Imagine going through life wondering if one misstep, a fall to the ground, or some other accident most people would regard as minor, might cause a life-threatening injury.

Now imagine being a professional baseball player in a game where injuries are as common as foul balls and spitting – fearing that an errant fastball, a hard slide, or a reckless dive for a hard grounder might not just end your career, but also your life.

Corey Parker can’t imagine that. He can’t afford to.

The starting first baseman for the Bangor Blue Ox prefers to play the game the way he always has – with 100-percent effort and reckless abandon.

Not a remarkable attitude for a typical pro athlete to have, but Parker is anything but typical.

Parker is a rarity among professional athletes because he has hemophilia, a hereditary blood disease characterized by abnormal bleeding and the failure of blood to clot. It occurs almost exclusively in males.

“I’d never even heard of a hemophiliac playing pro sports,” said team head trainer Craig Payment. “All the classes I’d taken regarding hemophilia said get him to a doctor and that’s it. I was told you’ll never have to deal with it.”

There is presently no cure for hemophilia.

“If you play cautious, that’s when you get hurt,” Parker said. “If you worry about the consequences in anything you do, you’re not going to be successful.”

Parker’s condition came to light July 17 when a hard dive for a ground ball in the second inning of a game with Adirondack in Glens Falls, N.Y., gave him a hip contusion.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve dove and landed on that leg and had nothing happen,” he said.

The Tustin, Calif., native suffered a deeply bruised right hip, but continued to play until the sixth inning, when he realized something was seriously wrong.

“The swelling wouldn’t go down. I could feel a lot of extra weight in my leg and it was hot with all the blood in there,” said Parker, who ended up losing two pints of blood before the bleeding finally stopped.

Parker – who doesn’t take regular medication, but does carry a supply of factorate or AHF (antihemophilic factor, coagulation factor 8) which he uses in an emergency to help clot the blood – was given factorate and taken to a Glens Falls hospital.

“The factorate is a clotting factor. It’s what causes his blood to clot. He’s 10 percent: he’s missing 10 percent of the factorate most of us have,” said Payment. “We figured OK, we’ve got your medicine… No problem.”

But the internal bleeding wouldn’t stop and Parker spent the next three days in the hospital.

Shortly after being discharged on the way to a series with Elmira, Parker suffered a relapse as the bleeding began again.

“We tried to figure out what caused the relapse, but that’s part of the condition. You just don’t know what causes things to happen,” said Payment.

Parker said the relapse was scary “because both times it was uncontrollable bleeding.”

The doctors finally stopped the bleeding, but Parker wasn’t allowed to leave the hospital in Elmira for eight days – time he used to re-evaluate his life.

“I was sitting in that hospital bed, wondering if this was something I wanted to keep doing,” said Parker. “But I just love playing. I can’t imagine not doing this and not having baseball in my life.”

A 1992 15th-round draft choice of the Detroit Tigers, the 25-year-old Parker has bounced around the minors since being released from Detroit, a move he says had nothing to do with being a hemophiliac.

“I’ve never gotten through a full season without being injured,” said Parker. “I think that and the fact I wasn’t hitting the way I should were why I got released.”

He was having a banner 1996 season before the injury – hitting .293 and leading the team with 11 home runs and 37 RBIs in 41 games. The highlight of his career came June 20 as he hit five homers in five straight at-bats in a doubleheader against Rhode Island.

“That’s what makes it so frustrating is it would have been real nice to see what I could have done for a whole season,” said the son of Pete and Joan Parker.

Parker also has two older brothers. The oldest, Perry, also has hemophilia and is a pro golfer on the Nike Tour.

Since getting out of the hospital, Parker has embarked on a rigorous rehabilitation program through Payment and Health South involving stationary bikes, treadmills, and weights, ultrasound and electric stimulation.

“To see him work as hard as he has to get back into the lineup, it’s a testament to his character,” said Blue Ox general manager Dean Gyorgy. “I’m amazed at the guy.”

Parker said his time in the hospital also gave him a renewed appreciation for the Bangor organization and fans, who provided plenty of support and encouragement.

“They care about me more as a person as opposed to a ballplayer, and that means a lot to me,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve felt I really want to play hard and win for the owners. That’s such a hard feeling to get.”

The hard work has paid off. Although the swelling is still noticeable, Parker expects to be back in the starting lineup Saturday.

“I took batting practice for the first time the other day and I didn’t want to come out of the cage,” he said. “It felt great.”

Until now, Parker kept his condition hush-hush, letting only teammates and team personnel in on it.

He finally agreed to talk about it after deciding he doesn’t care if other teams know and he hopes his story will inspire children who have similar handicaps or conditions.

“If you’re someone who has a dream, I think you should go after it,” Parker said. “I really do hope this does affect some kids who maybe second-guess their ability to do something. If they love it, they should give it a shot.”