Becoming Mr. October

by Reggie Jackson, Kevin Baker

A soul-baring, brutally candid, and richly eventful memoir of the two years—1977 and 1978—when Reggie Jackson went from outcast to Yankee legendIn the spring of 1977 Reggie Jackson should have been on top of the world. The best player of the Oakland A’s dynasty, which won three straight World Series, he was the first big-money free agent, wooed and flattered by George Steinbrenner into coming to the New York Yankees, which hadn’t won a World Series since 1962. But Reggie was about to learn, as he writes in this vivid and surprising memoir, that until his initial experience on the Yankees “I didn’t know what alone meant.”     His manager, the mercurial, alcoholic, and pugilistic Billy Martin, never wanted him on the team and let Reggie—and the rest of the team—know it. Most of his new teammates, resentful of his contract, were aloof at best and hostile at worst. Brash and outspoken, but unused to the ferocity of New York’s tabloid culture, Reggie hadn’t realized how rumor and offhand remarks can turn into screaming negative headlines—especially for a black athlete with a multimillion-dollar contract. Sickened by Martin’s anti-Semitism, his rages, and his quite public disparagement of his new star, ostracized by his teammates, and despairing of how he was stereotyped in the press, Reggie had long talks with his father about quitting. Things hit bottom when Martin plotted to humiliate him during a nationally televised game against the Red Sox. It seemed as if a glorious career had been derailed.     But Reggie vowed to persevere; his pride, work ethic, and talent would overcome Martin’s nearly sociopathic hatred. Gradually, he would win over the fans, then his teammates, as the Yankees surged to the pennant. And one magical autumn evening, he became “Mr. October” in a World Series performance for the ages. He thought his travails were over—until the next season when the insanity began again.     Becoming Mr. October is a revelatory self-portrait of a baseball icon at the height of his public fame and private anguish. Filled with revealing anecdotes about the notorious “Bronx Zoo” Yankees of the late 1970s and bluntly honest portrayals of his teammates and competitors, this is eye-opening baseball history as can be told only by the man who lived it.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Biography, Biography Memoir, Audiobook, Autobiography, Memoir

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Lee Schnitzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 1 - What if? What if the Mets had drafted me? What if the Orioles hadn't traded me? What if I went to LA instead of NY?

Part 2 - Billy Martin is drunken alcoholic who made my life miserable in 1977. I was innocent, and the media misunderstood me and was constantly on Billy's side. But I persevered and hit those three home runs in Game 6.

Part 3 - We should have been great in 1978, but Billy was still a drunken, sadistic alcoholic. He got himself fired, and then we were the awesome team we were destined to be. Beat the Red Sox in a one game play off, beat the Royals, and then beat the Dodgers. Oh, and I was really awesome.

I think Reggie came off as the victim, but I find it hard to believe that he was so misquoted and so misunderstood.

This should be a novel.

[Jordan Mayer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whine, blame and complain - great baseball player. As a Yankee fan 'thanks' for lots of special moments - but this book was a huge disappointment!

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in 1977 it must’ve read like a movie script. Five home runs in one World Series. Home runs in three straight World Series games. Three home runs in one World Series game. Three home runs on the first pitch. Four home runs on four consecutive swings. At that point, “nobody could think of when anyone ever did that. Not in the World Series. Not in major-league baseball history. Not in minor-league history. Not in the history of organized ball.” That is not until Reggie Jackson did all that thirty-six years ago. Those factoids alone make this sport retrospective worth the read.

While “Mister October” could take personal credit for breaking all those baseball records, he apparently had lots of help putting this journal together. Jackson credits Kevin Baker with that. One can only guess how the two of them pulled together all that baseball history from more than three decades ago. It reads like Jackson just read into a tape recorder and Baker transcribed it word-for-word. In that regard, this bio tends to ramble. Jackson will often be in the middle of a highly-detailed, play-by-play description of a crucial play-off game and he will jump to another memory. He may or may not ever get around to taking you back to the same game.

I came away from this trip down memory lane with several impressions. First, the incredible game detail. Either Baker is a human encyclopedia of sports trivia, or Jackson has a photographic memory set in stone. How else could any one individual remember every circumstance of every game? How else does one remember stadium attendance, pitch counts and pitch selection, where the ball landed, every scoring play, every put out, everyone’s win-loss record and everyone’s batting average?

Another take away impression, the racial prejudice that Jackson dealt with on a daily basis as well as the bias the sports media apparently had against him during his playing days. I was totally unaware of either while Jackson wore the New York Yankee uniform.

Finally, because these 292 pages focus primarily on Jackson’s record-setting Yankee years in 1977 and 1978, his volatile relationship with his manager, Billy Martin is a key theme here. In fact, their personal soap opera seems to be written on almost every page. Or at least it seems that way.

[wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting but somewhat self serving autobiography chronicling Mr. Jackson's early years up through his two championship seasons with the New York Yankees. There is a wealth of great baseball insight and inside information but if there is a central theme it is his clashes with his manager Billy Martin. Every single perceived slight is told in great detail. In fact, sometimes it is hard to revel in the accomplishments of the great teams and players (owners and other managers) and all of Reggie's wonderful deeds when the author's antenna constantly up for insults which bring things down.

[Mr.b · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reggie wants you to know a couple of things:

1. He's black. And anything bad that anyone has ever said about him - or about any other black person, especially Barack Obama - it's only because he's black. America is racist, racist, racist.

2. Billy Martin was a terrible human being and a terrible manager. He didn't like Reggie. Nobody liked Reggie. And why not? Maybe because he was black. Poor, poor Reggie.

This is, beyond doubt, the most self-serving book in the history of books. It's a 290 page assault on a dead man.

[Caleb Blevins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably one of my favorite sports books I’ve read so far. I went in knowing little about Reggie except for his 3 HR game in 1977. I finished the book loving him and feeling remorseful as he dealt with racial discrimination from inside the clubhouse for being multiethnic. I would recommend this to any sports fan and especially every baseball fan as Reggie Jackson looks back on his major league career in the Bronx.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read for me, a baseball fan from the late 1960s. I liked the great Oakland Athletics teams Reggie played on before he went on to the larger stage with the Yankees. Reading lots of familiar baseball names helps to tide me over until spring training begins again.

[Andrew Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warning: spoilers ahead.

So I finished Reggie Jackson's Becoming Mr. October and although I liked the first half, I found the second half tough to get through. It's tempting to take the easy way out and say, "Well, I'm not into baseball, so when he started going into the nitty gritty details of specific games and innings, I was lost." But I'm not entirely convinced that's the case, so I'm going to put that aside for a moment and focus on what I did like.

Reggie Jackson did a great job showing where he came from and who he was in the context of US society at that time. I'd had no idea he was such a versatile athlete, as I'd only heard of him in the context of baseball, and then learning his family relationships and other aspects of his background created a more vivid understanding in my mind. For lack of a better term, he "became real" in my mind. Following along with him from the Oakland A's to Baltimore, was interesting for me as far as what was changing and what had yet to be changed in regards to black athletes.

Then there's the Yankees, and Billy Martin's alleged behaviors. Personally, I have no problem believing it went down as described, but then I'm not a fan of the Yankees or Billy Martin, either. To me, it sounds like Martin may have been in over his head and was acting out as a control freak in his efforts to deal with it. At the same time, it felt like a lot of the focus and emphasis was on that aspect-- but then if I'd had to live through it, I suppose that's where my head would be also. I'm almost tempted to say this feels like two books crammed into one because of the amount of material, but I have no idea how it would be possible to separate them since the triumphant aspect is so interwoven with the "in spite of Billy Martin's treatment" narrative.

Here's one small example-- I'd heard Reggie Jackson referred to as "Mr. October" when I was growing up, but I'd never realized until listening to this audio-book that the nickname was initially given to him derisively by a teammate. Is this fact something essential to the story? No, probably not, but it reveals some of the mindset going on in the environment at the time, for whatever reason. Suddenly, America's past-time seems less like "The Wisdom of (Baseball) Teams" than "Lord of the (Pop) Flies."

So, if you're expecting this to be a nostalgic book about an historic era in baseball served up on a plate, be aware it also comes with salt and a large glass of tea. You'll want to give yourself plenty of time to digest it, and some parts may leave an unpleasant after-taste (as they should).

[Gary Schantz · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who started watching baseball in the mid-seventies, I was very interested in reading this book. At the time free-agency started, people of my father's generation saw players like Reggie Jackson as one of the hotdogs who went after the money rather than remain "loyal" to the team that originally brought them up in the major leagues. But if history has taught any sports fan about the old-time loyalties, most of those players were eventually thrown out with the bath water once their team no longer needed them...a good example was Babe Ruth. Anyone recall that he retired as a Boston Brave...not a Yankee?

As far as this book goes, it is so-so but I did enjoy reliving the big Yankee moments in 1977-78 when all the drama was going on. What I didn't enjoy about the book was the preaching about God and religion. It gets old to hear about how every great player has to thank God for their talents and why we should all go down on a bended knee for anything good that has happened to us.

Jackson wrote that this book was a reaction to the ESPN mini-series, "The Bronx is Burning". I guess this book was supposed to clear the air of what that program got wrong (which was mostly everything). In my opinion, the book only furthers the idea that no one got the "magnitude of Reggie Jackson". Besides I didn't think that mini-series was a very good depiction of anything representing New York City in the summer of 1977. ESPN would have been better off having made a 30 for 30 film instead.

Therefore, this book would have been a much better read if it had been more focused on Jackson's entire career rather than his responses to a program that has long since been shelved and forgotten about.

[Mark Skousen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been a fan of Yankee great, Reggie Jackson, Mr. October. He has now written his side of the story "Becoming Mr. October," which I just finished via audio book (read by the author, a real treat). It was fun listening to his story during the World Series (even though the Series was won this year by the Yankee nemesis, the Boston Red Sox.) He doesn't pull any punches about his disdain for Yankee skipper Billy Martin, even though the Yankees became world champions in 1977 and Jackson became Mr. October with his 3 home runs in the final game of the World Series. Still, I couldn't help but be sympathetic to Jackson -- despite his big ego, Billyball was one big headache, and I can see why 1978 under the likeable Bob Lemon was an easier victory in the World Series. I also loved Reggie's account of Bucky Dent's home run story in the famous 1978 playoff game against the Red Sox in 1978, and his interaction with all the other great players on the Yankee team in those years.

One of the most refreshing aspects of Jackson's memoir is his decision to avoid four letter words throughout the book. Like Sports Illustrated, he has the class to avoid the gutter language so prevalent in today's world.

I also enjoyed his discussion of racism in America when he was growing up as a sports figure. It is indeed a shameful time in our recent history.

[BMR, LCSW · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those of us Of a Certain Age, Reggie Jackson was synonymous with World Series championships. He played for 5 championship teams in a row back in the 70s. I had actually forgotten Reggie won (more) rings with the Oakland A's prior to the New York Yankees!

REG-GIE! = Yankees in my memory.

This book is mostly the story of two consecutive and tumultuous championship seasons in NYC, and how he got a candy bar named after him, among other things. ;) Oh, and a drunk named Billy Martin.

It's also the story of a Blatino who lived his life from Jim Crow to disco. Reggie Jackson played baseball with and against the greats of his era, and made it to Cooperstown with the best of them. He was the top cat of the early free-agent era, he was loved and hated equally, he made a lot of folks a lot of money, and got enough cash to have some houses and fancy cars himself.

The book ends with his second Yankees Championship.

Recommended for old heads who remember baseball before million dollar contracts, and for serious baseball/sports history geeks.

[Shah Saint-Cyr · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, this book was enticing. Was intrigued with the racial issues and confrontation that Reggie dealt with in the initial stages of his career. I do wish Reggie explores these matters in another book and magnifies these issues that he's dealt with in a new book because the first few chapters and the epilogue just weren't enough for me.

I dislike the issues that he had with Billy Martin. Seems like it was a one-sided/berating point-of-view. But, he had to speak on the subject since it was an intricate part of his career with the Yanks.

Came to embrace his prospective as a New Yorker and how he overcame the system which he initially rejected. And you feel the energy turn positive which allowed him to persevere and accomplish greatness.

[Chris Schaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

My streak of great baseball books was bound to end sometime. I mean it was good. Reggie’s not a dummy and the book ends really well on the late season run in ‘78 and the playoffs that year. But there were so many tangents he went on and parallels to the recent yankee years that interrupted the flow and skipped eras.

[Jake Witherow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that Reggie Jackson's Becoming Mr. October is a great book because it is very inspiring to others just like how Jackie Robinson was, but with Reggie, it explains it how its inspiring differently, and I like that as a reader that it gives other details to the reader.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good club house stories, nice to hear Reggies view on 77&78. Reggie really, really, really didnt like Billy Martin.

[Kev Willoughby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd always heard that Reggie Jackson was a hot dog, so I really wanted to read this one to get his own perspective on his life in baseball. He was about finished with his career around the time I became interested in the game in the early 1980s, so I missed his prime, but I've always enjoyed collecting his baseball cards over the years; especially the older ones from the 70s.

I was disappointed, however, to read Reggie's own words. Turns out, he's not really a hot dog (which I would have been okay with). Instead, he's a chronic complainer. And while he repeatedly pats himself on the back for how honest he is and how he isn't afraid to put his name with a quote for the press, I don't think he realizes how it all comes across. Most of this book is about how much he didn't like Billy Martin... who has been dead for quite a long time... and how he didn't get along with Thurman Munson... who had also passed on many years ago. As a reader and a fan, I don't see the need to spend most of the pages of a biographical book with negative accounts about other people who cannot defend themselves or give their side of what happened. There are always (at least) two sides to everything, and even if Reggie's accounts are closer to the truth than Martin's or Munson's would have been, is it really necessary to drag all of that out into print 35-40 years after it happened? If those struggles had to be mentioned at all (and I can see why they were since they were headlines at the time), they should not have become the theme of this book.

As a result, my takeaway is not any admiration that Jackson was able to overcome his perceived struggles (which many readers, including me, would have loved the opportunity to experience), but that the team somehow won in spite of those unnecessary distractions. I'd much have preferred to read about how Jackson eventually overcame those issues, but instead the tone of the book is one of continued bitterness to the current day, in spite of the constant success he should have been able to recognize and enjoy throughout his career.

So instead, my takeaway is that struggles with some level of insecurity in life is common to all, regardless of our given occupations or how much money someone does or does not have... or how much success and notoriety someone does or does not receive. Whether everyone or almost no one knows who you are, there are always opportunities to see the best or the worst in your respective circumstances. What we choose to perceive and subsequently dwell on will affect us for better or worse, and those around us will usually be able to sense those things more easily than we will likely be able to notice ourselves. If we harbor bitterness, the detriment is our own. It will affect you, as the bitter person, much more significantly than the person you are bitter toward.

[Sattik Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cringe-worthy writing, and a flat audiobook performance interrupted by the sound of constantly shuffling papers in the background, this book is nothing more than a poorly-written re-litigation of the 1977 and 1978 seasons solely in response to The Bronx is Burning miniseries and how Jackson was portrayed there. There is little to nothing new in this book, save for Jackson's occasional tangential rants. Listening to Reggie say "LOL" over and over again was painful enough, but to hear him repeatedly talk about how didn't actually care about how he got treated or how people view him made me wonder why he wrote a rebuttal to The Bronx is Burning at all. You'll probably end up wondering why you read the book at all.

[Andy Melbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some interesting things about what went on behind the scenes amidst all of the turmoil of his time in Pinstripes.

However, the overall tone of this entire book seems to be bitterness, refusal to admit he may have been wrong, or ever did anything wrong during his time in NY, and basically a quick rebuttal to "The Bronx Is Burning" tv miniseries (as he mentions in the prologue being one of the main reasons for this book), because he didn't like how he was apparently portrayed.

It's a quick read, but he tries to paint himself in the utmost high, and doesn't really tell anything that you might not already know simply by older books written about him or a quick Google search bio.

[Chad Rexin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good insight into one of the best power hitters of his time. I found it amazing how guys you think have it all have some of the same insecurities and troubles as the rest of us. It also makes you wonder if the Yankees would have got someone else in instead of Billy Martin of how much better the Yankees could have been. Dream teams are not always what they seem, but the great ones can thrive and win in spite of any problems they are dealing with. The book goes a bit much into Reggie being picked on by Billy Martin, but I still consider it a good buck and was fun to see insights into the World Series games.

[Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Always loved Reggie as a ballplayer, but this book which after a few chapters about his life in college, getting drafted by and playing in the minors and in Oakland for the A's deals almost solely on his days as a member of the Bronx Zoo.
This book makes him seem like a poor poor pitiful me crybaby. I'm sure having a drunk with ego issues as a manager wasn't easy. But it's not all on Billy. As a rule, if everyone hates you it's at least somewhat on you.
As much as I was looking forward to reading this book it left me very disappointed.

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read by the author himself this shares his entering into baseball with the Oakland Athletics. When Finely runs out of $ Jackson goes to Baltimore for one season. Then he has options where to play that I found interesting. He choses the Yankees and begins a turbulent experience with the manager, the press, and his teammates. They man age to win two World Championships. Interesting. At times a bit whiney. He mentions his faith.

[Melodie Wendel-Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's cool to stand in a sold-out major-league stadium and hammer a ball into the bleachers and hear fifty-six thousand people going wild....the same people might be booing you tomorrow."

Enjoyed auto-bio (can't seem to get into sports one): he's got his excitement of going to NYC, disappointment in being ignored by teammates and media not helping by misquoting him, having faith to endure and focus on game instead of "cat fights."

[T.J. Millar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guy didn’t have an ego except for the ego that he had.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the word self-serving would have to be invented if it did not exist. Reggie Jackson is rehashing arguments from years ago that people have long forgotten about except him. Basically, Reggie was perfect, maybe a bit brash but the issue was entirely Billy Martin. He was the cause of all the problems that existed around Reggie as was racism. Yes that's right two separate entities were responsible for all his problems. This could have been an opportunity to focus on a great time but Reggie can't let go of his animus towards Billy Martin which, granted, is probably legitimate but Martin is dead and Reggie does no favors by opening it all up again.

I was disappointed by the book and the story. The Bronx is Burning, a book Reggie hates, does a much better job telling this story.

[Dan Lalande · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson revisits his Yankee years (mostly, 1977-'78); time, it ends up, does not heal all wounds. There are small attempts at reframing the ego-money-muscle opera of the disco era Yanks within forgiving contexts - the infancy of free agency, the teachings of the Bible - but Reggie's wounds, whether Billy-George-NYC press inflicted or self-made, are still open (and are occasionally poked anew, by things like the TV M.O.W. "The Bronx is Burning.") Hence this rant, affirming that 67 year old Reggie, ever combative and confident, remains and may ever remain a figure of interest in sports.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm giving Reggie Jax's book two stars for some juicy Billy Martin stories and a very enlightening account of his early minor league days, but I am deducting points for his dashed-out bad words, for using "LMAO" and "LOL" in his text, and for spending so much time talking about his faith. No offense to God, but John Updike let me know already that gods do not answer letters.

Someone is lying about the '77-'78 Yankees. We can't ask George, or Munson, or Billy, so all we have to go by is Reggie, who is famous for being misquoted for 3,000 words in Sport magazine. This book could have used a whole lot more of the straw that stirred the drink.

[Dennis McKeon · Rating 1 out of 5]

My Dad introduced me to baseball and the Yanks back in the late 70s. Reggie came to the Yanks in '77. Those Yankee teams and that era should make for a fascinating book. Summer of Sam, the blackout with the looting, Koch winning a close race for Mayor, and that dysfunctional group in the Bronx who won against all odds. But you get none of that in this book. Unfortunately, it is the worst of the genre: a spoiled athlete who can't stop talking about himself, and even with a co-writer, is literate, but barely. A disservice to his legacy.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sour grapes. Where's the love of the game in this book? Reggie uses the majority of this platform to let all of us know how dumb everyone was that didn't let him be awesome as the cleanup hitter at all times. He employs hindsight to nitpick at benign decisions without full consideration to the overall situation. I previously knew nothing about the main target of Reggie's wrath, Billy Martin; but I think when looking at a career that spans the large time that Jackson's does there would be more to talk about than this guy that managed him for such a short span. Oh boy!

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is Reggie Jackson's version of what went on behind the scenes on the NY Yankees Championship teams of 1977 and 1978. He starts the book out with a bit of personal history including his college career and career with the A's.

His description of the racist world he lived in is both frightening and illuminating at the same time. At his age, he is able to reflect on his life and I think he is pretty honest about most of the events described.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightfully fun quick read, meant as a rejoinder to the Bronx is Burning miniseries on ESPN a few years back. Good for people who were yankee fans back in those days or those who have studied the Bronx Zoo of the late 70's. Reggie's take on Billy Martin's self destructive tendencies is intriguing to say the least. I would recommend to those who haven't read about the yankees of that era to read other books and then Mr. Jackson's take as I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle.