When it comes to baseball greats, several names can be thrown into the hat for best slugger or best glove, but few can compete with Hall of Fame right fielder Reggie Jackson in category of 'biggest personality.' An ornery man full of swagger and conceit, Jackson wasn't afraid to go against the flow or speak his mind, and he made friends and enemies of some of the most colourful characters in the game.
But he was a powerhouse player as well, as big a presence on the field as he was in life. Nicknamed "Mr. October" for his clutch hitting ability in the postseason, Jackson was a 14-time All-Star, 2-time Silver Slugger Award winner, 2-time World Series MVP, and a member of 5 World Series championship teams, with both the Oakland A's and the New York Yankees.
The story of Reggie Jackson is not just one of athletic accomplishment or a colourful personal life, however. It is also the story of a time, after Jackie Robinson but before Ken Griffey Jr. or Barry Bonds, when black ballplayers had been accepted into the sport, but were not yet on an equal footing with white players. There were unspoken rules, both on the field and off, that were meant to keep the racial waters still. But Jackson not only ignored such conventions, he openly defied them, and in so doing played a crucial role in leveling the playing field for his fellow black ballplayers.
From his upbringing in a predominantly white community to his heroics behind the plate and his run-ins with some of the most powerful figures in the sport, such as the notoriously cheap A's owner Charlie Finley or the manipulative George Steinbrenner, Reggie Jackson is remembered as a bigger-than-life character, the first black baseball superstar -- truly one of the greatest players the sport has ever seen.
