num_pages: 304
description: A soul-baring brutally candid and richly eventful memoir of the two years1977 and 1978when 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 As 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 hadnt 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 didnt know what alone meant. His manager the mercurial alcoholic and pugilistic Billy Martin never wanted him on the team and let Reggieand the rest of the teamknow 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 Yorks tabloid culture Reggie hadnt realized how rumor and offhand remarks can turn into screaming negative headlinesespecially for a black athlete with a multimillion-dollar contract. Sickened by Martins 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 Martins 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 overuntil 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.
language: English
title: Becoming Mr. October
publisher: Doubleday