MARK BAILEY
Baseball and Basketball, 1979-82
Inducted February 25, 1995
Mark Bailey performed as a two-sport athlete for Missouri State University from 1979 to 1982, winning three varsity letters each in basketball and baseball. A slugging switch-hitter, he was the Bears’ regular shortstop in 1980, performed as a designated hitter as a sophomore, and was the MSU second baseman in 1982. The Bears of Coach Bill Rowe won MIAA Southern Division titles in 1980 and 1981, and finished second in the league championship series each of the final two MSU seasons in the MIAA. Missouri State University advanced to NCAA Division II regional tournament in 1980 and 1982, and won the 1982 regional in Edwardsville, Ill., to qualify for the Division II World Series in the final MSU year in Division II. Bailey was a two-time all-MIAA performer and was named to the all-regional tournament team in 1980 and 1982. He gained Division II all-America second team honors in 1980 and third team all-America selection in 1982. Bailey hit .395 to gain MSU and MIAA Rookie of the Year honors in 1980, and then batted .373 as a sophomore and .340 as a junior. He led the Bears in runs batted in all three seasons and in home runs twice. Bailey finished with a three year batting mark of .369, with 22 home runs and 146 runs batted in, in 133 MSU games. He was among the MSU top five in career runs, hits, doubles, home runs, runs batted in, batting average, total bases, extra-base hits, slugging average and game-winning RBIs. In basketball, Bailey played one year for the Bears coach, Bill Thomas and two seasons for Bob Cleeland. Bailey started more than half of the 73 games in which he played over three seasons and had 503 points, 315 rebounds and 189 assists for his career. His most productive season was as a sophomore when he started 22 of 30 games, averaged 9.6 points, and led the Bears with 5.5 rebounds a game. After his junior year, Bailey was drafted and signed as a catcher by the Houston Astros organization, and he reached the major league level with the Astros in 1984 to become the first former MSU baseballer ever to play in the major leagues. Bailey had a professional career of more than 10 seasons in the organizations of the Astros, Montreal Expos, New York Mets and San Francisco Giants.
