Do you consider Reggie Jackson an ex Oriole?

[Moose Milligan]

I remember when I was about 11 or 12, I think Reggie was getting ready to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Upper Deck did an insert set and I was heavy into card collecting at the time. Flipping through a magazine I saw this card:

http://caimages.collectors.com/psaimages/111/12527613/Jackson,%20Reggie.jpg

An Orioles hat? What?

So I looked it up and sure enough, he did play for the Orioles. For one season.

And it was a good season. In 134 games he hit 27 homers, stole 28 bases, and his slugging of .502 and OPS+ of 155 lead the league. He received MVP votes.

But it's a footnote of his HoF career and seems to be a footnote of Orioles history. He's rarely mentioned on the board...and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some people here who had no idea that Reggie played a season in Baltimore.

Technically, he does count as an ex Oriole....but what do you really think?

[adamwolff11]

Reggie's last season was the year I was born, so obviously he was before my time. Whenever I think of him, I definitely never think of him as an Oriole. I think it was just a few years back that my dad informed me we had him for a season. In a quick look at his stats, it's interesting that he had his highest SB total of his career in that season with the Orioles. Personally, I don't think of him as an Oriole. He played 21 total seasons, so less than 5% of his career was with us. Him being an Ex Oriole is basically just a formality to me.

[Mark Carver]

If "Mr. October" had showed up when he was suppose to, perhaps the team wouldn't have finished in 2nd place. He was traded for on 04/02/1976 and his first game in an Orioles uniform was the teams 17th, May 2nd. They finished 10.5 games back in 1976.

Losing Don Baylor and Mike Torrez for this 1 year rental was huge, in the long run. To me, he will never be an Oriole in my eyes.

Reggie Jackson, My Bio (http://reggiejackson.com/my-bio/)


I was traded to the Baltimore Orioles along with Ken Holtzman and Bill Van Bommel for Don Baylor, Mike Torrez and a couple others in the spring of 1976, oh by the way, after leading the American League in HRs again with 36 and driving in 105 RBIs. I was devastated; I’d been with the A’s since I signed at 20 yrs old. I was leaving a family; I was now 28 and didn’t know anything else but the A’s. Joe Rudi, Dave Duncan, Vida Blue, Campy, Sal and the others. It took me a few weeks to get to Baltimore. I held out for a couple weeks before going to Baltimore for a raise to a $200,000 annual salary.

I’d been cut in salary by Charlie because he was trading me and I wasn’t going to be playing for the A’s. So I received a 20% cut. After the trade I went to Hawaii to hang out for a few days, then to Arizona to work out with the Arizona State team and basically laid low while my agent Gary Walker talked to the General Manager Hank Peters about a contract for me that would approach $200k per Yr. After a couple weeks of negotiations with the Orioles general manager Hank Peters, I signed for $190,000 which at the time was 2nd highest in baseball to Dick Allen with the Chicago White Sox. Dick was earning $200,000. I agreed on the night of May 3rd. flew to Baltimore the 4th, took batting practice after a night game. Started and played the next day. So much for Spring Training eh?.

[waroriole]

He is an Oriole in the same way Sosa was an Oriole. They're not.

[RShack]

I remember when I was about 11 or 12, I think Reggie was getting ready to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Upper Deck did an insert set and I was heavy into card collecting at the time. Flipping through a magazine I saw this card:

http://caimages.collectors.com/psaimages/111/12527613/Jackson,%20Reggie.jpg

An Orioles hat? What?

So I looked it up and sure enough, he did play for the Orioles. For one season.

And it was a good season. In 134 games he hit 27 homers, stole 28 bases, and his slugging of .502 and OPS+ of 155 lead the league. He received MVP votes.

But it's a footnote of his HoF career and seems to be a footnote of Orioles history. He's rarely mentioned on the board...and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some people here who had no idea that Reggie played a season in Baltimore.

Technically, he does count as an ex Oriole....but what do you really think?
It was the very beginning of FA, and there was no history of walk-years to go by. He was here 1 year, the bicentennial, and wore number 9. Then he walked. Imagine what the late-70's would have been like if he and Grich had stayed. It would have been another dynasty era.

To his credit, I read an interview years ago, God knows where, in which Reggie said he wished he stayed longer. He loved NY, etc., etc., but he felt that leaving BAL so fast is what kept him from being able to have a career in the game after he retired. He thought he would've learned a lot more about baseball if he had stayed with the Orioles longer. He spoke about Earl and about the whole Oriole attitude, with everybody talking about the game all the time, dissecting every little baseball detail. He said he didn't realize it at the time, but he now can see that he doesn't know baseball that well, and that staying an Oriole would have helped. It was kinda amazing to read that from Reggie, of all people, admitting that he didn't know the game that well.

After that year, we lost both Reggie and Grich to FA. The team responded by winning 97 the following year, and finished in 2nd place, 2.5 games behind Reggie's MFY's. IMO, that begin the part of Earl's career when he earned the legend part of his legacy. From then until he quit, his Oriole teams mostly did better than they should have.

[BillySmith]

He did have a good year. At one point, he homered in 7 straight games to tie an AL record IIRC. I can consider him an ex-Oriole.

[beaner]

I always will remember Home Run Derby day back in 1993, a few weeks before Reggie's induction. They had an old timers game, and Reggie came up and the Oriole Park crowd went nuts, "Reggie, Reggie, Reggie". I think gibson was pitching and Reggie crushed one onto the flag court and the place WENT NUTS! It was a really cool moment, even though Reggie was wearing his Yankees garb. Granted the Yankees were no factor for many years and didn't really garner much attention, but still was cool to see our fans embrace the moment like that. He ran around the bases to a huge ovation, and I'm sure he appreciated that given his tenure in Baltimore didn't last very long.

I voted yes he is an Ex Oriole, it says it on his HOF plaque, that's enough for me.

[Boy Howdy]

If "Mr. October" had showed up when he was suppose to, perhaps the team wouldn't have finished in 2nd place. He was traded for on 04/02/1976 and his first game in an Orioles uniform was the teams 17th, May 2nd. They finished 10.5 games back in 1976.

Losing Don Baylor and Mike Torrez for this 1 year rental was huge, in the long run. To me, he will never be an Oriole in my eyes.



Everything you wrote here is dead on, though I disagree with the last sentence.

I started researching Reggie's year with Baltimore awhile back for an essay I haven't gotten around to writing yet. Many Orioles were absolutely livid that he wasn't ready to go on Opening Day considering what the club had given up for him. Jim Palmer, especially, made some biting comments that would inspire 200-page thread in the age of OH.

Baseball salaries were changing so fast at that time. The Orioles thought Reggie was out of his mind when they learned what type of money he was after. By the time the contract would have expired, though. the dollars figures wouldn't have been so outlandish after all. Can't really fault the Orioles, though. I doubt too many people saw it coming.

I had two "brush with greatness" moments with Reggie in Baltimore:

When he was with the Angels, I saw him at the Cross Keys Inn, where a lot of the visiting teams used to stay. The hotel staff had already banished me from the lobby for asking players for autographs, but I tapped on the window and motioned with a pen when I saw Reggie milling around. He walked over towards me...and pulled the curtain shut so that I could no longer see in!

Finally, in his last major league season in 1987, I saw him walking towards the first base dugout from down the right field line. There must have been 50 people hollering for him, but for whatever reason, Reggie came over to me and signed.

[Orioles West]

As someone who was a young fan at the time, I thought Reggie was a dirt bag for the way he handled the hold out. These days, that kind of thing is common, but I recall it was a pretty big deal to the team and a number of players around the league.

To that point in my life, the Yankees were not on my radar, as the O's were usually the better team. Once Reggie left for the money and the Yanks, the dislike of the MFY's kicked into full gear.

He wore the jersey for a few months, but Reggie Jackson was never an Oriole.






-Don

[BRobinsonfan]

Of course since he played for us for a year he technically is an ex-oriole... but I remember at the time all the talk about him being a one year rental even before he got to Baltimore... so do I think of him as an "ex-Oriole?" Not really... and I don't mean that as a slam at Reggie... it's just that the O's were a brief, temporary way station in his career and in the history of the franchise... so I don't really associate him with the team in a meaningful way.

[whatdoiget000]

It would have been amazing if he stayed. We could've had championships in '77, '79, '80, '81, and '82 with just the tiniest extra push, and Reggie more than qualifies as that.

[Moose Milligan]

It would have been amazing if he stayed. We could've had championships in '77, '79, '80, '81, and '82 with just the tiniest extra push, and Reggie more than qualifies as that.

I never really thought of that, even though that is obvious...but yeah.

Dammit, Reggie.

[sakata_catching]

It would have been amazing if he stayed. We could've had championships in '77, '79, '80, '81, and '82 with just the tiniest extra push, and Reggie more than qualifies as that.


I never really thought of that, even though that is obvious...but yeah.

Dammit, Reggie.

Just imagine if we'd not lost Bobby Grich to free agency during those years.

[Boy Howdy]

It would have been amazing if he stayed. We could've had championships in '77, '79, '80, '81, and '82 with just the tiniest extra push, and Reggie more than qualifies as that.

From John Eisenberg's vital From 33rd Street To Camden Yards

KEN SINGLETON - "Reggie told me years later that he would have stayed for $250,000 more overall. Nowadays that's a pittance, but in those days that was an awful lot to the Orioles, who just couldn't afford him. And one thing Reggie also said years later --during my 10 years in Baltimore I was on teams that finished second six times-- Reggie said, 'You remember all those years in Baltimore that you finished second? If I'd stayed, you'd have won.' And he's probably right. We would have won. Of those six, I'm sure we would have won at least four."

[Nigel Tufnel]

From John Eisenberg's vital From 33rd Street To Camden Yards

KEN SINGLETON - "Reggie told me years later that he would have stayed for $250,000 more overall. Nowadays that's a pittance, but in those days that was an awful lot to the Orioles, who just couldn't afford him. And one thing Reggie also said years later --during my 10 years in Baltimore I was on teams that finished second six times-- Reggie said, 'You remember all those years in Baltimore that you finished second? If I'd stayed, you'd have won.' And he's probably right. We would have won. Of those six, I'm sure we would have won at least four."

Ken Singleton was my favorite player when I was a kid, but I've thought some more about this story. He's right that he played 10 seasons for the O's and finished 2nd 6 times, but he's including 1975, when Jackson was still on the A's, and 1976, when Reggie WAS his teammate! He's also including 1982, when Reggie's contract with the Yankees had expired and he was with the Angels. So it's really 3 years that the O's not signing Reggie cost them. But, still, 3 is a lot.

[Dipper9]

I voted Yes. Regardless if you wear the O's uniform for one day or 20 years, if you are signed to play for the Orioles, that makes you an Oriole.

[ShaneDawg85]

When I'd learned that Reggie Jackson played for the Orioles at one time I didn't believe it. He's a Yankee, I thought, and he's an A. Not an Oriole. Well, it happened.

As much as we might not like to remember certain people as having played for our favorite team, it's unavoidable. It says it on his baseball cards, in pictures and print, and on his Hall of Fame plaque. Sure, I'd like to forget and wish that Doug Drabek and Sammy Sosa ever played in an O's uniform, but that doesn't mean they never played here. Sure what happened with Reggie wasn't fun and pissed off a lot of people, and apparently still does, but he was great in that one season.

I guess my point is we don't have to like a guy, or be happy with the fact he ever played here. And in reality, most people couldn't tell you he played for the Orioles, and if you asked them will bring up the Yankees and A's in a heartbeat. But whether we like it or not, the man played here at one point in time, and that can't be changed.

[The Wedge]

It's kinda like Johnny Unitas being an ex-Charger. Yeah, it's technically true, by the letter of the meaning, but most people don't think of him in those terms.