1979 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR
"The 'straw that stirs the drink.' Mr. October. He's a sensitive man with a massive ego that is easily hurt, but he can carry a club all by himself when he's hot. Reggie is at his best under pressure. He homered in the final game of the 1978 World Series after hitting three dramatic homers to climax the '77 Series.
Reggie drives a Rolls Royce. He's only the second player in history to have a candy bar named him. The other was Ty Cobb, not Babe Ruth.
Born in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, Reggie was signed by the Yankees for $3 million as a free agent before 1977. He was suspended for five games last year by Billy Martin for refusing to bunt. His lack of contrition led to Martin's final outburst and subsequent resignation. Reggie enjoyed peace under Bob Lemon. He finished the year as a DH."
-Phil Pepe and Jim Hawkins, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1979 Edition
"Each time he steps to the plate, the cry of 'Reggie, Reggie' rocks the overflowing ballpark. The excitement builds, but the beautiful noise doesn't alter this man's concentration and it is rare when he disappoints the Stadium faithful. It's been that way ever since he first donned the Yankee pinstripes.
1977 saw Reggie win the World Series MVP in a landslide as he had the most productive Series performance ever. Well, one of the best-kept secrets is that he also had a tremendous Series last fall.
Reggie wound up the '78 Fall Classic batting .391 and leading the club with two home runs and eight RBIs. He also tied Lou Gehrig's record of at least one RBI in eight consecutive Series games.
But Reggie Jackson is more than a World Series player. Over the past ten years no one in baseball has hit more home runs than he has and only Mike Schmidt has more over the last five. In his two years in New York, he has led the club in RBIs twice and only Graig Nettles has more home runs. Reggie shows no signs of slowing down and that spells nothing but trouble for American League pitchers in '79."
-The New York Yankees Official 1979 Yearbook
"A second straight outstanding year for Reggie as a Yankee, and he finished it off with a second straight outstanding World Series performance. Few people will ever forget his three-homer performance in the final game of the 1977 Series. He carried on in the '78 Series, hitting a homer in the first game against the Dodgers; he hit two more in last year's Series and now has nine World Series home runs. Reggie batted .391 in the '78 Series with a hit in each game and now has a 10-game World Series hitting streak (17-37, .459). Last year he tied Lou Gehrig's record for at least one RBI in eight straight World Series games, and now has 23 Series RBIs, putting him in 12th place on the World Series list. Reggie set five World Series records in 1977 and tied three others; without saying, he was the World Series MVP in '77.
Reggie had two homers and a .462 average in the ALCS against the Royals. He has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 postseason games (23-50, .460), and has reached base in 29 of his last 50 trips to the plate in postseason play, a .580 on-base percentage.
Reggie led the Yanks in RBIs last year with 97, seventh best in the league, he tied Graig Nettles for the club homer lead with 27, ninth in the league, and he led the Yanks in slugging at .478, 14th in the league. He had two grand slams last year, and now has seven for his career. Reggie had a five-RBI game against the Tigers on June 30, and had two four-hit days. He's a good clutch hitter, with 11 game-winning RBIs last year after leading the Yanks with 20 in 1977. Reggie's longest hitting streak last year was 10 games. He was used as the Yanks' DH in 35 games, but worked hard to improve his defense and came up with six outfield assists last year. Reggie got hot towards the end of the year, hitting eight of his 27 homers in September, along with 26 RBIs that month, and added four homers in the ALCS and World Series.
Reggie became the 19th player in major league history to hit 20 or more homers for 11 straight seasons. He also drove in the 1,000th run of his career during the season and continued to move up on the all-time home run list. Over the last five years, Reggie has hit 151 home runs, the most in the American League, and only Mike Schmidt in all of baseball has hit more in that period. Reggie has hit over 30 homers in five seasons and has driven in over 100 runs four times.
In his first year in New York in 1977, Reggie was fifth in the league with 32 homers. He led the Yanks with 110 RBIs, sixth in the league, and led the team with 39 doubles and a .550 slugging percentage. He stole 17 bases in 20 attempts and had a 14-game hitting streak, his longest since a 15-game streak in 1974. The Yanks took off in '77 after Reggie was inserted into the cleanup spot on a permanent basis on August 10; from that point on until the end of the season, Reggie had 13 homers and 49 RBIs as the Yanks won 40 of their final 53 games.
The Yanks signed Reggie to a five-year contract after the 1976 season when he had played out his option with Baltimore. He was an Oriole for only one season, achieving much of his fame as a member of the Oakland A's from 1967-1975. Reggie helped the A's to five Western Division titles and three World Championships. Having served as the A's' (and now the Yankees') player rep, Oakland traded him to Baltimore on April 2, 1976.
Reggie has led the league in slugging percentage three times. He missed a month of the 1976 season but still wound up second to Nettles in the league in homers. He led the league in homers in 1973 and tied for the lead in 1975. Only Carl Yastrzemski has more lifetime homers among active American Leaguers. In 1969 Reggie challenged the Maris home run record and wound up with a career high of 47 homers. In 1975 he became the only player to homer in all 12 American League parks in one season.
An eight-time All-Star, Reggie is remembered for his tape-measure home run in Detroit in the 1971 game, a shot that bounced off the transformer on the right-field roof at Tiger Stadium. He was the top vote-getter in the 1974 balloting among the fans.
In 1973 Reggie was MVP in the American League and in the World Series, and also the Sporting News Major League Player of the Year. Reggie had missed the 1972 World Series after a pulled hamstring injury in a play at the plate in the final game of the ALCS against the Tigers.
Reggie was one of six children born to Martinez and Clara Jackson just outside of Philadelphia. His father was a tailor. Reggie played baseball, basketball, football and ran track at Cheltenham High School near Philly, where he ran the 100 in 9.7, was a halfback on the football team, and pitched three no-hitters. He batted .550 in his senior year and got a scholarship to Arizona State, where he played baseball and football. Reggie was drafted number one by Oakland in 1966 and left after his sophomore year for a reported $95,000 bonus. In 1967, he was the Player of the Year in the Southern League and reached the majors by the end of the season.
Reggie grounded into only three double plays in 1977, one short of the Yankee record held by Mickey Mantle and Mickey Rivers."
-New York Yankees 1979 Media Guide
REGGIE HONORED BY ALS FOUNDATION
"Reggie Jackson was presented with a plaque by the National ALS Foundation in appreciation of his participation as the Honorary National Chairman.
The plaque was presented in ceremonies prior to the Yankees-Brewers game on Monday, July 3 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's famous farewell speech at Yankee Stadium on July 3, 1939. Gehrig was stricken by the rare terminal disease, and the National ALS Foundation, with Reggie's help, is dedicated to finding the cause and cure of the disease."
-New York Yankees 1979 Scorebook & Official Magazine
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