Reggie Jackson

Reginald Martinez Jackson was born May 18, 1946, in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia. His father Martinez ran a tailoring and dry cleaning shop and flew a P51 Mustang in World War II, and he raised Reggie after his mother left when Reggie was six. Reggie starred in football, basketball, baseball and track, and he went to Arizona State on a football scholarship to play for Frank Kush.

Baseball almost happened by accident. He talked his way into a tryout as a freshman, showed tape measure power right away, and by his sophomore year he'd taken over center field from Rick Monday. The Kansas City A's took him with the second pick of the June 1966 draft, right after the Mets took a high school catcher named Steve Chilcott, and Charlie Finley signed him for an $85,000 bonus.

At Modesto he played alongside Rollie Fingers, Joe Rudi and Dave Duncan, the core of what was coming. He hit .178 in a brief look in Kansas City in 1967. Then Finley moved the franchise to Oakland, and in 1968 Reggie hit 29 home runs and settled into a lineup with Sal Bando, Rudi and Bert Campaneris.

1969 made him famous. He had 34 home runs by July 5, people were comparing him to Roger Maris and Babe Ruth, and the cameras came running. He wore down and finished with 47, his career high, along with 123 runs, 114 walks and a league leading .608 slugging percentage. He was 23.

1970 was rough. He hit .237, his marriage ended, and he went to Puerto Rico that winter to play for Frank Robinson at Santurce, who helped put him back together. In 1971 the A's won 101 games and the West, and at the All Star Game in Detroit he hit a Dock Ellis pitch off the transformer on the light tower on the right field roof at Tiger Stadium.

In Game 5 of the 1972 ALCS at Detroit, Reggie stole second, then broke for home on the front end of a double steal in the second inning and slid in to tie the game 1 to 1. He tore his hamstring doing it and had to be carried off. Oakland won 2 to 1 for its first pennant, and Reggie watched the World Series win over Cincinnati on crutches.

1973 was all his. He led the league with 32 home runs and 117 RBIs, hit .293, and won the MVP unanimously. In Game 7 of the World Series against the Mets at the Coliseum he hit a two run homer off Jon Matlack in the third inning, and he was the Series MVP after hitting .310 with six RBIs. Two titles in a row.

In 1974 he described the A's as a team that could win at will, and they did, even with the fights in the clubhouse. He homered off Andy Messersmith in Game 1 of the World Series against the Dodgers, and in the eighth inning of the Game 5 clincher he backed up Bill North, fielded Bill Buckner's hit and started the relay that cut Buckner down at third. Three straight.

He hit 36 home runs in 1975 for another home run title and another division crown, but a week before Opening Day 1976, Finley traded him and Ken Holtzman to Baltimore. Reggie was crushed. He'd made his life in Oakland. "The eight years I spent in Oakland were the best baseball years of my life," he said later.

From Baltimore he went to New York, where three home runs in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series made him Mr. October, and then to the Angels for five seasons. In 1987, at 41, he came back to Oakland to finish it. In his last game, October 4 at Comiskey Park, he doubled in a run in the first inning and singled up the middle in his final at bat.

He retired with 563 home runs, sixth on the career list at the time, 14 All Star selections and five championship rings. He was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1993. The A's retired his number 9 on May 22, 2004, and he went into the A's Hall of Fame with its first class in 2018.

Reggie lived for the moment everybody was watching. He hit 18 home runs in 77 postseason games and slugged .527 in October for his career. With Oakland, he hit the big homer in Game 7 of the 1973 World Series and was the Series MVP, and he homered to open the scoring in Game 1 of the 1974 Series.

The 1971 All Star Game is the best example. National stage, Tiger Stadium, Dock Ellis on the mound, and Reggie hit one off the transformer on the light tower above the right field roof. I'd love to know how far it would've gone.

And clutch isn't only the long ball. With the 1972 pennant on the line in Detroit, he stole home on the front end of a double steal to tie Game 5, tearing his hamstring in the process. Oakland won 2 to 1. That's the kind of play that wins a series and doesn't show up on a highlight reel of home runs.