University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Athletics Hall of Fame
Bako, Paul
Paul Bako
- Induction:
- 2021
A Lafayette native, Bako played three seasons at Louisiana and helped the Ragin' Cajuns to a pair of conference titles. He was the starting catcher on Louisiana's 1991 American South Conference team and helped the Ragin' Cajuns to a 49-20 record.
Bako was the catcher on UL's 1992 Sun Belt Conference championship squad where the pitching staff posted a 3.50 earned run average to rank 29th among Division I programs. He was named All-Sun Belt Conference his junior season in 1993 and was selected in the fifth round by the Cincinnati Reds in the 1993 MLB Draft.
The epitome of the baseball "journeyman," Bako played for 11 different major league teams in a 12-year career, first reaching the major leagues in 1998 with the Detroit Tigers before playing for Houston (1999-2000), Florida (2000), Atlanta (2000-01), Milwaukee (2002), Chicago Cubs (2003-04), Los Angeles Dodgers (2005), Kansas City (2006), Baltimore (2007), Cincinnati (2008) and Philadelphia (2009). He played for a pair of teams (Atlanta and Chicago) that made a combined three playoff appearances and reached the NLCS (Atlanta-2001; Florida-2003).
Bako was the catcher on UL's 1992 Sun Belt Conference championship squad where the pitching staff posted a 3.50 earned run average to rank 29th among Division I programs. He was named All-Sun Belt Conference his junior season in 1993 and was selected in the fifth round by the Cincinnati Reds in the 1993 MLB Draft.
The epitome of the baseball "journeyman," Bako played for 11 different major league teams in a 12-year career, first reaching the major leagues in 1998 with the Detroit Tigers before playing for Houston (1999-2000), Florida (2000), Atlanta (2000-01), Milwaukee (2002), Chicago Cubs (2003-04), Los Angeles Dodgers (2005), Kansas City (2006), Baltimore (2007), Cincinnati (2008) and Philadelphia (2009). He played for a pair of teams (Atlanta and Chicago) that made a combined three playoff appearances and reached the NLCS (Atlanta-2001; Florida-2003).
Inside Louisiana Athletics Recap for Sep 17, 2025 to Sep 23, 2025
Tuesday, September 23
Kristi Gray Media Availability (Sep 22, 2025)
Monday, September 22
Michael Desormeaux Media Availability (Sep 22 , 2025)
Monday, September 22
Chris McBride Media Avialbility (Sep 22, 2025)
Monday, September 22
