He listens to opera before games. He reads wine magazines. And he’s Canadian. In short, Jason Bay is not to be trusted. Like Roy Hobbs in "The Natural," the Boston Red Sox outfielder came to baseball as the quintessential “nobody from nowhere”—way too talented to have gone unnoticed for so long. But three of the game’s smartest general managers refused to believe that Jason was as good as he looked. Now each must find a clever way to hide that blunder on his résumé. So what exactly do all those solid seasons in Pittsburgh prove? Ironically, even Red Sox Nation may not know what they have in Jason. This is his story…

GROWING UP

LeBron James was born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio. His mother, Gloria James, was only 16 at the time. His biological father, Anthony McClelland, was an ex-con uninterested in being a parent. Gloria raised LeBron on her own, and to this day he goes by her last name.

Jason Raymond Bay was born on September 20, 1978, in the Canadian town of Trail. (Click here for today's sports birthdays.) Jason's parents, Dave and Kelly, both worked. His dad was employed by Teck Cominco, a zinc smelter that also mined for gold. His mom was a federal employee.

The Bays had good sports genes. A family member on Kelly’s side had competed in pole vault and decathlon in the 1964 and 1972 Olympics. Another on Dave’s side had been a pro baseball player in the 1950s. And Jason’s little sister, Lauren, was almost as good a ballplayer as he was.

Jason played every sport he could as a kid, including soccer, basketball, volleyball and skiing. He also showed early promise in curling. His favorites, however, were hockey and baseball.

Trail, home to roughly 9,000 in British Columbia, lies just across the U.S. border from Spokane. The twon is best known for its talent on the ice. Adam Deadmarsh and Ray Ferraro grew up there, as did Barret Jackman, the NHL’s top rookie in 2003.

Despite hockey's mass Canadian appeal, Jason’s father was a big baseball fan, and he made sure his son got into the sport as soon as he was old enough to join a T-ball team. Despite living out West, Dave's favorite team was the Red Sox. As an infant, Jason wore a Boston onesie (which he claims the family still has). On Jason’s wall were posters of Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski. Getting to Fenway was not realistic, but the Kingdome in Seattle was. Dave took Jason and his sister to Mariners games, where they rooted for Mark Langston, Alvin Davis, Edgar Martinez and Randy Johnson.

Jason decided to give up hockey when he started playing for Little League. His coach, Andy Bileski, had been teaching kids baseball in Trail since the 1950s, and over the years the little town had produced four national champions. Still, baseball was mostly something most kids did until the ponds froze up.

In 1990, the Trail Little League team won its fifth national tournament and earned the right to represent Canada in the Little League World Series in Pennsylvania. They split their two games in the tournament, upsetting Mexico before getting creamed 20-1 by Taiwan. Jason went 2-for-5 with two walks, three runs and one RBI. Jason got a hero’s welcome when he returned from Williamsport, and from that moment on all he thought about was becoming a professional baseball player.

It would not be an easy journey. Jason enrolled in J. Lloyd Crowe secondary school in Trail in 1992. The school did not have a baseball team, so in order to continue playing he had to join an American Legion team across the border in Idaho. Trudging to out-of-the-way tournaments in a region not known for its baseball, Jason just let his natural ability flow and steadily became the best player around.

Not that anyone noticed. Jason went undrafted after his senior year, and did not receive any major college scholarships. He was selected for the Canadian Junior Olympic team, but that did little to raise his stock. In 1997, he was a member of North Idaho Community College—the only place to offer him anything like a scholarship. This, however, was not one of those powerhouse JC baseball factories. In fact, the baseball program at NICC is now defunct. Jason came to the attention of the school on a tip from bird dog Lou DeRosa, who worked for the Atlanta Braves. He had a feeling about Jason and just wanted to make sure he stayed in the game.

Jason made First-Team All-Scenic West Athletic Conference as a freshman and sophomore, setting school records with 21 homers and a .447 average in his second year. His play in Idaho put him on the radar and drew a recruiter from Gonzaga University. Jason was offered a partial scholarship. He scraped up the extra cash he needed and headed for Washington. Thoughts of following in the footsteps of hero and fellow Canadian, Larry Walker, danced in his head.

ON THE RISE

Jason joined the Zags baseball team in 1999, and proceeded to tear up the West Coast Conference with 20 homers, 74 RBIs and a .360 average in 52 games. He ranked in the NCAA Top 20 in RBIs per game and was 26th in home runs per game. A First-Team All-WCC selection, he was invited to play in the Cape Cod Summer league, where he continued to rake enemy pitching.

As a college senior, Jason was unstoppable. In a league that included future high draft picks Dan Haren, Tagg Bozied, Dane Sardinha, Billy Traber and Noah Lowry, Jason hit .388 to win the batting title and earn All-WCC honors again.

Without the typical baseball pedigree, though, Jason was too hard to project as a pro, and the draft went 22 rounds before his name was called. The consolation was that he was selected by a Canadian team, the Montreal Expos, where Walker also got his start. He joined Vermont of the New York-Penn League in mid-July and put up solid numbers, batting .304 with 17 steals in 35 games. He logged time left and right, and also was used as a designated hitter.

Jason was truly a natural. In Legion ball and junior college, the coaching was not very advanced, so he just figured things out as he went. At Gonzaga, he hit from the first practice, so the coaches never tinkered with his swing. In the minors, he began facing stiffer competition. Luckily, he also had instructors to walk him through the adjustments that were necessary to keep advancing. Jason took instruction well. As long as the advice worked, he kept listening.

In 2001, Jason was assigned to the Expos’ High Class-A team in Jupiter. He began the year slowly, and in May he was moved to Clinton of the Midwest League. Jason caught fire and 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 RBIs on the year.

The Expos planned to move Jason to Double-A in 2002. Toward the end of spring training, however, he was traded to the New York Mets for veteran shortstop Lou Collier. Montreal GM Omar Minaya felt that Jason was approaching his ceiling, and decided to sell high.

Jason began the season with Class-A St. Lucie under manager Ken Oberkfell. He homered in his first game. Forming the heart of the order with Craig Brazell and Mike Jacobs, Jason chipped in 22 stolen bases to a lineup that featured four guys with 30-plus steals, including teenager Jose Reyes. After just 69 games, Jason was promoted to Class-AA Binghamton, where he batted .290 in 35 games.

At the end of July, he was included in a deadline deal between the Mets and San Diego Padres. Big leaguers Bobby Jones and Steve Reed changed uniforms, and New York also picked up pitching prospect Jason Middlebrook. Jason joined Mobile of the Southern Association, where he hit .309 with four homers in 23 games. All told, his 2002 line included a .283 average, 39 steals, 17 home runs and 85 RBIs. After the season, San Diego placed him on their 40-man roster and invited him to the major league camp for spring training in 2003.

The Padres were impressed with Jason’s no-nonsense approach to baseball and his all-around tools. It looked like he could play any of the three outfield positions, and hit anywhere in the lineup. They started him at Class-AAA Portland, where his friends and family could watch him play.

They got an eyeful that first month. Jason led the Pacific Coast League with nine homers and 31 RBIs, and his average was well above .300. He was thriving at this new level, where pitchers had better control. Time and again, he was able to work the count in his favor and get a pitch he could drive. Jason’s manager, fellow Gonzaga alum Rick Sweet, was particularly impressed with his ability to hit to the opposite field with power.

The Padres called Jason up on May 23 and he started his first game against Arizona. A couple of hours later he was rounding the bases after belting a homer off D-Backs closer Matt Mantei. Two days later, Elmer Dessens came inside on Jason and fractured his wrist, sending him to the DL. The injury healed in July and Jason went back to mashing Triple-A pitching with Portland.

On August 26, the Padres decided to take advantage of a fire sale being held by the Pirates, and traded Jason and lefty Oliver Perez to Pittsburgh for All-Star Brian Giles. Jason was inserted in the lineup the next day and hit safely in his first four games for the Bucs

In a mid-September contest, he homered twice and collected eight RBIs—the most by a Pirate since Ralph Kiner turned the trick 53 years earlier. His victim was Carlos Zambrano, one of the NL's toughest young pitchers. Jason reached base in his final 14 games, despite an aching right shoulder, which was later diagnosed as a torn labrum. It was repaired surgically after the season.

MAKING HIS MARK

Jason’s shoulder was not fully healed when the 2004 season started, so he missed the campaign's first month. He was back in the lineup in early May, and after taking an oh-fer his first night, he went on a 10-game hitting streak.

June saw Jason hit seven homers and knock in 17 runs to earn Rookie of the Month honors. He won the award again in July with a .338 average, and also had his second career eight-RBI game. In a mid-September game against the Houston Astros, Jason belted his 23rd home run of the year to tie the team record for rookies, set by Johnny Rizzo in 1939 and equalled by Kiner in 1946.

Jason ended the season with 26 homers, 82 RBIs, a .282 average and a .550 slugging mark. He led all rookies in homers and RBIs, and was tops among NL newcomers in slugging, total bases and extra-base hits. He was an easy pick for Rookie of the Year, garnering 21 of the 28 first-place votes (and seven second-place votes) to finish far ahead of Khalil Greene.

Jason's '04 accomplishement were all the more impressive given the fact that Pirates offered him littel support. Craig Wilson and Jack Wilson had career years, but they were hardly stud players. Perez pitched beautifully, but the other young Bucs failed to live up to their promise. The team was rebuilding, and managed to win just 72 games.

Jason was now the centerpiece of the Pirate offense. Needless to say, this was not one of the more coveted jobs in baseball. In fact, he received even less help in 2005, yet still managed to boost his stats and improve his level of play.

Jason hit consistently all year, with a power surge in May and a little slump in July. He was named to the All-Star Game, and represented Canada in the International Home Run Derby. He took an embarrassing oh-fer in the competition, but loved every minute of the All-Star experience.

Jason’s power stroke returned by the end of July. In a mid-September game against the Cincinnati Reds, he went deep off Aaron Harang to become the 13th player in Pittsburgh history to reach the 30-home run plateau.

At season’s end, Jason’s stats were truly eye-opening. Naked in the Pittsburgh lineup, he still batted .308 with 44 doubles, 32 homers, 110 runs and 101 RBIs—this despite the fact that no other Pirate scored or drove in more than 63 runs. Jason did everything—literally. He was the only player in the majors to eclipse 40 doubles, 30 homers, 20 steals, and 100 runs and RBIs while hitting .300. He was also the first player in team history to accomplish this feat.

The Pirates rewarded him by tearing up his contract and inking him to a four-year $18 million deal.

The Bucs' plan was to make Jason the centerpiece of a rebuilding program which, ultimately, would rely on a group of young pitchers that included Zach Duke, Tom Gorzelanny, Ian Snell, Paul Malholm, Oliver Perez, Matt Capps and Mike Gonzalez. The staff went through the expected ups and downs in 2006, with Snell and Gonzalez having breakthrough years. Meanwhile, utilityman Freddy Sanchez surprised everyone and won the batting title.

The extra tablesetting provided by Sanchez helped Jason reach triple-figures in runs, RBIs and walks. He hammered 35 homers and batted .286 with 11 stolen bases. Still, a poor start paralyzed Pittsburgh under first-year manager Jim Tracy. However, the team rebounded and played winning baseball after the All-Star Break—this despite dealing Perez and recently acquired Sean Casey. Nevertheless, in the topsy-turvy NL Central some had the Bucs making a run at the division title in 2007.

That hype helped increase the expectation faced by Jason. He met those early on, as he powered the club to a winning record in April. Gorzelanny was throwing strikes and winning games, Snell had a second solid season, and Capps stepped into the closer's role created by the off-season trade of Gonzalez. Overall, however, Pittsburgh’s hitting was inconsistently. Xavier Nady, Adam LaRoche, Jack Wilson and Sanchez all finished with decent numbers, but the batting order never hit on all cylinders. A losing stretch at mid-season and again at the end of the year doomed the Pirates to back-to-back-to-back 90-loss seasons for the first time since the early 1950s.

A big part of the problem was Jason’s inability to maintain his high level of hitting. He slumped through the middle of the season, and his numbers crashed. For the year, he hit a lowly .247 with 21 homers and 84 RBIs. The fans had come to expect much more from Jason. He was unable to give them what they wanted.

The 2008 Pirates seemed to be going nowhere fast again. But unheralded centerfielder Nat McLouth practically carried the team through the first three months with his bat. Unfortunately, the young arms were not maturing at the rate the organization had hoped. With some hefty contracts coming due, the Pirates resigned themselves to becoming sellers as the trade deadline neared.

First, Pittsburgh packaged Nady and Damaso Marte to the New York Yankees for a collection of minor leaguers. Then the Bucs swung a blockbuster three-way deal with the Red Sox and Dodgers. The key piece was Manny Ramirez, who had worn out his welcome in Boston and was now relocated to Los Angeles. Pittsburgh got prospects from both organizations.

Jason also changed his address, as the Red Sox acquired him to play left field. He was back on course for a 30-homer, 100-RBI campaign, and Boston felt he would fit nicely in the lineup and the clubhouse. He would assume a key roles as the team girded itself for a stretch-run battle with the Yankees and surprising Tampa Bay Rays.

Jason endeared himself to the fans at Fenway by stinging the ball in his first week with the team. He tripled and scored the winning run in the 12th inning of a win over the Oakland A's and then blasted his first homer a day later. Against the Kansas City Royals, he went 4-for-5 and collected a pair of RBIs.

Jason would have liked to lead Pittsburgh back to respectability. But as a man who has been dealt many times before, he understands that there are realities in baseball one cannot always control. In this case, fortune seems to have smiled on him. Like every top-tier athlete, Jason needed to know how he'd perform with a championship on the line. He will get that chance—with the Green Monster at his back and Red Sox Nation breathing down his neck.

JASON THE PLAYER

With his shoulder surgery several years behind him, Jason’s swing is better than ever. He is a hitter who is not afraid to work counts, and he will be encouraged to do so by Boston. Though Jason still strikes out too much, he is mature enough to take what Fenway Park gives him.

Jason is fast on the bases, but he is not an intuitive runner, especially when it comes to stealing. Still, he could swipe 20-plus bags on quickness alone.

Jason also has the wheels to play all three outfield positions, but he's best suited for left because of an average throwing arm. Once he learns to play the Green Monster, he should be an asset defensively.

The real litmus test for Jason will be how close he comes to reproducing the numbers (and fear) that Ramirez brought to the Boston lineup. Having never batted in an order with the firepower of the Red Sox, Jason is no doubt eager to answer this question himself.

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