Reggie Jackson signs autographs for young Orioles fans before a game. (Irving Phillips Jr., Baltimore Sun, Sept. 11, 1976)

Has there even been a more reluctant Oriole than Reggie Jackson?



Normally, when a player is traded from one team to another, it’s standard issue to hear how much he’s looking forward to playing with his new team. True or not, such quotes at least tend to engender good will on the part of the player’s new fan base.

But that wasn’t the future Mr. October’s style, not back in April 1976, when he was traded from Oakland to Baltimore as part of a pending-free-agent dump by A’s owner Charlie Finley. Jackson, liking neither the trade nor what he felt was the meager salary he would be paid, sulked, went into seclusion and shut himself off. Friends were left to speak for him.

He didn’t even show up for Opening Day. In fact, he didn’t show up until 16 games into the season.

Reggie Jackson’s uniform hangs, as-yet-unworn, in the Orioles clubhouse. (Clarence Garrett, Baltimore Sun, April 9, 1976)

The 1976 Orioles desperately needed some pop in their lineup – Boog Powell was gone, Brooks Robinson was in the last stages of his career. True, outfielder Ken Singleton and second baseman Bobby Grich were no slouches at the plate, but catcher Earl “Big Money” Williams, who had come to the team in 1973 after a blockbuster trade with Atlanta and was supposed to be a slugger to strike fear into the hearts of opposing pitchers, had fizzled. He was sent back to the Braves following the 1974 season.

Reggie was supposed to solve all those problem. To get him, the Orioles gave up Don Baylor (who was about the only power hitter they had left, and would go on to become the American League MVP for California in 1979) and pitcher Mike Torrez, who won 20 games for the O’s in 1975 and would win 65 games over the next four seasons.

But the 29-year-old Jackson, who everyone knew was going to be a free agent after the ’76 season, didn’t much like being sent to the Orioles. “I’ve never seen Reggie more reflective in his life,” his agent, Gary Walker, said in the April 4 Baltimore Sun. “He has to give this a lot of thought. It isn’t necessarily true that he will be going.”

The Orioles season started on April 9, against the Red Sox, and Jackson was nowhere in sight. Walker said his client wouldn’t report to his new team without signing a multi-year deal, and the Orioles didn’t seem interested in giving him one – or at least not one with enough dollar signs in it. Various reports said that he wanted more than the $140,000 he’d been paid by the A’s in 1975; that he’d turned down a three-year, $525,000 offer from the A’s before being traded (that was real money back in 1976); that he was demanding a five-year, $1.125 million contract from the Orioles, plus another $1.5 million in bonus money (his agent said those figures were “off the mark,” but would not get into specifics); that he wouldn’t be allowed to become a free agent unless he reported to Baltimore (players’ union rep Marvin Miller said that was nonsense).

Reggie Jackson takes batting practice inside the Johns Hopkins University gym. (Walter M. McCardell, Baltimore Sun, May 1, 1976)

Through the first two weeks of the season, the Orioles and their much-vaunted slugger remained estranged. Jim Palmer, who made no bones about saying the trade for Jackson should never have been made in the first place, said Jackson’s failure to show up “has hurt the attitude of the club and our performance on the field” (the O’s were 6-8 at the time).



“Do you think it ever occurred to Jackson that there are 24 other guys over here counting on him?” Palmer speculated.

The situation was resolved, more or less, on April 30, when Jackson finally reported to the Orioles. He still had not signed a contract, but the two sides had apparently agreed on a salary (reports guessed at $200,000) enticing enough to bring Reggie to Baltimore. In his season debut, at Memorial Stadium, in the second game of a doubleheader against the A’s (what irony!), Jackson went 0-for-2, with a walk; he was also hit by a pitch. But he did drive in the game-tying run with a sixth-inning ground out (the Orioles went on to win the game, 4-3).

The fans, by all accounts, greeted Jackson warmly. “I don’t know if I deserved that kind of reception,” Jackson said after the game. “I expected to hear some boos, and I just hope the fans don’t make my expectations come true in the future.”

Ah, but the full repercussions of Jackson’s holdout were yet to be felt. In late April, 10 Orioles who were as-yet unsigned received 20 percent pay cuts, the maximum allowed under baseball’s collective bargaining agreement. That didn’t sit well with several of them, who complained that the team was exercising a double standard by cutting their pay but increasing Jackson’s. After all, he wasn’t signed, either.

“I do not resent Reggie getting all that he can,” said pitcher Wayne Garland. “But I do not think it is fair that 10 others should take a cut so the ball club can pay Jackson more money. The standards should be no different for some than they are for another.”

Short-term Orioles pitcher Ken Holtzman. He came over from the A’s in April 1976, as part of the deal for Reggie Jackson, and was traded to the Yankees in June. (Clarence B. Garrett, Baltimore Sun, April 9, 1976)

Pitcher Ken Holtzman, who had come over with Jackson in the deal with Oakland, took things a step further. “This issue will determine my future with this ball club,” he promised. “If it is not resolved, I will cease to be associated with this team at the end of the year. They will never sign me, no matter what they offer.”



(The issue was never “resolved.” Holtzman was traded to the Yankees on June 15, as part of the deal that brought Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez and Scott McGregor to the O’s. Garland, who would win 20 games with the Orioles in 1976, would become a free agent after the season and sign with the Indians. Grich, too, who also received the 20 percent cut, became a free agent at the end of the season; he signed with the Angels.)

And what of the 1976 Orioles? Without Jackson, they went 6-10; the team would finish the season at 88-74, placing second in the American League East, 10.5 games behind the Yankees. Had Jackson been with the team all season – in 134 games, he would bat .277, with 27 home runs, 91 RBI, a career-high 28 stolen bases and a league-leading .502 slugging percentage – who knows what might have happened?

Reggie Jackson, on the field for the Baltimore Orioles. (William Hotz, Baltimore Sun, June 5, 1976)

Come 1977, Jackson was playing for the New York Yankees, having signed a five-year contract totaling $2.96 million. The Yankees would win the next two World Series.