This entry was posted on 10/2/2008 3:29 AM and is filed under uncategorized.
Baseball is a big deal to the Bay family.
The patriarch, David, was immediately smitten with the Red Sox teams of the late 1960’s 1970’s and loved watching the underdog Olde Towne Team led by Dewey, Yaz, Pudge and El Tiante play ball at the baseball cathedral in Boston.
“Back in my day I used to watch Saturday baseball and it was always the Yankees and Red Sox on TV, and the Sox were usually the underdogs,” said David. “I really became attached to them as underdogs in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I remember making a toast at Jason’s wedding in 2004 and I said that I hope our daughter is in the Olympics [as a softball player], and that the Pirates do well. I said to Jason, you’re going to get two home runs in Game 7 of the World Series…but the Sox still win the series four games to three. Everybody knew I was a Sox fan and that was the year they won the World Series.”
Young Jason wasn’t quite as enamored with the Sox as his old man, but harbored the same love for the game of baseball and instead became a huge fan of former Cincinnati Reds outfielder Eric Davis. The younger Bay had a “Magnum 44” Eric Davis poster plastered on his wall growing up and seemingly patterned his quick-wristed powerful swing after the athletically gifted Davis.
Bay still holds Davis in enough hardball reverence that he continues to wear Davis’ uniform No. 44 on his back to this very day.
It would almost seem – given those familiar-sounding details -- like the Bay clan was something right out of Braintree or Burlington, but amazingly this Sox success story originates in Trail, British Columbia -- a small Canadian town of 8,000 known more for producing NHL players than middle-of-the-order bats capable of manufacturing 30 homer, 100 RBI seasons.
The Canadian outfielder somehow fought his way through three organizations to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2003 and became a Rookie of the Year and All-Star outfielder. Things got better and even a little emotional, however, in the Bay household when dad’s dreams came true and Jason was traded to the Sox on July 31.
Bay was in essence traded for Manny Ramirez, and his dad couldn’t get over the position of baseball royalty that his 30-year-old son was walking into.
“I almost can’t wrap my head around it after so many years of watching Carl and then watching Jimmy Rice playing left field,” said Bay. “All Jason kept saying to us was that it looked it was going to be Tampa Bay, and we were kind of saying ‘please, anywhere but Tampa Bay.’
“He absolutely loves playing for Boston and he loves winning,” said David. “He said to me that it was weird to go from Pittsburgh, where everyone is hoping to play well, to a place like Boston where everything is about winning. Everyone there has told him that they don’t care how it gets done or who does it, so long as the team wins at the end of the day. Jason loves that.”
Bay the senior is looking forward to visiting Boston over the next week and meeting his new granddaughter Evelyn Jane, but he’s also giddy at the thought of watching his son patrol the same piece of outfield real estate that Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and Rice called home during their Hall of Fame-level careers.
His son is one of the biggest keys for the Sox heading into the postseason after hitting .293 with nine home runs, 37 RBIs and 39 runs scored in 49 games following his trade to Boston.
There is some question, though, of how the talented outfielder will respond to the pressures of the postseason after years toiling with the lowly Pirates. Bay says the biggest key for him is treating his first playoff experience just like every other of the 771 big league games he’s played in his career.
“I’d like to think I’ve stayed the same. Doing what I’m doing in these type of games does have a little more meaning than being 20 games under in September, but I take a lot of pride in being consistent,” said Bay. “I want to be one of those guys that can be counted on and you know what you’re getting out of them – there’s a lot to be said for that.
“But I do think the atmosphere in these games does bring the best out, and more importantly it’s FUN. Baseball is a blast right now.”
The Bay family’s baseball blast officially started on July 31, but it launched into postseason orbit after Bay smoked a memorable game-winning home run in Game One at Angel Stadium in Anaheim last night.
