	.961	335	7	0	6	9	12
2006	PIT	159	570	101	163	29	3	35	109	11	2	102	156	.286	.396	.532	.928	303	9	0	8	9	15
2007	PIT	145	538	78	133	25	2	21	84	4	1	59	141	.247	.327	.418	.745	225	8	0	9	3	8
2008	PIT	106	393	72	111	23	2	22	64	7	0	59	86	.282	.375	.519	.894	204	5	0	2	2	3
2008	BOS	49	184	39	54	12	2	9	37	3	0	22	51	.293	.370	.527	.887	97	3	0	2	2	4
Totals:		771	2,782	476	785	164	20	149	491	53	11	397	734	.282	.375	.516	.891	1,436	37	5	38	27	51