By TERRY NAU

Sports editor

Behind every professional baseball player there’s a real human being lurking. Baseball fans only know these people through their statistics, or perhaps in a chance meeting after the game, or in an autograph line, but these are real people toiling for the Pawtucket Red Sox, young men who are working hard to reach the top of their profession.
Jeff Bailey is one of those real people on the 2009 Pawtucket Red Sox roster. He is a bit more familiar to PawSox fans than most of the players who showed up at McCoy Stadium on Tuesday afternoon for Media Day, two days before the team opens its season in Buffalo.
Bailey is the reigning International League Most Valuable Player following a 2008 season in which he hit .301 for Pawtucket with 25 homers and 75 RBI while also playing in 27 games for Boston, where he hit .280 with 2 homers and 6 RBI in 50 at-bats. Those are the numbers that baseball fans associate with this righthanded power hitter, numbers that almost got Bailey on to Boston’s Opening Day roster over the weekend. Instead, after hitting .350 in spring training, the 30-year-old veteran of 12 minor league seasons lost out to former PawSox teammate Chris Carter when Boston trimmed its roster to 25 players.
Bailey, who has been on the cusp of making it to the big leagues for the past two seasons, took the news of his demotion to Pawtucket calmly.
“I was disappointed,” he admitted on Tuesday. “That’s all. I played well in spring training but there is still more I can do to become a better player. If I have to play in the minor leagues, there is no better place than Pawtucket.”
Bailey was drafted in the second round by the Florida Marlins back in 1997, straight out of high school in Kelso, Washington. And so began a journey through the minor leagues that has taken him all over the country.
“I grew up on the west coast,” he said, thinking back to his first trip away from home. “Except for a trip we made to DisneyWorld and to Pueblo, Colorado for a baseball tournament, I had never been away from home. I didn’t know the east coast existed. I’ll tell you what, my career has made me a lot more independent.”
Bailey smiles as he thinks back to the 18-year-old kid who starting playing in Florida’s Gulf Coast League in 1997. That kid turned into a young man during his years in the Marlins’ farm system, years that took him through the deep south and then up to Portland, Maine. Then came a switch in organizations as he landed with the old Montreal Expos’ farm system, playing for Harrisburg (Pa.) and then Edmonton in 2002-03.
Bailey signed on with Boston’s organization in 2004, splitting time between Portland and Pawtucket in his first two years. He has become a familiar face to PawSox fans, who know this is a potent righthanded hitter who can go deep, can play first base or the outfield, and even return to his former position as a catcher if an emergency develops.
“I still can’t cook,” he said with a laugh, thinking back to the way his life has evolved since leaving home. “And I’m not married. I blame my job for that.”
Like most minor league players, Bailey relates more to the working man than to big league players, especially when it comes to salary and other working issues. He is very much aware of the economic downturn that has impacted so many lives over the past few years in this country.
“A lot of people close to me have been affected, “he said. “My mother is thinking about retiring. She had been a teacher and then a librarian back home in Kelso. They made some cutbacks in the school system and her position as a librarian was one of the cuts. She has the chance to go back to teaching but I don’t think she has the patience for that anymore.”
Again, Jeff Bailey smiles at the memory of something very real in his personal life, the mother who has raised him and supported him through 13 years as a professional baseball player.
“I think all of us have an appreciation of what’s going on right now,” Bailey said, speaking of his PawSox teammates and the economic environment that exists right outside the walls of McCoy Stadium. Rhode Island’s unemployment rate has passed 10 percent, second only to Michigan in terms of people out of work.
Having a job is a good thing in this day and age and Jeff Bailey understands that he’s doing okay, even if he’s not making the big money that comes with a major league contract. The minimum salary for a big league player is right around $400,000 per year. A veteran minor leaguer like Bailey is lucky to make one-fifth of that amount .
“Sure, you think about that,” Bailey said. “Nobody likes to talk about it but it weighs on our minds. It’s there.”
Bailey will officially begin his 13th season as a professional baseball player on Thursday night in Buffalo, stepping into the batter’s box as one of the most respected hitters in the International League. He has come a long way from the teenager who broke in with the Gulf Coast Marlins back in 1997.
“I’m not sure the average fan understands what kind of life a minor league player has,” Bailey said. “I’m not sure it even interests them. But it’s like RJ (manager Ron Johnson) said to us. These are tough times and we all want to take chunks of our time and do something for our fans. We all know what’s going on right now and it’s important we give back to the fans.”