Northern California Baseball Blog and Q&A

Paul Gutierrez
Raised in Barstow, Calif., where he played community college baseball for two years, Paul Gutierrez has worked at Sports Illustrated and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he covered his alma mater's Runnin' Rebels at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During a six-year stint at the Los Angeles Times, he co-authored Tommy Davis' "Tales from the Dodgers Dugout." He came to The Bee in October 2005 and is now a Bay Area sports features writer who concentrates on baseball during the spring and summer.

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August 07, 2007

Family history

Washington Nationals starter Mike Bacsik will face Barry Bonds tonight with Bonds sitting on 755 career home runs, one long fly ball shy of setting a new career record.

In a strange turn of events, Bacsik's father, Mike Bacsik Sr., also faced the only other major leaguer with 755 homers at the time he pitched to him.

On Aug. 23, 1976, Bacsik Sr. pitched in relief for the Texas Rangers against the Milwaukee Brewers and Hank Aaron, who had already hit the 755th and final home run of his career.

At Arlington Stadium, Bacsik Sr. got Aaron to fly out to right fielder Jeff Burroughs in the fifth inning before Aaron singled off Bacsik in the seventh.

Have I said how cool retrosheet.org is today?!?

-Paul Gutierrez

Posted by Bill Bradley, August 7, 2007 07:46 PM

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