Bucky Jacobsen of the Tacoma Rainiers wowed the Monday night crowd at McCoy Stadium with his monster shots in the I.L. Home Run contest.

08:15 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 14, 2004

BY JOE McDONALD
Journal Sports Writer

PAWTUCKET -- For those fans who witnessed the All-Star Home Run contest at McCoy Stadium on Monday won't soon forget the name Bucky Jacobsen.

His mammoth shots were Mark McGwire-esque. Jacobsen, an outfielder for the Tacoma Rainiers (the Seattle Mariners' farm team) and a member of the Pacific Coast League All-Star Team, is listed at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds. But, by his own admission, he is a few inches taller and about 50 pounds heavier. Put it this way, Paul Bunyan would have his hands full taking on Jacobsen.

He blasted 12 balls out of the park Monday night, and not just ordinary shots. He hit the very top of the scoreboard in left-center field. He crushed a ball over the center-field concession stands some 500 feet from home plate, and even broke the car window of a local media member in the parking lot.

"I'm not going to give you my address," Jacobsen said, "but you can bill me. Sorry about that, but I don't know how smart it is to park behind the left-field fence for a home-run derby. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

What does make sense, after viewing his performance, are his statistics this season.

In 81 games for the Rainiers, Jacobsen is hitting .312 with 26 homers and 86 RBI, including 22 doubles and a triple.

"I don't normally swing for the fences in BP a lot," he said. "I just try to work on my swing. For the most part, I just try to work on some things. But (Monday) night it was a whole different thing. I was tired. I had flown for 13 hours from Seattle and was going on no rest. When I got out there and you have 10,000 people cheering when you hit a ball hard, all of a sudden you're adrenaline is there. But I got tired at the end. It was enjoyable."

PawSox manager and International League All-Star manager, Buddy Bailey, witnessed Jacobsen's feat first-hand with former Red Sox Tim Naehring sitting next to him. Time and again, the two couldn't believe the distance some of the balls traveled out of McCoy.

"People are still talking about some of those balls he hit," said Bailey. "Having been here for seven years, especially the last three in this new ballpark, he hit some balls you just don't see hit here. It was another dimension. A couple of those were red-eye flights, man. They were the cross-country deal."

There's a lot that has to be just right in order to display the type of performance Jacobsen displayed and having the right pitcher has a lot to do with it. PawSox pitching coach Mike Griffin was that guy.

"He was locked in straight with a four-seamer right there," said Jacobsen. "Griff found my happy zone. That's one of the biggest things about a home-run derby -- the pitcher is consistently throwing the ball where you need it to be thrown, and he did."

When asked if he ever hit balls that far before, he quickly responded with a grin.

"I've run into a couple throughout my career," he said. "Shoot, I'm 270 pounds, so every once in a while a pitcher will throw it into my barrel and it will go a little ways."

Speaking of his size, Jacobsen played football in high school, but decided he wanted to concentrate on baseball. The decision to leave the gridiron, however, was a difficult one since his father, Larry, played professional football.

"He played back in the day," said Jacobsen. "And, I was actually a better at football than I am at baseball. But I couldn't tear myself away from baseball."

He was going back and forth on the decision, but his mind and heart kept swaying towards the diamond.

"I'm glad I did," he said, "because I don't know if my body would have held up in football very long."

Certainly the 10,000 fans in attendance Monday night at McCoy were glad with his choice to stick with the stick. Jacobsen's performance was all Pawtucket Red Sox owner Ben Mondor could talk about yesterday as the two clubs met with the media.

"They were awesome," said Mondor of the slugger's home runs. "I really enjoyed those."