Bucky's Big Memorial Day

Bucky Jacobsen found his form this weekend, hitting two homeruns Monday night with a franchise record seven runs batted in. Both shots are reminiscent of homers we've seen in the past. His three-run shot highlighted the Long Island Ducks third inning, and Bucky added a grand slam in the seventh. The first homerun cleared the 24 foot high second fence in left which stands 350 feet from home plate. The grand slam was to straight center landing more than 400 feet away. Said Ducks' manager Don McCormack, "His ball will go out anywhere when he hits it. Left. Center. Right. The moon. Yellowstone." The Long Island Ducks' website, liducks.com, has audio clips of Bucky's thoughts of his night as well as manager Don McCoramack.

The two homer game follows Bucky's Sunday performance where he hit a double and his first triple of the season.

Bucky goes 3 for 5 with 4 RBI

Bucky Jacobsen hit his first homerun at home for the Long Island Ducks Wednesday night. He went three for five with four runs batted in. Click here to to listen to Bucky's interview on the the Ducks' website, liducks.com. The Ducks dropped the game 13-8 to the Bridgeport Bluefish, but are still a game and half ahead of the Bluefish in the Northern Division of the Atlantic League.

Photo: www.liducks.com

Japanese Scouts to See Bucky in June

In the following article, Bucky gives his thoughts on being released by the Mariners, and mentions that scouts from the Japanese League will be into see him play.

Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune:

Bucky Jacobsen hasn’t picked up where he left off in Seattle in 2004, when he joined the Mariners in late season with a bang, swatting nine home runs with 28 RBIs in 160 at-bats.
But at least he is playing baseball with a healthy right knee for the first time in three years.
The pride of Hermiston, designated for assignment at the end of last season to give him free-agent status, is playing first base and batting cleanup for the Long Island (N.Y.) Ducks of the independent Atlantic League. After going through a minislump the last week, Jacobsen is batting only .254, with two homers and 11 RBIs and an on-base percentage of .395 through 18 games.
“So far, so good,” says Jacobsen, 30. “The caliber of baseball in this league is a lot better than I thought it would be. I thought it was going to suck a little, but we have 13 players with big-league experience in our club.”
Jacobsen says he’s not bitter about the Mariners giving up on him, but he expected better after providing a breath of fresh air for the fans during a trying 2004 season in Seattle. Two surgeries on his right knee — the second necessary after the first one didn’t get the job done — limited him to a week in Class A and two weeks in Triple-A in the Mariner organization last year.
“I didn’t do enough to ensure a future with the club,” the 6-4, 280-pound Jacobsen says. “I didn’t etch my name in stone. I understand that. But I had done some good stuff for them. They’re the ones who told me to get the first surgery. For them to turn their back on me and say we’re done with you, it made me feel bad a little bit. They washed their hands of me, and now I’m perceived as broken goods.”
Jacobsen’s ultimate goal is a return to the big leagues, but a more realistic one would be for the beefy slugger to play in Japan.
“Some (Japanese) scouts are going to be here to watch me the first week of June,” he says.

Bucky Cards and Autographs

Since I often get requests about where to get Bucky Jacobsen baseball cards, I've gotten a rather large lot of Bucky'sbaseball cards to offer up to other Bucky Backers. Check out the cards on the Memoribilia page to see what's available and e-mail me with what you want. I'll send you an invoice for the cards, you pay, and you should have your cards within a week.

You will also find autographed baseballs from an autograph signing Bucky did with Royal Awards in 2004 after he was called up with the Mariners. Each ball is signed by Bucky and comes with a certificate of authenticity (COA). In addition, both the ball and the COA come with destructible holograms that have matching numbers. If you are interested, include that in your e-mail as well.

And as always, you'll find links to BuckyBackers™ t-shirts, etc.

Bucky Launches Homer #2

Bucky Jacobsen reverted to form in last night's game, hitting his second homer of the season. Since the Ducks were playing in Atlantic City, I thought I would put some observations about Bucky's season in some casinoesque terms.

Over/Unders - a number that tells an expected value for a particular event. You can choose to take more (over) or less (under):

Number of Games to 2 Homeruns: Preseason, I would've set it at 8, maybe 10. Last night's game was game #14.
Number of Times Stolen Bases = Homeruns: I would've said 1 - when both totals were at 0. Bucky's up to 3 times so far, having had 0, 1 and 2 homers and swipes at the same time.
Number of Times Stolen Bases > Homeruns: No bets taken since there's no statistic under 0. Bucky's at 1. Until Wednesday night, Bucky had three games where he had two swipes and only one homer.

Bucky's Season So Far

Bucky has had a solid season so far. While the homers haven't come quickly (Newsday points out he has as many stolen bases as homers), his plate discipline has been very good. While it's only ten games into the season, Bucky has more walks (11) than strikeouts (8). Bucky's on-base percentage is hovering around .475 meaning he's getting on base almost every other time up to bat.

Sorry updates haven't been as quick this past week. I've been out of town with a family funeral.

Seattle Times Article

Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times wrote a great article on Bucky, his knee surgeries, trying to find a job in affiliated baseball, and life in the Atlantic League - it's really worth the read: Independent League Satisfies Jacobsen's Hunger - for Now.

Bucky's First Dinger...

You may remember from last Friday that Bucky's first homerun in the Atlantic League was a shot over both left field walls at Camden's Campbell's Field. From Minor League Ballparks.com, you can see that while it's only 325 down the line, the first fence clearly taller than the left fielder. Tack on the taller secondary wall, and Bucky's dinger was quite the shot.
Graphic from Minor League Ballparks.com

A Weekend Sweep

Bucky Jacobsen and the Long Island Ducks completed a three game sweep of the Camden Riversharks with a 10-4 win Sunday. Bucky went 3-5 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI. His average and on-base percentage rose to .417 and .500 respectively. Yes, it's a small sample size, but hopefully it's a good sign of Bucky being back to old form. But Mike Ashmore of AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com has the Riversharks ranked 7th out of the eight team league in his preseason ranking with weak pitching being the problem.

The Ducks and the rest of the league have the next two days off. The Ducks start a two-game set in Bridgeport against the Bluefish on Wednesday, and then have their home opener on Friday against the Riversharks on Friday. If you are in the area, the Ducks have an average attendance over their capacity! Tickets are still available, with lots of promotions all weekend.

The Redesign

The redesign of BuckyBackers.com is almost done. The biggest feature is the revised Box Score page that lists out Bucky's game-by-game progress in addition to links to articles from around the internet about Bucky and the Ducks.

By the end of this week, we should have a revised page for baseball cards. We will also offer autographed baseballs from a signing Bucky did back in 2004. After that page goes up, the back history of Bucky and the Backers will be updated as time allows over the next month or so.