Reggie O

It's not often that you come across Reggie Jackson in an Oriole uniform. I came across a couple of them during a recent internet surfing session and just had to put 'em up on the blog.

But some of you out there may say, "But I thought Reggie was only an Athletic, Yankee and Angel throughout his illustrious career?" Well, for a brief twilight zone period in baseball history Jackson was indeed an Oriole. According to Jim Palmer he and Reggie had a brief talk when they became teammates. It went something like this according to the Oriole Ace:

Reggie: "Hey Ace, you get your twenty wins this season and I'll get my thirty homers and this team will be just fine."

Palmer: "Ok, sounds good"

Palmer did grab his twenty wins that year and if not for missing twenty-eight games Jackson probably would have pushed his total for the year from twenty-seven dingers to up over thirty. Oh, one observation -- How antiquated does it sound for the game's top slugger to say he's aiming to hit thirty home runs in the upcoming season and that he'll consider it a good year? I don't think anyone under the age of twenty could relate to that statement after living through the ridiculous 1990's power surge that continues in part today!

Here's some background on Reggie the Oriole. Jackson was traded to the Orioles just before commencement of the 1976 regular season. It was a three for three trade that featured some fairly big names at the time. Kenny Holtzman was coming off consecutive 19-21-19-18 win seasons for the A's when he, Jackson and minor leaguer Bill VanBommell were traded to the Orioles on April 2nd. In return the the O's moved Don Baylor (consecutive 119-124-111-115 OPS+ seasons), Paul Mitchel and 1975 twenty game winner Mike Torrez to the A's.

Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley moved Jackson because he was to be a free agent after the 1976 season and did not want to pay the big salary that Jackson would be demanding that fall.

The '76 season was Jackson's age thirty season. He only played in 134 games (his lowest total since his rookie year) but had an excellent offensive season. His .502 slugging average topped the American League and an .853 OPS+ placed him third. And he did this in Memorial Stadium -- a ballpark with Park Factor of 94. That's getting into Dodger Stadium offensive territory. He also stole a career high 28 bases in 35 attempts.

In 1977 Jackson went to the New York Yankees for his $3.5 million payday and the rest is history.

Ahhh, that's better. Back in a uniform we all recoginize Reggie in.