REGGIE JACKSON'S Lost Season

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Nobody likes to talk about this much. In fact, it's almost as if there is a conspiracy among baseball fans of all teams to just pretend that it never happened.)   o ......... but it did happen. He was ours ......... it was ever so fleeting, but he was indeed ours for a year.

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I remember it well.

I remember it all too well. We gave up my favorite player at the time (Don Baylor) to get him as a one year rental and then lost him to the MFYs in free agency.

Can you imagine how much better we would have been had we been able to resign him?

I remember it all too well. We gave up my favorite player at the time (Don Baylor) to get him as a one year rental and then lost him to the MFYs in free agency.

The part I recall is that Reggie sat out the month of April before he played a game for us. He hit horribly though July 3 (.710 OPS). But he put up a .936 OPS the rest of the season, including a stretch in July where he homered six games in a row.

Can you imagine how much better we would have been had we been able to resign him?

Yeah that was a major major mistake. According to reports at the time, Reggie was prepared to sign 4 years for $1 million. That was a bargain and the Os probably would have won the AL East those 4 years. And it's not hindsight, Hank Peters should have KNOWN that was a bargain price because Catfish Hunter received much more than that on the open market a year or two earlier. Maybe ownership wouldn't allow it, who knows. Peters called Reggie's proposal "mind-boggling". What a fool. It still irks me to this day.

Yeah that was a major major mistake. According to reports at the time, Reggie was prepared to sign 4 years for $1 million.

More proof that MacPhail won't open the checkbook for premium talent. :laughlol:

I remember it all too well. We gave up my favorite player at the time (Don Baylor) to get him as a one year rental and then lost him to the MFYs in free agency.

Aye, they aren't fond memories.

Yeah that was a major major mistake. According to reports at the time, Reggie was prepared to sign 4 years for $1 million. That was a bargain and the Os probably would have won the AL East those 4 years. And it's not hindsight, Hank Peters should have KNOWN that was a bargain price because Catfish Hunter received much more than that on the open market a year or two earlier. Maybe ownership wouldn't allow it, who knows. Peters called Reggie's proposal "mind-boggling". What a fool. It still irks me to this day.

Yeah, the only info I can find is a blog, stating that Reggie wanted a 3-year deal worth $675,000. Ah, what could have been...

On an unrelated note, Aurelius, it's good to see you. I remember you from before this board (when the old one crashed). :thumbsup1:

I don't really have any memories of Reggie being on the team. I was........ less than lucid... that year.

I had a banner that year that said " Reggie We love You ". It was on the front page of the Steadman column. The News American was Boss.

If what my dad has told me was true, he was a lazy bum. So...I'm guessing nobody talks about it because nobody wants to remember it.

If what my dad has told me was true, he was a lazy bum. So...I'm guessing nobody talks about it because nobody wants to remember it.

I knew him pretty well for a while. Not a lazy bum by any stretch, though other aspects of his personality could be debated.

A lazy player would not have lasted two days playing football for Frank Kush.

I just threw up a little in my mouth when I opened those links.

I saw Reggie's first game in an O's uniform - May 2, 1976. It was game two of a double header against his old team - the Oakland A's. I don't remember anything about the game. I do remember Reggie hanging out by the visitor's bullpen talking to the A's pitchers in between innings.

That trade has to rank as one of the worst in O's history. If you're going to pull the trigger on a deal like that you have to resign him. I don't know what Peters was thinking. He knew the O's were on a shoe-string budget. Baylor was signed for another two years. Torrez had some good years after the trade as well. The other guy they got, Ken Holtzman, did nothing but complain. Later that year they were able to unload him to the MFY in the big deal for Dempsey. Tippy. and McGregor.

I think Peters thought Reggie would sign for a discount because his mother lived in Baltimore and Reggie used to play for Johnny's Used Cars - a sandlot team in West Baltimore that had a lot of success. Peters was a fool. Good article on Johnny's here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1088866/index.htm