When he hit his three home runs in one World Series game in 1977, the third one was against knuckleballer Charlie Hough. The ball landed about three zip codes away in deep centerfield at the “old” Yankee Stadium.
Yes he did. I remember the homer he launched on the light tower in the All-Star game and Tiger stadium.
Didn’t they have a Reggie candy bar? Got it...
https://the-foods-we-loved.fandom.com/wiki/Reggie!_Bar
Whoa the baseball memories. Great times in a young man’s life.
In the BIG inning : )
“...Jackson feasted on knuckleballs...”
In an article in the New York Times in 1984, Jackson said, “I had trouble with Phil Niekro’s knuckleball this year; some pitchers are tougher than others. He also said in the article, “There’s a certain way you time a knuckleball pitcher.”
I had an opportunity to be coached by former Pirates relief pitcher Dick Depker in high school and he threw one and taught us how to hit it. It’s a total different theory acting more like hitting a fast pitch softball than a baseball. Front of the box and shorten the swing some. You try to get at it before it loses enough speed and the seams take over. Knuckle curves and forkballs are in the same category but mostly break down and away instead of taking off any direction.
I can remember in an all star game Hoyt Wilhelm threw an o-2 knuckleball, the announcers called it the big one, with the wind in his face, and it crossed the plate about belt high but before it got to the catcher, it went over the heads of the catcher and the ump to the screen. Difficult to hit that type of pitch.
wy69