Mike Bacsik (left-handed pitcher)

Michael "Mike" Joseph Bacsik (/ˈbæsɪk/; born November 11, 1977) is a former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher and current radio host. Bacsik is particularly notable for giving up Barry Bonds' 756th career home run on August 7, 2007, which broke the all-time record formerly held by Hank Aaron. Bacsik is the son of Michael James Bacsik, who pitched in the majors from 1975–1980.

Baseball career

Early years

Bacsik was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 18th round (543rd overall) in the 1996 Major League Baseball draft. He was in his sixth minor league season with the Indians organization before making his debut on August 5, 2001. He was supposed to be serving mop-up duty, as the Seattle Mariners had opened up a huge lead on the Indians. He was knocked around at first and settled in. The Indians rallied from 12 runs down to win the game in extra innings. Bacsik had a 9.00 ERA in three relief appearances (9 innings) in 2001.

On December 11, 2001, as part of a big trade, Bacsik 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, Bacsik would sign a contract with the Texas Rangers (incidentally, the team where his father was a member when he was born). He spent most of the 2004 season with the Oklahoma Redhawks, the Rangers' Triple-A affiliate. He made just three 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.

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 six 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).

2007

Bacsik became a free agent after the 2006 season and later signed another minor league contract with the Washington Nationals on November 6, 2006. He did not 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 eventually lost. In his following start, he pitched 7.2 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] He did not 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 nine relief appearances.

On August 7, 2007, Bacsik sealed his name in baseball history as he gave up career home run number 756 to Barry Bonds, who broke the 33-year-old record for total career home runs previously held by Hank Aaron. During the post-home run celebration, Bacsik tipped his cap to Bonds in a gesture of respect. He 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]

Later years

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. He became a free agent at the end of the season.

In 2011, Bacsik pitched for the Fort Worth Cats, an independent club, in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball.

Media career

Following his playing career, Bacsik has had a long-running media career in sports. A former intern at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) radio station KTCK ("Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket") for the BaD Radio Show prior to beginning his MLB career, Bacsik later served as the show producer on "The Ticket" for midday host Norm Hitzges and performed other fill-in on-air host duties. He gave the BaD Radio Show many interviews both before and after giving up Bonds' record breaking home run, at one point claiming he would "give up the home run to Bonds" to be immortalized in baseball history. Bacsik was fired by KTCK in late April 2010 for offensive comments he made on Twitter.

During the 2007 MLB postseason, Bacsik worked as an analyst for ESPN. Bacsik currently serves as a color analyst for select college baseball games on Fox Sports Southwest and Fox College Sports. During the 2012 college baseball season, he served as the baseball analyst for broadcasts of TCU baseball on The Mountain, the official Mountain West Conference cable TV channel. He also carried that role into the 2013 season, serving as a color analyst for TCU games on Fox Sports Southwest and Fox College Sports.

He currently serves as co-host on the G-Bag Nation show on DFW radio station KRLD (105.3 The Fan).

Twitter controversy

Bacsik made offensive comments on his Twitter account following the loss of the Dallas Mavericks to the San Antonio Spurs in game 4 of the first round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. The comments, most notably "Congratulations to all the dirty Mexicans in San Antonio," quickly circulated on social networks online before Bacsik deleted the comments.^[6][7] The following Monday, on April 26, 2010, Bacsik was suspended indefinitely from his KTCK duties by owner Cumulus Media for "comments [that] were unacceptable and offensive, and are inconsistent with the core values of KTCK and Cumulus."^[6] The next day, Bacsik was fired by The Ticket.^[8]

Personal

Bacsik married Sue Myers in February 2000. He has a daughter, Mary Grace, and a son, Jacob Ryan. Bacsik later announced on KTCK that he and his wife were expecting their third child.

Bacsik is also well-known around Dallas as a spin class instructor with occasionally unorthodox teaching methods.^[9][10]

See also

• List of second-generation Major League Baseball players

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Baseball Almanac
• SportsNet