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Mike Bacsik is best known for having surrendered Barry Bonds’s 756th home run. The August 7, 2007 bomb at San Francisco’s AT&T Park gave Bonds the most in MLB history, one more than Henry Aaron. Unlike the legendary bashers, Bacsik is but a mere mortal. A left-handed pitcher for four teams over parts of five seasons, the now-Texas Rangers broadcast analyst appeared in 51 big-league games and logged a record of 10-13 with a 5.46 ERA in 216 innings.
Despite his relative anonymity, the gopher wasn’t the only noteworthy happening in Bacsik’s career. Moreover, those didn’t all take place with him on the mound.
“In my first 14 at-bats, I didn’t get a hit, didn’t strike out, and didn’t walk,” explained Bacsik, who finished 5-for-50 at the dish. “Apparently that’s a record for not having one of those outcomes to begin a career. I didn’t know this until last year when we were in Detroit and they brought it up on the broadcast.”
In Bacsik’s next three plate appearances, he doubled, singled, and struck out — all in the same game. Two years later, in his 44th time standing in a batter’s box, he drew his only career walk.
The first home run that Bacsik allowed — there were 41 in all — was to Kevin Millar. It isn’t his most-memorable outside of the Bonds blast.
“Second would probably be the last pitch I ever threw in the major leagues,” the southpaw said of his September 30, 2007 outing at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park. “The Phillies were beating us — I was with the Nationals — and I came out of the bullpen and got [Chase] Utley to fly out. Then Ryan Howard hit a home run. That place was electric. The Phillies were making a miraculous comeback in the month of September, and the Mets [who’d led the division by seven games 18 days earlier] were losing, so the fans were already fired up. When Howard hit the home run, that place was shaking. I think it was even louder than it had been in San Francisco when Bonds hit his.”
A home run his father didn’t give up is part of the Bacsik/Bonds story. Mike Bacsik Sr. pitched five seasons of his own, and on August 23, 1976 he was on the mound for the Rangers when Aaron flew out and singled. A month earlier, “The Hammer” had hit no. 755.
The younger Bacsik’s big-league debut came in what turned out to be a comeback story for the ages. That he pitched six innings and allowed seven runs isn’t all that remarkable. The game itself was.
“It was Sunday Night Baseball,” recalled Bacsik, who broke in with the Cleveland Indians in 2001. “We were playing the Mariners, who were chasing the best record of all time. I came in with the bases loaded and nobody out, and Mike Cameron hit a double off the wall on a 3-2 pitch. It was 12-0 at the end of that inning, and then 14-2 after five. I pitched the third through the eighth, and by the time I came out it was 14-11. We ended up tying it in the ninth and winning it in extra innings.”
Cleveland’s August 5, 2001 conquest of the Mariners — a team that finished the year with 116 wins — equalled the MLB record for largest deficit overcome. On June 18, 1911, the Detroit Tigers had rallied from 13-1 down to beat the Chicago White Sox 16-15, and on June 15, 1925, the Philadelphia Athletics had trailed the Indians 15-3 before going on to score 13 runs in the eighth to win 17-15.
“I had a short career,” Bacsik said of his MLB tenure. “A short career in which some weird things happened.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Leo Cardenas went 19 for 43 against Johnny Podres.
Leo Gomez went 9 for 23 against Kevin Appier.
Leo Posada went 8 for 16 against Frank Lary.
Leo Durocher went 7 for 19 against Lefty Grove.
Dave Pope went 6 for 10 against Early Wynn.
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Twins radio play-by-play broadcaster Kris Atteberry had a good question for Rocco Baldelli when Minnesota played in Boston last weekend. Paul Molitor had opined in the booth that stealing third base with two out is a smart play at Fenway Park: does he agree?
“That’s exactly relevant, yes,” Baldelli responded. “There are a ton of balls that are put into play to left field here that either you can’t send the guy, or you’re going to get thrown out by 10 feet at the plate if you want to push it. The left fielders are just shallower here than anywhere else, so… you’re going to lose a couple of steps if you’re a runner at second base trying to score. So yeah, if you can take it, I would lean toward taking it.”
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I had a base-running question of my own for Minnesota’s manager. The Red Sox, a team historically built on power as opposed to speed, have been running wild this season. At the conclusion of their weekend series versus the Twins, they’d swiped 43 bases in 50 attempts in just 36 games. Moreover, they’re not the only club taking advantage of rule changes that have helped catapult thievery to levels unseen since the artificial turf 1980s. Is this good for the game?
“Premise-wise, I agree that the rule changes have made it significantly easier to steal bases,” replied Baldelli. “I think that when you have a team with very good athleticism, a team that is stacked with speed and base-stealing ability, you can do a lot of productive things. But I don’t get caught up in ‘Is it good for the game?’ I have too much to worry about than to get passionate about what is good for the game rules-wise.
“It became reasonably hard to steal bases for a lot of guys, for a lot of years,” added Baldelli. “Then the rule changes happened and there is a lot more action. I think the more action in the game, the more enjoyable it can become. So, I’m not complaining about the rule change, all the base stealing, or anything like that. But for guys that are well-above-average base stealers, it almost feels like it’s a given that they’re going to take a bag. You have to be very diligent — beyond diligent — to actually stop the elite base-stealers right now.”
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I broached the same subject with Bruce Bochy when the Rangers visited Fenway Park a few days later.
“I think it’s good for the game,” the Rangers manager replied. “The fans are enjoying it. There’s more action. I think there are ways to mitigate the running game. That’s up to us, and to all the pitchers in baseball. Be quicker to home plate, vary the looks, because teams are running more. It’s an exciting part of the game. I love base running. I love good base running. It’s been a lost art. We got away from it with the slug factor — you don’t want to make an out on the bases, end rallies, whatever. But if you’re going to watch a game… I want action.”
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A quiz:
Ted Simmons is one of two catchers to have started the All-Star game for both the American League and the National League. Who is the other? (A hint: Originally with the St. Louis Cardinals — a team he didn’t make an All-Star team with — he was part of an 11-player trade that included Rollie Fingers and Gene Tenace.)
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
The Texas Rangers have an agreement to sign Korean high school right-hander/shortstop Seong-Jun Kim for $1.2M, pending a physical (per Baseball America).
Ji Man Choi is returning to South Korea to begin 21 months of mandatory military service. The 33-year-old former MLB first baseman is reportedly planning to play in the KBO once he’s completed his obligation.
Chet Lemon, a three-time All-Star who amassed 52.0 WAR playing for the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers from 1975-1990, died Thursday at age 70. An outstanding defensive centerfielder who logged 1,875 hits and a 122 wRC+, Lemon was a standout on the World Series champion 1984 Detroit Tigers.
Frank Johnson, an infielder/outfielder who played for the San Francisco Giants from 1966-1971, died earlier this week at age 82. The El Paso native recorded 92 career hits, including home runs off of Dave Giusti, Ray Lamb, Sandy Vance, and Ray Washburn.
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The answer to the quiz is Terry Kennedy. The left-handed-hitting backstop was an All-Star-game starter for the San Diego Padres in 1985, and for the Baltimore Orioles in 1987.
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Jumping back to Bochy and the Rangers, the club’s decision to part ways with offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker earlier this week wasn’t surprising. No team in the junior circuit had scored fewer runs at the time of his dismissal, and last season’s run total was markedly lower than it had been in 2023. A change seemed in order.
Ecker’s replacement on the coaching staff did come as a surprise. Bret Boone was hired to the position of hitting coach, where he joined a staff that includes hitting coach Justin Viele and assistant hitting coach Seth Conner. It isn’t just his lack of coaching experience that makes the 56-year-old erstwhile infielder an atypical hire; he is also not well-versed in hitting analytics and biomechanics. I asked Bochy about that.
“I don’t want him being concerned with being up on the all the analytics,” Bochy replied. “We have that covered with Justin Viele. He’s as good as anybody as far as providing that information. We don’t need somebody like that right now… He’s going to give them another voice, another way of hearing something… The analytics are great, but we wanted somebody who can help [hitters] through his own experiences.”
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Kazuma Okamoto will reportedly be out of action for an extended period after suffering an elbow injury in an on-field collision earlier this week. The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants corner infielder — one of NPB’s top players — was slashing .308/.381/.598 with eight home runs and a 220 wRC+ over 134 plate appearances.
Livan Moinelo is 3-0 with a 1.60 ERA over 39-and-a-third innings for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. The 29-year-old, closer-turned-starter southpaw is 33-14 with a 1.90 ERA since signing with the NPB club out of Cuba in 2017.
Shoki Murakami is 6-1 with a 1.78 ERA over 50-and-two-thirds innings for NPB’s Hanshin Tigers. The 26-year-old right-hander has issued five walks and fanned 39 batters.
Cody Ponce is 7-0 with a 1.68 ERA over 59 innings for the Hanwha Eagles. The 31-year-old former Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander is in his second KBO season after pitching for NPB’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2022 and 2023.
Li Lin is slashing .396/.429/.660 with four home runs in 56 plate appearances for the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s Rakuten Monkeys. The 29-year-old infielder/outfielder is a .341/.394/.523 hitter over eight-plus CPBL seasons.
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This past week’s Red Sox-Rangers series featured a pair of calls that are seldom seen. One is found in the umpires’ rule book, the other in the official scorers’ handbook.
The first call was a batter/runner’s being ruled safe despite the first baseman’s having touched the bag before the batter/runner did (Ben Clemens has video of the play in Friday’s Five Things I Like (Or Didn’t Like column). Here is what happened:
Wyatt Langford missed first base while avoiding Romy Gonzalez, who was impeding his route while attempting to corral a throw in the dirt. Langford crossed the plane of the bag before Gonzalez — ball now secured — stepped on it, meaning there was no longer a force play. Had Gonzalez proceeded to tag Langford and appeal to the umpire that he’d missed the bag — before Langford had safely scrambled back — an out would have been recorded.
The other play was just as perplexing, sans an explanation.
With Rangers runners on the corners, a pitch in the dirt caromed off the catcher into fair territory, allowing an alert Langford to score from third with relative ease. The trail runner, Joc Pederson, was far less decisive in his actions and was caught in no-man’s land between first and second base. Boston’s backstop picked up the ball and threw him out easily.
The official scorer announced that the run had scored on a wild pitch. Simple call, right? Apparently not. Shortly thereafter, it was changed to the runner’s having scored on a fielder’s choice, the reasoning being that an out was recorded on the play, thus negating the wild pitch. (This per a source other than the official scorer from whom I didn’t have an opportunity to get an explanation.)
Before the game ended, it was changed back to the run having scored on a wild pitch. Why? This appears to be the applicable entry in the scorers’ manual:
“The pitch is dropped by the catcher but the catcher or another fielder recovers in time to put out a trail runner while the lead runner scores on the play. A passed ball is charged because, although an out was recorded, the lead runner scored on the dropped pitch.”
In this particular case the ruling was wild pitch, not passed ball, but the same interpretation applied. As for the change that was later reversed, this entry seems to address it:
“On a pitch in the dirt, the catcher or another fielder recovers in time to put out a trail runner and the lead runner advances but does not score. No wild pitch and the lead runner (who did not score) advanced on the fielder’s choice.”
When all was said and done, the official scorer appears to have gotten it right.
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FARM NOTES
Jonah Tong finished one batter short of a seven-inning perfect game yesterday as the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies beat Reading 6-0 in the nightcap of a twin bill. The 21-year-old right-hander in the New York Mets system fanned 13 Fightin Phils batters before being lifted after 99 pitches.
Beloit Sky Carp catcher Ryan Ignoffo hit two grand slams on Thursday as the Miami Marlins’ High-A affiliate crunched the Cedar Rapids Kernels 14-5. The 2023 20th-round pick out of Eastern Illinois University has six home runs and a 124 wRC+ over 123 plate appearances on the season.
Kyle Karros is slashing .333/.447/.513 with two home runs and a 177 wRC+ over 94 plate appearances for the Double-A Hartford Yard Goats. The 22-year-old third baseman, and son of former Dodgers first baseman Eric Karros, was taken in the fifth round of the 2023 draft out of UCLA by the Colorado Rockies.
Cooper Kinney is slashing .308/.351/.587 with seven home runs and a 171 wRC+ over 111 plate appearances for the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits. The 22-year-old multi-position infielder was taken in the first round of the 2021 draft out of Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Baylor High School by the Tampa Bay Rays.
Frank Mozzicato has a 1.15 ERA and a 23.8% strikeout rate over 31-and-a-third innings for the High-A Quad City River Bandits. The 21-year-old left-hander was taken in the first round of the 2021 draft out of Manchester, Connecticut’s East Catholic High School by the Kansas City Royals.
Bishop Letson has a 1.33 ERA and a 30% strikeout rate over 27 innings for the High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The 20-year-old right-hander was taken in the 11th round of the 2023 draft out of Floyds Knobs, Indiana’s Floyd Central High School by the Milwaukee Brewers.
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A note on Matt Seelinger, who was featured here at FanGraphs earlier in the week, discussing his knuckle drop.
The 30-year-old right-hander in the Detroit Tigers system is listed at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, but he acknowldeged that he is actually 5-foot-11, 205 pounds. The reason behind the inaccuracy is a mystery to the Farmingdale State College graduate (B.S. Finance),who continues to excel with the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. Counting his four games with Double-A Erie, Seelinger is 5-0 with a 0.51 ERA and a 29.0% strikeout rate over 10 relief appearances.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
Walter Watson had a brief career and a standalone nickname. The pitcher/outfielder appeared in two games for the American Association’s Cincinnati Reds in 1887, going 1-for-8 at the plate and allowing 18 runs over 14 innings. Records don’t indicate whether Watson batted or threw his with right or left hand, but the name he was known by is well-chronicled. He remain’s baseball’s only “Mother.”
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
At Pittsburgh Baseball Now, John Perrotto wrote about how the Pirates did Derek Shelton a favor by axing him.
At Tigers Minor League Report, Rogelio Castillo paid tribute to Chet Lemon, who went from champion to mentor.
The Toledo Blade’s David Briggs opined on why critics who feel that Roger Bresnahan doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame are wrong.
The always-entertaining Doug Glanville wrote about rarity scores — hello Immaculate Grid — on his Welcome To Glanville Substack.
A newly identified newspaper article pushes the earliest date of Japanese baseball back to July 1869. Rob Fitts has the story at his Rob Fitts Baseball History blog.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
San Diego Padres batters have 341 hits and a fewest-in-the major 261 strikeouts so far this season. Colorado Rockies batters have 277 hits and a most-in-the-majors 380 strikeouts.
The Milwaukee Brewers have 10 sacrifice hits, the most in the majors. The Baltimore Orioles, Minnesota Twins, and Tampa Bay Rays are without a sacrifice hit.
Tarik Skubal has 60 strikeouts and five walks on the season. Over his last six starts, the Detroit Tigers southpaw has 50 strikeouts and one walk.
Boston’s Wilyer Abreu is 19-for-43 with three doubles, eight home runs, and a 1.580 OPS in 14 career games against the Texas Rangers.
Nick Castellanos has 237 homers, 771 runs scored, 869 RBIs, and a 111 wRC+.Doug DeCinces had 237 homers, 778 runs scored, 879 RBIs, and a 114 wRC+.
Danny Kravitz hit a ninth-inning grand slam to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a 6-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on today’s date in 1956. The walk-off blast was the first of 10 home runs that Kravitz hit in his career.
On today’s date in 1936, Mel Ott hit a three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to lift the New York Giants to a 13-12 win over the Phillies. Ott logged eight RBIs on the day and went on to finish the campaign with an NL-best 135. The Hall of Fame slugger topped the 100-RBI mark nine times.
On today’s date in 1923, Pete Schneider had five home runs, a double, and 14 RBI’s as the Pacific Coast League’s Vernon Tigers outscored the Salt Lake City Bees 35-11. An outfielder at the time, he’d previously pitched for the Cincinnati Reds from 1914-1918, and for the New York Yankees in 1919. Schneider’s Vernon teammates included Ping Bodie, Truck Hannah, and Hugh High.
Players born on today’s date include Rip Sewell, a right-hander who pitched briefly for the Detroit Tigers in 1932, and then was a mainstay for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1938-1949. Best known for a high-arcing eephus pitch that Ted Williams took deep in the 1946 All-Star game, Sewell had 21-win seasons in 1943 in 1944.
Also born on today’s date was Cameron Cairncross, a left-hander whose big-league career comprised 15 relief appearances for the Cleveland Indians in 2000. The Cairns, Australia native won his lone decision, that in a 12-11, 13-inning win over the New York Yankees. Kenny Lofton walked the contest off with a home run.
