Great player worth of the Hall of Fame? Overrated blowhard? Somewhere in between?
My opinion: he lucked into the Mr October thing with those clutch HRs. Playing for the Yankees when they were in such a spotlight in the 1970s definitely helped. Even though the candy bar was awful, no other MLB player was that big.
But, he’s also Mr Strikeout and that was in an era where it wasn’t hit a homer or strike out.
So, I’m in between.
He was worthy of the Hall of Fame and an overrated blowhard.
The blowhard came naturally to him, he couldn’t help but blow his own horn.
I think it is impressive the a Hall of Fame player managed to be overrated. He knew how to generate hype about himself.
I’m no baseball statistician, but I think a lot of big hitters also struck out a lot. I’m thinking of Dave Kingman, for example.
Dave Kingman was actually a terrible player though that could only hit homers. He’s a bad example.
Reggie did strike out more than most of the other good sluggers.
As a Mets fan back then, he was the best we had in terms of hitting. It was a tough time to be a Mets fan.
To get a full understanding of Reggie,
He is the career leader in Ks. He’s ahead of all the modern sluggers that strikeout at high rates.
In his stint with the Angels, he almost managed to unwittingly assassinate the Queen of England when she was visiting LA, but was foiled at the last minute thanks to the exploits of the LAPD’s LT Frank Drebin.
Also a great player.
as a Baltimore fan, I was always resentful that he didn’t want to play for the O’s.
On April 1, 1976, Reggie Jackson was still a member of the Oakland A’s. It wasn’t until the next day, exactly a week prior to Opening Day, that A’s owner Charlie Finley, knowing he couldn’t afford to re-sign the pending free agent that fall, shipped Jackson, lefty starter Ken Holtzman, and a minor leaguer to the Orioles for outfielder Don Baylor, and right-handers Mike Torrez and Paul Mitchell. Stunned by the swap and already dissatisfied by his salary for the coming season, Jackson refused to report to the Orioles until the team agreed to increase his salary from $165,000 to $200,000, missing the first 16 games of the season in the process.
Black Ink
Batting - 35 (47), Average HOFer ≈ 27
Gray Ink
Batting - 175 (60), Average HOFer ≈ 144
Hall of Fame Monitor
Batting - 170 (67), Likely HOFer ≈ 100
Hall of Fame Standards
Batting - 54 (72), Average HOFer ≈ 50
JAWS
Right Field (8th) :
73.9 career WAR / 46.8 7yr-peak WAR / 60.4 JAWS
Average HOF RF (out of 27):
71.9 career WAR / 42.4 7yr-peak WAR / 57.2 JAWS
He’s a Hall of Famer by pretty much every standard. And boy did he cover the Fame part of it.
Despite being a huge Yankees fan who cut his teeth on the 70s Yanks (The Bronx Zoo). Reggie and his greatness never made me a big fan. I am just old enough that Thurman was my favorite player and the infamous stir-the-drink interview from Reggie put him as an asshole to me from the start. But Mr. October was a great player. No doubt.
Hey! It’s Enrico Palazzo!
In the Ken Burns documentary, he’ s quoted saying that he had about the same stats as Lee May of the Reds, but he “kn(e)w how to get asses into the seats”
Good enough power hitter for the Hall. He’s going in just for his long ball stats. He played in the big park era too.
I agree entirely with the “Hall of Famer but also overrated”, his hype being so extreme is how he has the rare distinction of being a legitimate Hall of Famer but also overrated.
Jackson was a great player, particularly in terms of home runs and RBIs. The big knock on him was his tendency to strike out.
One issue Jackson may have had was the fact that seemingly everybody who ever played with him couldn’t stand him. One of his Yankee teammates (I want to say Graig Nettles) once joked that Reggie was “the kind of guy who’ll give you the shirt off his back… then call a press conference to announce what he did.”
For me off-the-field Reggie was perfectly captured by the tabloid headline, “Reggie Jackson Speaks Out on his Sex Life”. See here for the Mike Royko column about it.
He hit three consecutive home runs in game 6 of the 1977 World Series. Two of the balls were returned to him. Unfortunately some little shit named Joe Cooper kept the third one.
Try another Jackson: Bo. 32% of his career plate appearances resulted in him being struck out, as opposed to Kingman’s 24.4% and Reggie’s 22.7%.
Definitely agreed. When I think about Jackson, and his ego and self-promotion, this bit always comes back to me:
And, after it was published, he’s been trying to deny it or walk it back ever since.
He certainly was a blowhard.
He was a no-doubt-whatsoever Hall of Famer. He was most of the way to the Hall of Fame before he ever played a game for the Yankees.