Jason Bay Bobblehead Night August 8th

With the 645th overall pick in the 2000 Major League Baseball amateur draft, the Montreal Expos selected a twenty year-old Canadian outfielder from Gonzaga University. You may know him now as former Vermont Expo and current Boston Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay.

Bay's selection to the 2009 American League all-star team in St. Louis makes him only the second former Vermont Expo to be so honored in the 16-year history of the team. Bay joins Milton Bradley as the only other player to be named to an all-star team.

A true Vermont baseball fan would recall that Bay sat out the first three weeks of the 2000 Expos summer campaign. The reason? Montreal didn't have any more work visas to distribute to its players. And Bay, a 22nd-round pick, cam up on the short side of that deal. A frustrated Bay sat anxiously being forced to watch his minor league teammates don the Expo uniform.

"Major League Baseball teams are granted 'x' number of work visas for foreign players," Vermont Lake Monsters general manager, CJ Knudsen, said. "And technically he was a foreign player, being from Canada."

Simply put, Montreal just ran out of work visas, Knudsen said. All the while, Bay could not be financially compensated because he wasn't "officially" working yet without his visa.

As he sat in wait for an opportunity to roam the outfield at Centennial, Bay's mother was in consistent contact with Knudsen trying to sort the mess out inquiring as to any updates the Vermont franchise received.

"You obviously want to prove yourself and work hard and get out there on the field," Knudsen added. "When you are delayed for something that's basically out of your control it can get really frustrating."

"You could see Bay had plenty of talent watching him at practices. It was frustrating for him, the Vermont Expos and the fans not to be able to see him in real game situations," said Mike Donoghue, the longtime Vermont baseball writer for the Burlington Free Press.

Finally, after close to three weeks without a live at-bat and three weeks without a pay check, Montreal secured a work visa for the outfielder, Knudsen added. Vermont manager Tim Leiper promptly inserted Bay into the lineup.

"I think he was relieved when the visa finally went through and to step on the diamond and start playing," Knudsen said.

In an abridged 35-game New York - Penn League season for Bay, he hit .304, clocked two home runs while driving in 12, and stealing 17 bases. Those numbers catapulted Bay to Advanced-A ball with the Jupiter Hammerheads before hitting .362 on his way to a Midwest League batting title with the Clinton Lumber Kings. Bay spent a total of five seasons in the minors, jumping around via trades to the New York Mets and San Diego Padres farm systems, before being called up to the Padres for his Major League debut.

In 2003, Bay was part of a multi-player deal sending him to the Pittsburgh Pirates with Oliver Perez for Brian Giles. The following season, Bay played in 120 games for Pittsburgh hitting 26 home runs and driving in 82 en route to becoming the National League Rookie of the Year.

And just last season, Bay was part of the three-team blockbuster deal that sent Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bay, of course, wound up in the Bay State with the Boston Red Sox.

The recent story of Bay becoming a citizen of the United States in a way brings his initial struggles to begin playing in the U.S. full circle. Bay said in an interview with MLB.com last week that he was not denouncing his Canadian heritage but is proud finally to be called an American.

"Although it is a big deal, it doesn't mean I cease being Canadian. I'll always be a Canadian," Bay told Ian Browne, a MLB.com reporter. "This is a very big deal, and I'm pretty excited."

In order to become an American, Bay had to take a citizenship exam featuring mind-bending questions that many Americans couldn't answer in the first place. Take the example Bay told television reporter Heidi Watney of NESN last week: who becomes the President of the United States if both the President and vice-president should die? Bay aced the test going ten for ten. Oh, the answer is the Speaker of the House.

Flashback nine years ago, Bay went through fits trying to get a work visa to play in the minor leagues for the Vermont Expos. Back to the present day, Bay can call himself an American citizen. Perhaps what is more, at least for his fans in Red Sox Nation, he is an all-star left fielder who is leading the American League in RBI.