Mike Bacsik (left-handed pitcher)

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This article is about the current MLB pitcher. For his father, also an MLB pitcher, see Mike Bacsik (right-handed pitcher)

**Mike Bacsik**

Washington Nationals — No. 37
Starting pitcher
Born: November 11, 1977 (1977-11-11) (age 30)
Bats: Left	Throws: Left
Major League Baseball debut
August 5, 2001 for the Cleveland Indians
Selected MLB statistics (through 2007)
Win-Loss	10-13
Earned run average	5.46
Strikeouts	97
Teams
Cleveland Indians (2001) New York Mets (2002-2003) Texas Rangers (2004) Washington Nationals (2007)

Michael Joseph Bacsik (pronounced /bæsɪk/ (born November 11, 1977 in Dallas, Texas) is a Major League Baseball baseball starting pitcher who currently plays in the Washington Nationals organization. Bacsik is the son of Michael James Bacsik, who was a pitcher in the majors from 1975-1980. A former intern at KTCK Sports Radio 1310 the Ticket on the Bob and Dan radio program, he is particularly notable for giving up Barry Bonds' 756th career home run, which broke the all-time record formerly held by Hank Aaron.

1 Early years
2 Personal
3 2007
4 2008 Baseball Season
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early years

Bacsik was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 18th round (543th overall) in the 1996 Major League Baseball draft. He was in his 6th minor league season with the Indians orginzation before making his debut on August 5, 2001. He had a 9.00 ERA in 3 relief appearances (9 innings) in 2001.

On December 11, 2001, as part of a big trade, he was traded along with Roberto Alomar and Danny Peoples to the New York Mets for Matt Lawton, Alex Escobar, Jerrod Riggan, Earl Snyder, and Billy Traber. On July 5, 2002, he got his first big league win when he made his debut with the Mets. He would later go on to have a 3-2 record with a 4.37 ERA in the 2003 season. He spent just two seasons with the Mets before becoming a free agent on October 15, 2003.

Two months later, on December 23, 2003, he would sign a contract with the Texas Rangers. He spent most of the 2004 season for the Oklahoma Redhawks, the Rangers Triple-A affliate. He made just 3 starts in 2004 for the big league club, going 1-1 with a 4.60 ERA. He became a free agent after the 2004 season and signed a contract on November 18, 2004, with the Philadelphia Phillies. However he spent the whole 2005 season with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, the Phillies Triple-A team. He opted for minor league free agency after the 2005 season. While in Dallas, he interned for the popular KTCK mid-day show the Bob and Dan radio program, and gave them many interviews both before and after 756, at one point claiming he would "give up the home run to Bonds" to be immortalized in baseball history.

He signed a contract with the Washington Nationals on February 9, 2006, with an invitation to spring training. He made just one start in spring training and gave up 6 runs in 0.2 innings before getting cut in April. Afterwards, he signed a minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had an impressive minor league season with the Diamondbacks Triple-A team, the Tucson Sidewinders, in which he went a perfect 11-0 with a 2.79 ERA in 28 games (10 starts). He became a free agent after the 2006 season and later signed a minor league contract with the Washington Nationals again on November 6, 2006.

[edit] Personal

Mike Bacsik married Sue Myers in January of 2000. He has a daughter, Mary Grace, an a son Jacob Ryan. Jacob was born in late April due to complications during pregnancy.^[1]

[edit] 2007

Bacsik didn't make the major league team when the Nationals broke camp, and started with the Columbus Clippers, the Nationals Triple-A team. After the Nationals found themselves with four of their five starting pitchers on the disabled list, Bacsik and other pitchers were brought up from their farm system. Despite a record of 1-3 and a 4.00 ERA with Columbus (and an ERA of 5.26 as a starter), Bacsik made his debut with the Nationals on May 19, throwing six shutout innings in a game the Nats evenutally lost. In his following start, he pitched 7-2/3 innings, his longest outing of the year including the minors, allowing three runs, and earning his first win in the majors since August 4, 2004.[1]

On August 7, 2007, Bacsik sealed his name to baseball history as he gave up career home run number 756 to Barry Bonds, who broke a 33-year-old record previously held by Hank Aaron. During the post-home run celebration, Bacsik tipped his cap to Bonds in a gesture of respect. Bacsik visited the Giants clubhouse to personally congratulate Bonds on his achievement and Bonds gave Bacsik an autographed bat that read: "To Mike, God Bless. Barry Bonds."^[2]

Coincidentally, Bacsik's father had faced Aaron (as a pitcher for the Texas Rangers) after Aaron had hit his 755th home run. On August 23, 1976, Michael James Bacsik held Aaron to a single and a fly out to right field. The younger Bacsik commented later, "If my dad had been gracious enough to let Hank Aaron hit a home run, we both would have given up 756." ^[3]

In 2007, he didn't miss a start in the rotation after his last callup until he was sent to the bullpen, and went 5-8 with a 5.11 ERA in 20 starts and 9 relief appearances.

During the 2007 postseason, Bacsik worked as an analyst for ESPN.

[edit] 2008 Baseball Season

On October 26, 2007, the Washington Nationals signed Bacsik to a non-guaranteed Minor League contract with an invitation to spring training.^[4]. After spring training, on March 5, 2008, the Nationals reassigned Bacsik to Minor League camp^[5] and he was assigned to Triple-A Columbus.