He’s in the record books, yet Mike Myers isn’t proud about why his name will be etched in baseball history forever. The former ISU baseball player surrendered home runs to Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds in historic fashion.

“It’s not a part of history I want to be involved in,” said Myers, who played baseball for the Cyclones from 1988-1990.

He may not want to be a part of it, yet the submarine-throwing left-handed pitcher from Crystal Lake, Ill., has found himself in historic occasions several times. While with the Milwaukee Brewers, Myers gave up a home run to Mark McGwire in his then-record-breaking season of 70 home runs in 1998.

He secured his spot in the books on July 24, 2003, when he gave up a solo home run to San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“I had to go and attack him and I threw the one pitch and he hit that one pitch out,” Myers said of his encounter with Bonds.

That one pitch turned out to be home run No. 470 for Bonds, who passed Willie McCovey for first on the Giants all-time home run list. Myers, who had come in to pitch to Bonds in the bottom of the ninth, threw a first-pitch fastball that the outfielder crushed into the left-center field stands to end the game, 3-2.

“The plan of attack was to just go ahead and throw strike one and get ahead of him and attack him from there,” he said.

Even with the hard-hitting outfielder stepping to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, Myers said he was focused on sticking to his game plan against Bonds, regardless of the situation.

“I wasn’t going to walk him and put him on base,” he said. “I was going to attack him and make him hit the ball. I wasn’t going to give him a free base.”

For Myers, that game plan has typically worked. In his career, Bonds has gone 8-for-25 against the lefty with only the lone home run. It was because of that success that New York manager Joe Torre said Myers was their best option in holding Bonds in check when the Yankees visited San Francisco this summer.

“It’s important to try to upset his timing, and I think Myers has enough of a variety to do that,” Torre said in an interview with MLB.com. “He pitches in and out, and you want to rely on Barry being a little anxious too – not wanting to walk.”

While Bonds continues his pursuit of Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record, Myers said despite all the allegations facing the outfielder for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs, he still recognizing him as one of the best in the game.

“He hasn’t taken a positive test,” Myers said. “There’s nothing to say that if he was doing something that those pitches he hit it off of weren’t doing something too.

“He’s a great hitter, a great baseball player, and it’s obviously going to be his record,” he said. “I don’t have any bad feelings towards it or any positive feeling towards it – it’s just something that’s there.”

And although some fans may remember the historic home runs Myers gave up, it’s something he says he won’t be bragging about.

“I’m not going to bring it up and say ‘Hey, I was part of that too,'” he said. “That’s something somebody would have to ask me about because it’s not something I’m proud of.”