Ex-SteelHound Baird dies at 33 of pancreatitis

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Jason Baird, the Youngstown SteelHounds hockey player who was badly burned in a lawn-mower accident in July 2008, has died of complications from pancreatitis. He was 33.

Baird was traded to the SteelHounds in November 2007 by the Corpus Christi Rayz. He played 45 games for the SteelHounds in their third Central Hockey League season, scoring 13 goals and making 23 assists.

His 36 points made him the fifth-leading scorer on the team in its final season.

In June 2008, the CHL kicked the SteelHounds out of the league over a financial dispute.

Baird, a native of Cayuga, Ontario, was working with a private landscaping company when the accident occurred at the Westchester apartment complex in Austintown. The riding lawn mower Baird was riding exploded and he suffered burns over more than 60 percent of his body.

Six days before the accident, Baird had signed with the Muskegon Fury of the International Hockey League.

Eventually, Baird returned to Texas and worked in hockey operations for the Corpus Christi IceRays, a junior team in the North American Hockey League.