WEEI.com's Rob Bradford did a great job last week of first reporting that Sox left fielder Jason Bay was studying to become a US citizen, and it seems only appropriate on the Fourth of July to share a little bit of the 30-year-old's story. The Trail, British Columbia native married a girl from Washington and both his daughters are US citizens, so Bay saw his own citizenship as the next logical progression. Bay was sworn in during a ceremony in the city of Boston on Tuesday, and here's some of his own words on becoming an American in the most Patriotic month on the calendar.

JB: I didn’t realize how big a deal it was, but I’ve been getting a lot of congratulations from people. It hasn’t really hit me yet, and it might not hit me until they ask me to serve in the army or something like that. I’m very proud to do it, but that being said I’ll always be Canadian. People ask me if I ceased being Canadian because of this, and the answer is always no.

That means you still like hockey? JB: Exactly. All of the stereotypes are true.

Not to put you on the spot but does the fact that it’s July 4 mean anything to you? JB: I actually got a text message from one of my friends that said ‘What a way to celebrate Canada Day by becoming an American’ because it was Canada Day the day before (on Monday). It was on (July 1). Interesting timing. Nothing that went into it, but it just worked out that way. But interesting nonetheless.

Did it take a lot of studying on your part to do this? JB: Not a lot, but I didn’t want to poo poo it really and put off to the side either. It was a list of 100 questions and there was a ton of paperwork that I’d already done beforehand with the green card, so if you know what they’re going to ask you then you might as well study it. I looked at it for a day or two, and I actually brought it in here the day before my test and that was the day we had the rain-shortened game against the Marlins. So I had about two hours in the locker room to super-cram for it and that’s when it became a clubhouse game. I was quizzing everybody else in here.

Did Ortiz give you any pointers? JB: None that were really useful (laughing). He just said ‘Yeah, yeah, it’ll be easy’ and it actually was.

What was the worst question in the pop quiz? JB: Actually, the worst one was one when I sat down and he said he had to verify that I can read and write English. He said: Obviously i know you can, but we have to verify it. So he needed me to write the sentence ‘When is Columbus Day?’ I kind of panicked a bit and said ‘That wasn’t on the sheet. I don’t know when Columbus Day is’. It was kind of a panic moment that I got the first question wrong, how embarrassing. And he was like ‘no, no. you just need to write the sentence ‘When is Columbus Day?’. I was like ‘Oh’ and he said okay, you passed. There was a little panic there, but I made it.

Your wife is American? JB: Yeah, my wife and both my girls are (American) so it was an easy choice. My wife was born in eastern Washington.

So it would have been kind of embarrassing if you had flunked the test? JB: I mean I would think so. I did go to a private Jesuit institution and they did give me all of the questions and answers prior to the test, so if I flunked it I don’t know if I could have lived that one down.

Were you quizzing the guys in here? Who was the worst in here? JB: A lot of it was history. So guys were like ‘oh I don’t remember what the wars we fought in the 1800’s were.’ The question was like name one war that was fought in the 1800s and everyone got the War of 1812. Imagine that? Name two wars fought in the 1900’s: World War I and World War II. It was stuff like that. But for the most part the questions were legislative and amendment stuff that (Sox PR staff member and noted American) Henry Mahegan wouldn’t even know.