Reggie Jackson was, quite simply, the defining player of his generation.
Selfish and outspoken. Conceited and sometimes a bit crazy, too.There were the big contracts, and even bigger battles with his bosses. And above all, the biggest home runs in the clutch.
No last name needed here. He was the biggest star and he knew it. As free agency began, he was the free agent.
He called himself the "straw that stirs the drink" and no one argued. He talked in terms of "the magnitude of me," and who could disagree?
Love him or hate him, or a bit of both. But no one was ever neutral about Reggie Jackson.
He put his stamp on his time period in the same way Mantle and Mays defined their era, or Williams and DiMaggio, or Ruth and Gehrig, or Ty Cobb.
He was also more than flash and flair, more than wealth and words, more than 563 home runs that put him sixth on the career list. He had this in common with the greats of all time - he was a winner.
Mr. October.
Jackson led three different teams to a total of 11 division titles. He took the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees to three World Series each, and came away with the championship ring five times.
On Tuesday, he was voted to the Hall of Fame.
Jackson had that essential quality of a true star: the ability to be at his best when it mattered most:
- Three home runs on three pitches, each one longer than the one before it, in the sixth and final game of the 1977 World Series. Babe Ruth is the only other player to hit three home runs in a World Series game. The blows gave Jackson four homers in a span of four swings.
- His home run off the light tower above right field at Tiger Stadium in the 1971 All-Star game. It was one of 12 All-Star games he played in.
- The home opener in 1978 when the candy named after him, the Reggie Bar, is handed out to more than 50,000 fans entering Yankee Stadium. Reggie homers, of course, and the field is showered with Reggie Bars.
- April 27, 1982, after George Steinbrenner let Jackson jump ship as a free agent, Reggie returns to Yankee Stadium for the first time in a California Angels uniform and homers to the tumultuous chant of "Reg-gie! Reg-gie! Reg-gie!"
- A .357 career average in the World Series, including 10 home runs in 98 at-bats.
He won games by swinging his bat, and also once won a big game by swinging his hips.
In one of his most memorable moments, Jackson let a double-play relay by Los Angeles shortstop Bill Russell go off his thigh in Game 4 of the 1978 World Series. The Dodgers screamed interference, but the Yankees rallied to win.
Jackson was so big so often that even his failures were dramatic.
He was part of the most talked about batter vs. pitcher confrontation in the last 20 years, striking out against Bob Welch after a nine-pitch duel to end Game 2 of the 1978 Series. Jackson fanned with two on in the ninth inning of a 4-3 game, but came back in Game 6 to homer off Welch as the Yankees clinched the Series.
When Jackson pounded that batting helmet on his head, cork-screwed himself into the batter's box and flexed that No. 44 jersey across his back, anything could happen.
He won four American League home run championships and drove in 100 or more runs in six seasons. He set or tied six career records - all for strikeouts. He also tied the AL record for the most years in leading outfielders in errors.
But the postseason was where he turned it on. He set 12 World Series records and tied eight others, and set seven more in the playoffs and tied four.
His accomplishments cut a wide path that often swallowed up others. When Dave Winfield was not able to do what Jackson had done, Steinbrenner dubbed him "Mr. May." This season, by the way, Winfield passed Jackson's career total of 1,702 RBIs and got the hit that won the World Series.
When he wasn't on the field, Jackson still had a way of making major waves.
There was that nationally televised game on June 18, 1977, at Fenway Park, when manager Billy Martin called in Jackson from right field during a game. Martin thought Jackson had dogged a fly ball, and the two of them got into a shouting match that nearly escalated into a fistfight.
There was that night in Oakland on Oct. 16, 1981, after the Yankees had beaten Oakland to clinch the AL pennant. Jackson and teammate Graig Nettles began arguing at a restaurant, and then began fighting.
There was that extra-inning game at Yankee Stadium, when Jackson ignored Martin's bunt sign. The next pitch, Reggie again went against Martin's wishes and actually did bunt. After the game, Martin threw a clock against his office wall, and suspended Jackson for five games.
But that did not stop Jackson for long. During his 21-year career, not much did.
Even now, at age 46, his star still burns bright.
At last summer's All-Star game festivities in San Diego, it was Jackson who got the biggest hit. He stepped to the plate with the bases loaded against Bob Gibson in the old-timers' event and, as if there was any doubt, hit a 385-foot drive over the right-center field fence.
"That's Reggie," his former Oakland teammate, Joe Rudi, said. "He's not going to change. He's always risen to the occasion."