Reggie Jackson's World Series Home Runs.

Reggie Jackson's World Series Home Runs. Baseball player Reggie Jackson could do no wrong in game six of the 1977 World Series. In each of three turns at the plate, he sent the ball flying toward the stands, hitting three home runs in a row and clinching the New York Yankees' victory in the World Series. . Three Swings, Three Home Runs On a blustery New York autumn night New York Yankee Reggie Jackson took just three swings in three times at bat and hit three home runs. As a result, Jackson clinched the world championship for the Yankees, tied a World Series record, and cemented his reputation as baseball's best batter. The October performance made him one of the sport's more memorable figures, despite a controversial reputation among fans and teammates. "I don't like the guy," one teammate told the New York Times in the aftermath of Jackson's three-home-run night. "I don't like a lot of the things about him. But I have to admire what he did tonight. He's a great performer." Even Jackson admitted there was more than one side to Reginald Martinez "Mr. October" Jackson. "There's part of me I don't know," he said, sitting in the locker room three hours after his achievement, according to the New York Times. "There's the ballplayer in me who responds to all that pressure. I'm not sure I hit three home runs, but the ballplayer in me did." After a season with the Baltimore Orioles in 1976 Jackson signed a $2.9-million free-agent contract with the Yankees. The Yankees, swept in the 1976 World Series, were building a juggernaut on the pocketbook of Steinbrenner, who offered big contracts to top free-agent players. The squad was known as The Best Team Money Could Buy. It was also called The Bronx Zoo for the players' poor behavior and inability to get along. "High-powered and high-salaried, they are as disputatious, selfish, and disdainful of each other as they are talented--a galaxy of stars, singularly burning with a hard, cold light," Time magazine said. Bringing the largest contract in baseball to the sport's most storied franchise in the heart of the nation's media capital was a challenge in which Jackson reveled. He was the kind of player who relished the limelight and used his swagger to intimidate others. A few of his teammates complained about what they saw as a streak of arrogance. Jackson's habits included sitting on the team bus openly counting his money. The Los Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees' opponent in the 1977 World Series, represented the polar opposite of the chaos in the Bronx. The Dodgers relied on players developed within their organization, unlike the Yankees' roster of free agents. The Dodgers, led by their ebullient manager Tommy Lasorda, were all for one and one for all. "I have to be the luckiest guy in the world," Lasorda told Sports Illustrated after the Dodgers won the National League Championship Series (NLCS). "I feel like the father sitting at the dinner table, feeling the pride and love of his family." The Yankees won three of the first four contests in the World Series. The Dodgers took game five to send the affair back to New York for a sixth game. Heading into game six Jackson had belted two home runs in his prior five at bats, including one in his previous plate appearance. He had an inkling of what might be in store for him on the night of October 18. "In batting practice I hit 15 or 20 balls in the stands. I had a pretty good feeling there was something to come," he told interviewers for the documentary The 50 Greatest Home Runs in Baseball History. Jackson walked in his first at bat. In the fourth inning Dodgers starting pitcher Burt Hooton's first delivery to Jackson was a fastball in tight that Jackson hammered into the right-field bleachers, scoring two runs and pushing the Yankees ahead, 4-3. The Dodgers brought in Elias Sosa, who faced Jackson in the fifth. On one pitch Jackson hit a home run to the right. Later, the crowd cheered his name when Jackson manned his spot in the outfield. Jackson batted again in the ninth inning against knuckleball pitcher Charlie Hough with the Yankees leading, 7-4. "Frank Robinson taught me how to hit that pitch in 1970 when he managed me in winter ball," Jackson told reporters, according to Sports Illustrated. "Just time the ball. I thought if I got a decent pitch I could hit another one out. Anyway, at that point I couldn't lose. All I had to do was show up at the plate. They were going to cheer me even if I struck out. So the last one was strictly dreamland." Hough threw a knuckleball on the first pitch that Jackson sent screaming into the center-field stands. "Hough said that knuckler didn't move much," a reporter said, according to the New York Times. "It didn't," Jackson responded, "until I got hold of it." New York won the World Series, 4-2. Jackson tied a World Series record with three home runs in a single game; Babe Ruth accomplished the feat twice. Along with the home run that Jackson hit in his final at bat in game five, he smashed a World Series record with four consecutive home runs. Other records included his total of five home runs for the Series, his 25 total bases, and his 10 runs. He finished the World Series with eight runs batted in and a .450 batting average. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.