Reggie Jackson - Biography

Last Editor: cancer_girl				Reggie Jackson Biography -   Name : Reggie Jackson Profession : Baseball Player Birth Details : born May 18, 1946

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Reggie Jackson Detailed Biography -

Reginald Martinez "Reggie" Jackson (born May 18, 1946), nicknamed "Mr. October", is a former right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1967 to 1987. His father, Martinez Jackson, was a Puerto Rican who played in the Negro Leagues. Reggie Jackson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993 in recognition of his talents. Reggie Jackson was born in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia, but later made his home in Oakland, California. After graduating from Cheltenham High School in 1964, he attended Arizona State University on a football scholarship. He switched to baseball following his freshman year, impressing coach Bobby Winkles with his strength. He was the second selection in baseball's 1966 amateur draft, chosen by the Kansas City Athletics. The New York Mets had the first pick, but chose Steve Chilcott, a catcher who had just graduated from high school in California. Jackson was told by Winkles that the Mets were nervous about drafting him because he had a white girlfriend; Jackson's girlfriend, Jennie Campos, was actually a Mexican-American. Jackson and Campos later married and divorced, and through 2005, he has never remarried. Chilcott played six years in the minor leagues before retiring. Through 2005, he is the only number-one pick in the baseball draft who retired without ever reaching the major leagues. This person is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. 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.'" 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. 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 game-winning run in the clincher. 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 they defeated the Mets in seven games. This time, he 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 the State of California played each other for a sport's World Championship, and, through 2005, 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 A's owner Charlie Finley being unwilling to pay the higher salary that Jackson would ask for, Finley traded Jackson to the Baltimore Orioles just before the start of the season. Both his new team, the Orioles, and his former team, the Athletics, finished second. But Finley's unwillingness to re-sign his stars at higher salaries led to the breakup of one of baseball's greatest teams, some dismal seasons, and very nearly the loss of the Oakland franchise. Finley nearly sold the team to buyers who would have moved them to Denver for the 1978 season and New Orleans for 1979 before selling them in 1980 to a group that kept them in Oakland.