Gabor Paul Bako II (; born June 20, 1972) is an American former professional baseball catcher. He is an example of a baseball "journeyman", having played for 11 different teams during his 12-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career. During his playing days, he was listed at and .
Bako attended high school and college in his home state of Louisiana, winning two conference championships at the University of Southwest Louisiana. After reaching MLB with the American League's Detroit Tigers in 1998, Bako spent seven seasons in the National League, playing with six different teams. He returned to the American League with the Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles, then played for the Cincinnati Reds and the Philadelphia Phillies for one season each.
Baseball career
High school and college
In 1990, Bako was drafted out of Lafayette High School—who later retired his number 6—with the ninth pick of the sixth round by the Cleveland Indians. He chose not to sign, and attended the University of Southwest Louisiana. In his college career, Bako caught for the Ragin' Cajuns during two consecutive conference championship seasons: 1991 in the American South Conference, when they finished with a 49–20 record, 14th-best among Division I squads; and 1992 in the Sun Belt Conference, when Southwestern Louisiana's pitching staff amassed a 3.50 earned run average, 29th-best in Division I. After the 1992 season, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod Baseball League. In 1993, he was named to the second team of the all-Sun Belt Conference baseball team, and was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth round of the 1993 June draft.
Minor leagues
Bako began his professional career with the Pioneer Baseball League's Billings Mustangs, a rookie-league farm team of the Reds located in Montana. During the 1993 season, Bako amassed a .314 batting average, second-highest on the team that season behind Chris Sexton. Bako walked 22 times, stole 5 bases, and batted in 30 runs, while excelling defensively compared to the other catcher on the team. His fielding percentage was .988, and he posted only four errors that season. He was also named a Pioneer League All-Star.
Bako moved on to the high-A Winston-Salem Spirits in the Carolina League for the 1994 and 1995 seasons. He struggled during the 1994 season, batting only .204 with three home runs and 26 runs batted in (RBIs). 1995 was more successful, with an 81-point boost in batting average (.285), seven home runs and 11 doubles. After the season, Baseball America rated him the top-ranked catching prospect in the Reds farm system.
Bako's 1995 performance earned him a promotion to the Southern League's Chattanooga Lookouts, the Reds AA-level affiliate, for 1996, where he was named a Southern League All-Star. He was second on the team in strikeouts (93) and fifth among regulars with a .294 batting average. He hit a career-high eight home runs during that season, adding 27 doubles and 48 RBIs in 360 at bats. In 1997, playing for the Indianapolis Indians, Bako was a teammate of brothers Aaron and Bret Boone. That year, he batted .243 and matched his previous year's career-high home run total. He had 78 hits in 321 at-bats. Bako's game management earned him a reputation, even in the minor leagues. Brett Tomko, who played with Bako in the minors in 1996 as a member of the Lookouts and in 1997 with Indianapolis, recalled one of their mound conversations: Bako: Are you really trying out here? Tomko: What do you mean? Bako: Because your stuff is horrible today and if you don't try a little harder, you're not going to make it out of this inning.
On November 11, 1997, Bako was traded by the Reds to the Detroit Tigers in an offseason deal that included Donne Wall. After playing 13 games with the Tigers AAA-level affiliate—the Toledo Mud Hens—in 1998, Bako was called up to the Major League club.