Player Profile: Jonah Bayliss

I have three cards of Jonah Bayliss. This one is from 2006 Upper Deck First Pitch.

Playing career: Jonah Bayliss pitched for the Royals and Pirates from 2005 to 2007. In 61 games, all in relief, he went 5-4 with a 6.75 ERA.

Where he is now: He owns the A1 Pitching Academy in Adams, MA. He also writes a baseball instruction blog, JB’s Bayzball.

Interesting stories: On one of his minor league teams, the mascot would drive around the warning track on an ATV every game. To break up the monotony of what he would call “Groundhog’s Day”,  he would harass the mascot by doing things like put a beach chair on the warning track and pretend to fall asleep.

Bayliss is a big fan of Yoda as a pitching instructor, using him as an example on both his blog – A Jedi Throwing Program - and on Facebook: "when the more rotational, you become, with potential energy, the more linear our kinetic energy must be." 

My memories: Only know him from his card.

Google Autocomplete results: He is ninth when you type Jonah Ba, between Jonah Bayer Twitter, referring to a music journalist, and Jonah Bad Luck, referring to how the prophet Jonah was a symbol of bad luck to sailors. There do not appear to be any other prominent Jonah Baylisses.

Coming up next: The next profile will be Don Baylor.