The irony is that Jason Bay believes there is a positive born out of the worst year of his baseball life.
“A concussion isn’t a death sentence,” Bay told Metro in a sitdown interview Thursday afternoon at Citi Field. “I know way more than I want to know about them. I know more than I want to.”
Bay suffered the second concussion of his Mets’ tenure when his head slammed against the edge of the left-field wall and warning track while tracking a Jay Bruce fly ball in the second inning of a loss to the Reds on June 15.
Bay threw the ball back in as Bruce sprinted around the bases for an inside-the-park home run before having to be helped off the field.
“I remember the play,” Bay said. “I remember I dove at the wall, threw the ball in. I remember walking off the field and talking to the doctors. But the 15 minutes that that all took, it seems like it was 45 seconds. I remember it all, but I don’t remember its entirety — if that makes any sense.
“I was walking off the field and it felt like three steps and I was off the field. I remember the play; I didn’t lose consciousness,” Bay said.
Two DL stints have abbreviated Bay’s season to just 50 games through Saturday. By his admission, he’s spent a great deal of time “fighting, trying to get comfortable at the plate.”
Bay had a .152 batting average heading into yesterday. Because of his season-long slump, the once everyday left-fielder is relegated to a utility player.
“When you play every day [you know when the game’s going to start], you go out there and play at that time. It’s very hard adjusting to a role when you don’t know when you might get [called] on. It might be the fifth [inning], the seventh [or] the ninth,” Bay said. “You have to be ready for all those scenarios.”
