Too bad The Dallas Morning News didn't pen its own Mike Bacsik piece for this morning's paper -- Bacsik being, like, the Washington Nationals pitcher who served up Barry Bonds' 756th homer last night. The News ran a brief staff-and-wire-reports piece, but Bacsik's a great local story: a Dallas-born pitcher for Your Texas Rangers (in 2004) whose pop, Mike Sr., was also a Dallas-born pitcher for the Texas Rangers from 1975 to 1977. "First father-son combo to play for Texas," Lil' Mike told CBS SportsLine.com yesterday. "Barry and Bobby [Bonds] have had a more distinguished career than the Bacsiks."
Plenty of papers are serving up Bacsik softballs this morning. There's a nice story about him in The Washington Post, in which he's described as "a bit of a historian, a bit of a sports nut, so being part of one of the most momentous occasions in baseball history would be, in a way, just fine." Indeed, all day yesterday Bacsik kept insisting he was cool with being The Guy Who Served Up History. And in this morning's San Jose Mercury News, he's still acting like it's fun to be history's footnote: "Me and Al Downing can do card shows together and sign famous autographs for being the guy," he says, referring to the pitcher who served up Hank Aaron's record 715th homer in April 1974. Oh, and listeners to KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket) also know who Bacsik is: He's the former intern for these guys. --Robert Wilonsky