1981 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR
"Finally found peace in 1980. A much happier man now that Billy Martin is gone, Reggie continues upward in baseball's all-time home run parade.
'Reggie's such a money player, he gets himself psyched up,' says Tom Underwood. Nevertheless, Reggie watched the World Series on TV for the second year in a row. Born in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, his next goal is 500 career homers.
'He's never cheated and he never cheats the fans,' says rival pitcher Ed Farmer of the Chisox. Jackson frequently rises to the occasion after being knocked down- he recalls hitting 'seven or eight' homers in that situation. He has emerged as a true team leader.
Reggie has a chance to become the first player to sign multimillionaire contracts as a free agent twice in his career."
-Jim Hawkins, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1981 Edition
"Reginald Martinez Jackson. The name always recalled home runs and RBIs, not high batting averages. But as Reggie Jackson improves with age, so does his ability to hit for average. Not at the expense of the long ball, mind you, but in addition.
Witness his 1980 season: for the first time ever, Reggie hit .300! He also hit 41 long balls, the second highest total of his career and tied for the league lead in home runs. In addition, he passed the 100 RBI mark for the fifth time in his career. Reggie first gave evidence of his new found ability to hit for average in '79, when he tied for the club lead at .297.
But 1980 was a banner year for this veteran slugger. He reached a major milestone when he hit his 400th career round-tripper in August. He's also stolen over 200 bases and belongs to an exclusive club of those with 400 homers and 200 steals- a club that includes only Reggie, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Frank Robinson.
Reggie's always put the numbers on the board. One of the most impressive numbers is five, signifying the number of World Series rings he owns and signifying what his leadership and ability are all about. The next big number for Reggie? Six ... a sixth World Championship, that is."
-The New York Yankees Official 1981 Yearbook
"Another banner year. Jackson carried the club for most of the season. He hit .300 for the first time ever and tied Ben Oglive for the league lead in home runs with 41, the second highest total of his career. He drove in 111 runs, the third highest total of his career, and the fifth time he's hit over 100. Jackson hit 25+ home runs for the 10th straight year; only Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig and Eddie Matthews did it for 11 or more years.
Reggie was twice named American League Player of the Week and shared Player of the Month honors in July with George Brett, when Reggie hit .356 with 11 homers and 32 RBIs. He hit his 400th career home run off Britt Burns on August 11 and now has 410, 18th all-time. He drove in his 1,200th career run on August 1.
Along with tying for the lead in home runs, Jackson was second to Brett in slugging percentage (.597), second to Ken Singleton in game-winning RBIs (17), sixth in RBIs (111), tied for sixth in on-base percentage (.399), tied for eighth in walks (83) and seventh in total bases (307). Jackson finished second to Brett in the MVP voting and was named to the UPI and Sporting News All-Star teams; on the latter, he was voted by the players as both the DH and in the outfield.
Reggie finished the season on a 13-game hitting streak, matching Randolph for the longest of the year by a Yankee. He hit four home runs and had 11 RBIs in the last six games, and the Yanks won 33 of the 40 games he homered in.
Jackson has 410 career home runs, 18th all-time, and only Carl Yastrzemski has more among active American Leaguers. Reggie, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Frank Robinson are the only major leaguers with 400 homers and 200 stolen bases lifetime. During the '70s Reggie hit 292 home runs, tops in the AL and second only to Willie Stargell's 296 in baseball. He also had 922 RBIs during the decade, again the best mark in the AL and fourth behind Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Lee May in baseball. Over the last seven years, Reggie has 221 homers and only Mike Schmidt with 264 has more. Reggie has had six seasons of 30 or more homers, and five of more than 100 RBIs.
Reggie is averaging 32 home runs and 102 RBIs in his four Yankee seasons. He has led the club in RBIs and slugging all four years, has led the club in homers the last two years and tied Nettles in '78.
Drafted No. 1 by Oakland in 1966 and signed after his sophomore year at Arizona State, Jackson was Southern League Player of the Year in 1967 and reached the majors by the end of that season. He helped the A's to five Western Division titles and three World Championships. In 1969 Jackson challenged the Maris home run record and wound up with a career high of 47. In 1973 he was the MVP in the American League and in the World Series, led the league in home runs and RBIs that year, and was Sporting News Player of the Year. In 1975 he became the only player in history to homer in all 12 AL parks in one season and tied for the league in homers that year.
Traded to Baltimore on April 2, 1976 with Ken Holtzman and Bill Van Bommel for Don Baylor, Mike Torrez and Paul Mitchell, Jackson missed a month that year but still finished second to Nettles for the home run title. He signed a five-year contract with the Yankees after playing out his option following that season.
Reggie finished fifth in the league in homers and sixth in RBIs in 1977. Inserted into the cleanup spot on August 10, he had 13 homers and 49 RBIs as the Yanks won 40 of their last 53 games. He stole 17 of 20 bases that year and grounded into just three double plays, one more than the Yankee record. He also led the club with 20 game-winning RBIs.
In 1978 he hit eight of his 27 home runs and drove in 26 of his 97 runs in September. In 1979 he missed a month of the season and still tied for seventh in the AL in home runs, while hitting a then-career high of .297, and had another hot September with seven homers and 20 RBIs.
Reggie has been selected to 10 All-Star teams, and hit a tape measure home run in Detroit off the transformer in right field in the 1971 game. He has played on eight division winners, six pennant winners and five World Championship teams. He has led the league in home runs once and tied twice, and led the league in slugging percentage three times. Reggie's top home runs parks are Oakland (133) and Yankee Stadium (77). He has eight grand slams, four as a Yankee.
Reggie has been the World Series MVP twice, in 1973 and again in his record breaking 1977 Series. He set five World Series records that year and tied three others, and continued in 1978 when he tied Lou Gehrig's record of at least one RBI in eight straight World Series games. Reggie has 23 World Series RBIs, 12th all-time, and nine World Series homers, sixth all-time. He has now hit safely in 15 of his last 17 postseason games (ALCS and World Series), going 26-for-61 (.426), and has reached base 33 of his last 62 trips to the plate in postseason play, a .532 on-base percentage. He has a .767 slugging percentage in World Series play, tops among those in 20 or more Series games. Reggie was injured and missed his first World Series in 1972 when he pulled a hamstring in a play at the plate in the final game of the ALCS against Detroit.
The Yankees player representative, Jackson also served in the same capacity with the A's. One of six children, he grew up in Cheltenham, PA, just outside of Philadelphia. At Cheltenham High School he ran the 100 in 9.7, was a halfback on the football team and pitched three no-hitters. He batted .550 his senior year and also played basketball. Jackson earned both a baseball and a football scholarship to Arizona State. He left after his sophomore year but returned to earn a degree in biology.
Reggie received the National Cartoonists Society '#1 Sport of the Year' Award in February."
-1981 New York Yankees Media Guide
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