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Knick Knack Mackowiak, Give a Dog a Bone

You want Manny Ramirez.

They give you Rob Mackowiak.

Well, there is one area in which Rob Mackowiak has Manny Ramirez beat.

But only one.

Rob Mackowiak and his wife have a son, Garrett, who was born at around 11 a.m., May 28, 2004.

That wasn't the only highlight of the day.

Rob decided to go to work that evening, which meant partaking in a doubleheader for his team, the Pirates, against the Cubs. He arrived at 4pm for a 5pm start.

Mackowiak was hitless in his first four at-bats that day, but his fifth at-bat was as good as it gets. With the score tied 5-5, and the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Mackowiak cracked a walk-off grand slam to right-center field against Cubs closer Joe Borowski.

With lefthander Glendon Rusch starting for the Cubs in Game 2, Mackowiak was not put into the lineup sent out behind future Met Oliver Perez. He'd make an appearance as part of a double-switch in the seventh inning, just in time to play hero again.

Mackowiak came up in the home ninth with the Pirates down two runs, with Tike Redman on first base and nobody out. The pitcher was LaTroy Hawkins. The result was the same as that in the first game, this one a game-tying two-run home run to right-center field. The Pirates would win in the bottom of the 10th on Craig Wilson's walk-off home run.

So to recap Mackowiak's day.

His wife had a baby
He hit a walk-off grand slam in one game
He hit a game-tying home run in the 9th inning in the other.

“It’s just hard to imagine ever having a better day than this,” Mackowiak told the media afterwards.

True Metkowiaks know...Not long after this happened, there was a neat note from home run guru David Vincent on ESPN.com. He noted this Pirates doubleheader was the third in which both games ended via walk-off home run. The first occurrence was the Mets first two walk-off wins, when Hobie Landrith and Gil Hodges hit game-ending home runs to beat the Braves, May 12, 1962.

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