Joe DiMaggio was scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to Game Six of the 1977 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the Yankees dressing room before the game, DiMaggio grabbed a stool and sat next to New York’s star right fielder Reggie Jackson. A high-priced free agent, Jackson had endured a rough (albeit productive) first season in The Bronx, battling his teammates, the press, his manager Billy Martin, and his boss, George Steinbrenner. DiMaggio and Jackson chatted for a while. DiMaggio had been the Oakland A’s hitting coach back in 1968, when a young Jackson was in his first full season in the big leagues. Now, DiMaggio was telling Jackson that he thought he was a great ballplayer. It was the confidence boost that Jackson needed and thrived on. At this point in the Series he was hitting .353 with two home runs. The second one had come in his last at-bat in Game Five, at Dodger Stadium, a titanic shot off Don Sutton. Johnny Oates, the Dodger catcher, called it, “the single hardest-hit ball I ever saw.”1
After the talk with DiMaggio, Jackson headed out to the field for batting practice, where he put on a show of awesome power. As Jackson drove ball after ball into the seats, the Yankee Stadium crowd began chanting Reg-gie, Reg-gie, Reg-gie! (Decades later, Jackson estimated that during batting practice that night he “probably took 50 swings and had to hit 35 balls in the stands, all within about a 50-feet radius in right field.”2 Baseball writer Roger Kahn, who witnessed the carnage, puts the ratio at 40/20.) “Hey,” teammate Willie Randolph shouted, “would you maybe save a little of that for the game?” Reggie nodded and noted, “I’m feeling good. I mean I’m feeling great.”3
