In my opinion he was the most recognized baseball player of his time....Partly because of his great abilty to rise to the occasion when the games meant the most and partly because he seemed to always be playing in October , Jackson had an aura about him, he was arrogant, but he backed it up.
Reggie was the perfect superstar for the New York audience, by the late 70's MLB was going places it had never went before,players changing teams right and left, the big market teams like the Yankees were buying up the great players by the bunch, and Reggie fit right into the Big Apple media circus, by 1977 the Yankees were finally back on top, after getting swept in '76 by the Big Red Machine the Yankees were back and would win the next two WS Championships with Reggie leading the way.
Yankee great Reggie Jackson in the 1978 World Series.
In 21 seasons, Jackson played on 11 divisional winners, six pennant winners, and five World Champions!
A little known fact, the New York Mets actually had first dibs on the young Arizona State star, Jackson was passed over in 1967 amatuer draft by the Mets for Steve Chilcott the #1 pick, Reggie went #2 to the Kansas City A's.
In 1969 Reggie was on a pace to break the single season HR record, he had 37 homers at the All Star break and 40 on July 29th, and was 23 games ahead of Ruth's 1927 pace!
He then went into a terrible slump that lasted throughout the 1970 season and practically until the All-Star game in Detroit in 1971.
He made the 1971 All-Star squad only because of an injury to Tony Oliva...He made the most of it with his home run off the light tower, one of the most memorable balls ever hit in baseball history, the nearly two year batting slump had finally ended .
His total of 563 HR was sixth all-time when he retired. His 2,597 strikeouts, however, are first all-time.
Reggie was the perfect superstar for the New York audience, by the late 70's MLB was going places it had never went before,players changing teams right and left, the big market teams like the Yankees were buying up the great players by the bunch, and Reggie fit right into the Big Apple media circus, by 1977 the Yankees were finally back on top, after getting swept in '76 by the Big Red Machine the Yankees were back and would win the next two WS Championships with Reggie leading the way.
Yankee great Reggie Jackson in the 1978 World Series.
In 21 seasons, Jackson played on 11 divisional winners, six pennant winners, and five World Champions!
A little known fact, the New York Mets actually had first dibs on the young Arizona State star, Jackson was passed over in 1967 amatuer draft by the Mets for Steve Chilcott the #1 pick, Reggie went #2 to the Kansas City A's.
In 1969 Reggie was on a pace to break the single season HR record, he had 37 homers at the All Star break and 40 on July 29th, and was 23 games ahead of Ruth's 1927 pace!
He then went into a terrible slump that lasted throughout the 1970 season and practically until the All-Star game in Detroit in 1971.
He made the 1971 All-Star squad only because of an injury to Tony Oliva...He made the most of it with his home run off the light tower, one of the most memorable balls ever hit in baseball history, the nearly two year batting slump had finally ended .
His total of 563 HR was sixth all-time when he retired. His 2,597 strikeouts, however, are first all-time.
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