Reginald Martinez “Reggie” Jackson (born May 18, 1946) is an American former professional baseball right fielder who played 21 seasons for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, and California Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). Jackson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993.
Jackson was nicknamed “Mr. October” for his clutch hitting in the postseason with the Athletics and the Yankees. He helped Oakland win five consecutive American League West divisional pennants, three consecutive American League pennants and three consecutive World Series titles, from 1971 to 1975. Jackson helped New York win four American League East divisional pennants, three American League pennants and two consecutive World Series titles, from 1977 to 1981. He also helped the California Angels win two AL West divisional pennants in 1982 and 1986. Jackson hit three consecutive home runs at Yankee Stadium in the clinching game 6 of the 1977 World Series.
Jackson hit 563 career home runs and was an American League (AL) All-Star for 14 seasons. He won two Silver Slugger Awards, the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in 1973, two World Series MVP Awards, and the Babe Ruth Award in 1977. The Yankees and Athletics retired his team uniform number in 1993 and 2004. Jackson currently serves as a special advisor to the Yankees.
Reginald Martinez Jackson is one of six children from Wyncote, Pennsylvania. When he was six, his parents divorced, and Jackson grew up with his father, Martinez, who was in jail for bootlegging when Reggie graduated from Cheltenham Township High School in 1964. Jackson was a four-sport varsity athlete in high school; at Arizona State he played both baseball and football. After his sophomore season, the Kansas City Athletics, with the No. 2 pick of the 1966, draft selected him. He played for the As, both in Kansas City and in Oakland from 1967-1975, who traded him to Baltimore in April 1976.
A free agent the following year, he signed a four-year contract with the New York Yankees. Jackson moved to the California Angels in 1982, where he played for five seasons. He finished his career with the team where he started, playing the 1987 season with the Oakland As. In Jackson’s tenure with four American League franchises and all except the Orioles, the teams won at least two division titles with him on their roster. His Oakland teams won three consecutive World Series championships, the only organization other than the Yankees to three-peat, and his Yankee teams earned back-to-back titles in 1977-78. When he was with the Angels, California twice came within a victory of its first pennant and World Series appearance.
He holds the major league career record for most league championship series played (11) most games (45) most at-bats (163) and the American League records for most RBIs (20) most hits (37) and most singles (24) in LCS play. But it was in the World Series that he received the nickname, “Mr. October.” Playing in five World Series and 27 games, Jackson batted .357 with 10 home runs and 24 RBI’s. He also holds the career slugging percentage record of .755, and holds or shares nine World Series records that contain the phrase “home run.”
Voted to the American League All-star team 14 times Jackson finished his career with 1551 runs, 2584 hits, 463 doubles, 49 triples, 1702 RBI’s, and 563 home runs. In his first year of eligibility, Jackson was named on 396 of the 423 ballots and elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. On August 1, 1993, he was the only player to be inducted into the Hall on that day. Currently, Jackson lives in California; he connects with younger players regularly and is an executive with Upper Deck.
Written by Dianne Washington