Bay's tenure in Queens has been a nightmare.

I can never again roll my eyes when Jason Bay walks into the batter’s box.  I can never again get angry when he pops up or swings through a hittable fastball or chases a slider in the dirt.  Because while I used to think Bay’s tenure with the Mets has been a nightmare for us fans, it finally hit me on Friday (when Bay hit the wall) that it’s probably more of a nightmare for Jason.

Signing somewhere as a Free Agent is a choice.  It’s like having a steady job, then accepting another offer from another company.  If things don’t go well at your new place, you start to feel regret.  Jason Bay is too much of a professional, too much of a class individual and teammate (by all accounts) to show any regret.  But deep down, is there a part of him that wishes he stayed in Boston, or signed somewhere else?

There’s no guarantee that he would have continued his 30 HR, 100 RBI ways in another city (From ’05 to ’09 he had at least those totals 3 times), but his drop off the statistical cliff was so dramatic when he came to Queens, at the age of 30, why not factor in his location?

And why not factor in bad luck?  I’m not usually the superstitious type, but look at what has happened to Bay over the last 2+ years he’s spent with the Mets.

On Opening Day, 2010, he whistled a drive off the 415 sign of the cavernous right-center field wall.  It went as a triple.  It would have been a home run in any other ballpark.  As the early season went on, long fly balls to left were gobbled up by Citi Field.  The frustration was visible in Bay’s face.  The dimensions clearly got in his head.

That year, he didn’t hit his first home run until April 27.  He didn’t hit his next until a 2-homer game on May 23.  He would hit only 3 more the rest of the year – a year that ended for him in July thanks to a concussion he suffered, slamming into the left field wall while attempting to make a catch.

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