One Defining Moment

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Spotlight: Mike Bacsik

Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik talks about being the answer to a baseball trivia question and life in general after giving up Barry Bonds's record-breaking 756th home run.

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But Bacsik did get Bonds to autograph a bat after that game, and he has a huge, panoramic photo of the historic home run -- signed by all his Nationals teammates, plus Bonds -- hanging in his bedroom.

Perhaps because of Bacsik's accommodating stance toward the media in the aftermath of the homer, it was not long before some folks were suggesting he grooved the pitch intentionally -- that he wanted to be the one who gave it up. Even his own teammates, though always in jest, wondered out loud, "how in the world," right fielder Austin Kearns said, "do you think you're going to throw a 3-2 fastball, 86 mile per hour, past Barry Bonds?"

Bacsik said he wasn't trying to give up a homer, but neither did he want to walk Bonds. "I wanted to go after him," Bacsik said. "I wanted to strike him out."

"If you know my son, you know there's not a snowball's chance in hell" that he grooved the pitch, said Bacsik's father, who also pitched in the big leagues and who is also named Mike. "He's just trying to win. I heard one guy [on the radio] say Michael was a steroids guy like Barry, and so he was trying to help a fellow juicer out. Well, no offense, but you can look at Michael's body and know he's not a juice guy."

Not long after the homer, Jay Levy, the senior coordinating producer for ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" got a telephone call at the office. It was Mike Bacsik -- "the guy who gave up Bonds's homer," Bacsik said into the phone -- and he was looking for work.

"I really pushed for it," Bacsik admitted recently. "I said, 'Jay, I'd really love to do this. I love baseball. I feel like I know what I'm talking about.'"

For Levy, the call wasn't entirely out of the blue, since Levy had already heard from Bacsik's agent and a Nationals public relations official who had called on his behalf.

But, Levy said, "I don't often get players calling." In fact, Levy said, it had never happened before. But soon, some meetings were convened, and some tape of Bacsik's interviews were viewed and some strings were pulled -- as Levy said, "When we looked at it, it seemed like a great opportunity to get the guy who gave up number 756 to Barry Bonds" -- and suddenly, there was Bacsik's bald head on the Worldwide Leader during the postseason.

"I had a blast. I loved it," Bacsik said. "I mean, I hope I play baseball for a long, long time, but when I'm done I'd love to do television work full-time."

Throughout October, Bacsik did in-studio spots on "Baseball Tonight," "ESPN First Take" and ESPNews, analyzing postseason games. He was candid and witty, and even critical at times, second-guessing Chicago Cubs Manager Lou Piniella for taking ace Carlos Zambrano out after the sixth inning of Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

"He's a smart guy who knows how to tell a story, which is tremendously important on 'Baseball Tonight,' " said ESPN's Tim Kurkjian, who worked with Bacsik in-studio. "His knowledge of the game was very impressive, which is to be expected, but you'd be surprised how many guys in baseball don't pay attention to what is going on around them. With Mike, if you asked him how he pitched a guy, he could recall specific pitch counts from June.

"Mostly, I was amazed how calm he was on the set, right from the start. Some guys are scared to death the first time out, or the first few times out, but he seemed at home in front of a camera."

Levy also gave Bacsik high marks for his insight and "passion for the game," but stopped short of saying there is a future for Bacsik at ESPN. "The timing was right this time," Levy said. "But down the line, I wouldn't close the door by any means."

If Bacsik makes it back to TV, he promises never to leave his cellphone on during a live segment, the way he did during a "First Take" segment one morning. Bacsik was chatting with host Dana Jacobson when all of a sudden his phone started ringing in his pocket. He cringed, but otherwise made it through the segment until a commercial break. When they came back from break, Jacobson teased him about the ringing cellphone.

"That was just Barry calling," Bacsik deadpanned. "He signed with a team, but he made me promise not to tell which one."

With one quick sound bite, Bacsik had taken a potentially embarrassing situation -- something no one in that chair would ever wish to have happen to himself -- and turned it into a positive. Apparently, it is something he does extremely well.