Biography

Call 1.800.966.1380 to contact Reggie Jackson booking agent, publicist, manager, pr firm, representative and management company for booking Reggie Jackson speaker appearances, autograph signing, endorsement deals or hiring Reggie Jackson as a keynote speaker for your next event. Find Reggie Jackson official website information, speaker fees, booking fees, costs and schedule. Baseball great, Reggie Jackson, was born Reginald Martinez Jackson on May 18, 1946. Reggie Jackson was born in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia, the son of former Afroamerican Negro Leagues player Martinez Clarence Jackson, of Oakland, California, and Clara, an Afroamerican. Reggie's paternal grandmother was born in St. Croix and grandfather was an Afroamerican. In Reggie's family, Martinez was a name and NOT a last name.

Reggie Jackson nicknamed "Mr. October" for his clutch hitting in the postseason, is an American former Major League Baseball right fielder who played for five different teams from 1967 to 1987. He won three consecutive World Series titles as a member of the Oakland A's in the early 1970s and also won 2 consecutive titles with the New York Yankees. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993.

Jackson graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1964, where he had excelled in both football and baseball and was a classmate of Yonatan Netanyahu. Jackson attended Arizona State University on a football scholarship. There, he met Jannie Campos, his first wife, a Mexican-American. He switched to baseball following his freshman year, impressing coach Bobby Winkles with his great baseball skill.

Jackson debuted in the major leagues with the A's on June 9, 1967, a 6-0 A's victory over the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland. Following that season, the Athletics moved to Oakland. Jackson hit 47 home runs in 1969, and was briefly ahead of the pace that Roger Maris set when he broke the single-season record for home runs with 61 in 1961, and that of Babe Ruth when he set the previous record of 60 in 1927. Jackson later said that the sportswriters were claiming he was "dating a lady named 'Ruth Maris.'" That off-season, Jackson sought an increase in salary, and A's owner Charlie Finley threatened to send Jackson to the minors. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn successfully intervened in their dispute, but Jackson's numbers in 1970 dropped sharply, as he hit just 23 home runs while batting .237.

Jackson hit a memorable home run in the 1971 All-Star Game at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Batting for the American League against Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis, the ball he hit soared above the right-field stands, striking the transformer of a light standard on the right field roof. In 1984, he would hit a home run over that roof.

Reggie Jackson's number 9 was retired by the Oakland Athletics in 2004. In 1971, the A's won the American League's Western Division title, their first first-place finish since 1931, when they played in Philadelphia. They lost the American League Championship Series to the Baltimore Orioles. The A's won the Division again in 1972; their series with the Tigers went five games, and Jackson scored the tying run in the clincher on a steal of home. In the process, however, he tore a hamstring and was unable to play in the World Series. The A's still managed to defeat the Cincinnati Reds in seven games. It was the first World Championship won by a San Francisco Bay Area team in any major league sport.

He helped the A's win the pennant again in 1973, and was named Most Valuable Player of the American League for the season. The A's defeated the New York Mets in seven hard-fought games in the World Series. This time, Reggie was not only able to play, but his performance led to his being awarded the Series' Most Valuable Player award. The A's won the World Series again in 1974, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games. This Series marked the first time that two teams from California played each other for a sport's World Championship, and, through 2007, the only time a team other than the New York Yankees has won three consecutive World Series. While playing in Philadelphia, the A's had won three straight pennants from 1929 to 1931, but lost the third World Series in that stretch after winning the first two.

The A's won the Division again in 1975, but the loss of pitcher Catfish Hunter, baseball's first modern free agent, left them vulnerable, and they were swept in the ALCS by the Boston Red Sox. With the coming of free agency after the 1976 season, and with A's owner Charlie Finley unwilling to pay the higher salary that Jackson would ask for, Jackson was traded on April 2, 1976 along with minor leaguer Bill VanBommell and Ken Holtzman to the Baltimore Orioles for Don Baylor, Mike Torrez, and Paul Mitchell. Both his new team, the Orioles, and his former team, the Athletics, finished second in their respective divisions. Reggie Jackson tied the then American League record of hitting home runs in six consecutive games at Baltimore in 1976.

Besides putting up monster numbers during his nine years with the A's, including 254 home runs, Jackson was also no stranger to controversy or conflict in Oakland. Sports author Dick Crouser wrote, "When the late Al Helfer was broadcasting the Oakland A's games, he was not too enthusiastic about Reggie Jackson's speed or his hustle. Once, with Jackson on third, teammate Rick Monday hit a long home run. 'Jackson should score easily on that one,' commented Helfer. Crouser also noted that, "Nobody seems to be neutral on Reggie Jackson. You're either a fan or a detractor." One-time teammate Darold Knowles would seem to be in the latter camp. "There isn't enough mustard in the world to cover Reggie Jackson," he said.

Reggie Jackson's number 44 was retired by the New York Yankees in 1993. The Yankees signed Jackson to a five-year contract, totaling $2.96 million, on November 29, 1976. Upon arriving in New York, the number 9 that he had worn in Oakland and Baltimore was worn by third baseman Graig Nettles. Jackson asked for number 42, in memory of Jackie Robinson. But manager Billy Martin brought his friend Art Fowler in as pitching coach, and gave him number 42. So, noting that then-all-time home run leader Hank Aaron had just retired, Jackson asked for and received number 44, Aaron's number. On his first day in spring training the following February, however, Jackson wore number 20 before switching to 44.

Jackson's first season with the Yankees, 1977, was a difficult one. Although team owner George Steinbrenner and several players, most notably catcher and team captain Thurman Munson and outfielder Lou Piniella, were excited about his arrival, Martin was not. Martin had managed the Tigers in 1972 when Jackson's A's beat them in the playoffs. Jackson was once quoted as saying of Martin, "I hate him, but if I played for him, I'd probably love him."

The relationship between Jackson and his new teammates was strained due to an interview with SPORT magazine writer Robert Ward. During spring training at the Yankees' camp in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Jackson and Ward were having drinks at a nearby bar. Jackson's version of the story is that he noted that the Yankees had won the pennant the year before, but lost the World Series to the Reds, and suggested that they needed one thing more to win it all, and pointed out the various ingredients in his drink. Ward suggested that Jackson might be "the straw that stirs the drink." But when the story appeared in the May 1977 issue of SPORT, Ward quoted Jackson as saying, "This team, it all flows from me. I'm the straw that stirs the drink. Maybe I should say me and Munson, but he can only stir it bad."

On June 18, in a 10-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox in a nationally-televised game at Fenway Park in Boston, Jim Rice, a powerful hitter but a slow runner, hit a ball into right field that Jackson seemed to get to without much speed, and Rice reached second base. Furious, Martin removed Jackson from the game without even waiting for the end of the inning, sending Paul Blair out to replace him. When Jackson arrived at the dugout, Martin yelled that Jackson had shown him up. They argued, and Jackson said that Martin's heavy drinking had impaired his judgment. Despite Jackson being eighteen years younger, about four inches taller and maybe forty pounds heavier, Martin lunged at him, and had to be restrained by coaches Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. Red Sox fans could see this in the dugout and began cheering wildly, and the NBC TV cameras showed the confrontation to the entire country.

Yankee management managed to defuse the situation by the next day, but the relationship between Jackson and Martin was permanently poisoned. Nevertheless, late in the season, after resisting requests from various sources to do so, most particularly Steinbrenner, Martin put Jackson in the fourth position in the batting order, the "cleanup" position generally reserved for the team's most powerful hitter. Jackson's hitting improved (he had 13 home runs and 49 RBIs over his last 51 games), and the team went on a winning streak. On September 14, while in a tight three-way race for the American League Eastern Division crown with the Red Sox and Orioles, Jackson ended a game with the Red Sox by hitting a home run off Reggie Cleveland, giving the Yankees a 2-0 win. The Yankees won the division by two and a half games over the Red Sox and Orioles, and beat the Kansas City Royals to win the pennant.

During the World Series against the Dodgers, Munson was interviewed, and suggested that Jackson, because of his past post-season performances, might be the better interview subject. "Go ask Mister October," he said, giving Jackson a nickname that would stick. (In Oakland, he had been known as "Jax" and "Buck.") Jackson hit home runs in Game 4 and Game 5 of the Series.

Jackson's crowning achievement came with his three-home-run performance in Game 6, each on the first pitch, off three different Dodger pitchers. (His first at-bat, during inning two, resulted in a four-pitch walk.) The first came off starter Burt Hooton, and was a line drive shot into the lower right field seats at Yankee Stadium. The second was another line drive off reliever Elias Sosa into roughly the same area. With the fans chanting his name, "Reg-GIE! Reg-GIE! Reg-GIE!" the third came off reliever Charlie Hough, a knuckleball pitcher, making the distance of this home run particularly remarkable. It was a towering drive into the black-painted "hitter's background" seats in center, 475 feet away, one that stunned the ABC Television sportscasters covering it:

In 1981, the last year of his Yankee contract, Jackson endured several difficulties from George Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner consulted Jackson about signing then-free agent Dave Winfield, and Jackson expected Steinbrenner to work out a new contract for him as well. Steinbrenner never did (some say never intending to) and Jackson played the season as a free agent. Jackson started slowly with the bat, and, when the 1981 Major League Baseball strike began, Steinbrenner invoked a clause in Jackson's contract forcing him to take a complete physical examination. Jackson was outraged and blasted Steinbrenner in the media. When the season resumed, Jackson's hitting improved, partly to show Steinbrenner he wasn't finished as a player. He hit a long home run into the upper deck in Game 5 of the strike-forced 1981 American League Division Series with the Brewers, and the Yankees went on to win the pennant again. However, Jackson injured himself running the bases in Game 2 of the 1981 ALCS and missed the first two games of the World Series, both of which the Yankees won.

Jackson was medically cleared to play Game 3, but manager Bob Lemon refused to start him or even play him, allegedly acting under orders from Steinbrenner. The Yankees lost that game and Jackson played the remainder of the series, hitting a home run in Game 4. However, they lost the last three games and the Series to the Dodgers.

Jackson became a free-agent again once the 1981 season was over. The owner of the California Angels, legendary entertainer Gene Autry, had heard of Jackson's desire to return to California to play, and signed him to a five-year contract.

On April 27, 1982, in Jackson's first game back at Yankee Stadium with the Angels, he broke out of a terrible season-starting slump to hit a home run off former teammate Ron Guidry. The at-bat began with Yankee fans, angry at Steinbrenner for letting Jackson get away, starting the "Reg-GIE!" chant, and ended it with the fans chanting "Steinbrenner sucks!" By the time of Jackson's election to the Hall of Fame, Steinbrenner had begun to say that letting him go was the biggest mistake he has made as Yankee owner.

That season, the Angels won the American League West, and would do so again in 1986, but lost the American League Championship Series both times. On September 17, 1984, on the 17th anniversary of the day he hit his first home run, he hit his 500th, at Anaheim Stadium off Bud Black of the Royals.

In 1987, he signed a one-year contract to return to the A's, wearing the number 44 with which he was now most associated rather than the number 9 he previously wore in Oakland. He announced he would retire after the season, at the age of 41. In his last at-bat, at Comiskey Park in Chicago on October 4, he collected a broken-bat single up the middle, but the A's lost to the White Sox, 5-2. He is the last Kansas City A's player to play in a Major League Baseball game.

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