REShow: Reggie Jackson - Hour 2 (6-6-2023)

This is the Rich Eisen Show. Miami Heat, as I said on the show the other day, it's like Godfather Part 3. Every time you think they're out... Murray to tie it, Heat wins! We pull you back in.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. They are back in. I just think nobody cares on our team. That's what I think it is.

I think it's the I-don't-give-a-damn factor. Earlier on the show, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. Coming up, Baseball Hall of Famer Mr. October Reggie Jackson. NHL on TNT analyst Eddie Olchek. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Great chat with Tony Petitti, the Big Ten commissioner in hour number one. Eddie Olchek is going to join us to talk about the Stanley Cup Final in hour number three.

Chris Brockman, good to see you in your spot in hour number two. Great to see you, Rich. DJ Mikey D, Mike Del Tufo, good to see you over there. And TJ Jefferson, is that an Oakland A's, Reggie number nine that you have hanging in the corner over there? TJ, you got it?

Next to my Dr. J poster, yes it is. A perfect day for you to bring that jersey in because look who's joining us here in studio, in person, in the flesh. His new documentary on his life called Reggie is on Prime Video available on Roku right here on the Rich Eisen Show. My first baseball idol. I've got his baseball card right here in front of me.

This is the this is the bad boy that helped me fall in love with Reginald Martinez Jackson. The Baseball Hall of Famer here in the flesh. Great to see you, Reggie. Well, you know, great to see you. I don't just for the people listening and we got way at maybe 45 minutes. Take your time, Reggie.

We got time. I don't remember where I met you, but I know it was while you were broadcasting at ESPN. Yes. And you had just either met Susie, your wife.

Yes. Or were just dating her or something. Just we were just dating. Just dating.

Yeah. And I don't think anybody really knew, but I met you, both of you separately. And and when I saw I saw you and I Susie and I kind of looked and I kept pretty much kind of size up that you guys were kind of got some going. So I so I said to her, I said, like, do you know him? She said, oh, yes. As you guys close?

Yes. Well, I'll be honest with you, Reggie, we were dating long distance and very rarely was I jealous of anything. But when she's like, I was hanging with Reggie again today, I'm like, get out of here.

Come on. And you couldn't have been more gentlemanly and kind to her when she was covering the Angels. That's probably when you met her. She was out here covering the Angels, you know, in the in the heyday of Tim Salmon and Darren Ersted when they won the championship.

And, you know, you know, the the Angels back in the day when you were, you know, in the in right field for the naked gun back in the day, Reggie, you know. But anyway, it's great to have you here and it's great to see your documentary. And it's great also to have this conversation we're about to have about a subject that is very near and dear to you, which is the hiring practices of all major sports and certainly when it comes to diversity and equity. And I'm wondering what you know, you've been about this for quite some time.

I just want to give you the floor on that subject matter. You know, it's it's it's something that I've I guess strived or to get to. I feel fortunate that I was able to understand what's going on and the difficulty of it.

I I was not immune to it. You know, I was denied owning a baseball team and never really had an offer or opportunity to be an executive with a baseball team. At the I should interject that a couple of years ago, Jim Crane did offer me the presidency of the Astros.

Really, Whitney was was pushing Jim his wife. You should hire Reggie. And I I wanted to what I've figured, gosh, I'm in my 70s.

Maybe it's too much for me. So I became a special adviser. And I really have regretted that I didn't do it just for the minority community, just to represent that. Hey, we there's a president of a sports team.

It's Reggie Jackson. And he's one of us for other young minorities to strive and see that you could get there. Now, we're also in the same position with our general manager is the only black general manager in the major leagues.

And so it is, again, something that I'm proud to be part of and associated with. And we interviewed six people for were black. We chose our general manager because he'd been leapfrogged twice. He had instructed or law taught a couple of fellows that worked for him that were 20 years younger than him, but got jobs as GMs.

And they passed over him. So it was something that our owner was supportive of, made sure that it happened. And so, as you say, I've taken a significant interest in it because of things that have happened to me. And it's things that have happened to so many of our minority people. And as I discussed, minority and diversity and equity involvement, you include women, you include LBGTQ and all of the there are 60 some odd genders. So you include all genders when you talk about hiring genders. We do have a woman general manager in Major League Baseball, which is pretty cool. And as I was coming in today, I was making note about what's going on in diversity, that their baseball has been improving, but not quite enough. The minorities that are on the rise, of course, are the Latin American because of the baseball population, if you will.

But there are now about 25 or 30 women that are working in the minor leagues as either coaches. In the pipeline. In the pipeline. And then that eventually will, in theory, bubble to the actual major league surface. Get there.

Get there. And I know you're working with Reggie Jackson Baseball Hall of Famer here on the Rich Eisen Show. I know you're working with Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports and the president of the Institute for Sport and Social Justice. And he's been listening in on this spectacular guy.

I've known that name for a very, very long time. His father is Joe Lapchick. Yes. And his dad brought Sweetwater Clifton, right? First African-American to play in the NBA, Sweetwater Clifton. And at a very, very young age, I don't know if there's a picture of Richard around.

Yes. But at a very young age, when his dad brought Sweetwater Clifton into the league, he was humming effigy on at his home. And his son was watching that. Richard was watching that at a very young age. And Richard, as you come on, explain that in a little bit of detail, please, because it's a story that's important.

First of all, happy to be with both of you. It was obviously a traumatic experience for a five-year-old boy to see that. Wow. Once I saw that it was my dad that had his name written on the figure, excuse me, the figure, and I would pick up hate calls directed at him for the next couple of years. My dad not knowing I was listening on the extension, and all I could tell is that a lot of people hated my best friend. And it was, as Reggie said, many years later, I would realize it was because he had signed Sweetwater Clifton as the first black player in history. The NBA league is now 80 percent black.

That in 1950, there were a lot of people that didn't seem ready for that to happen. So as Reggie and I are sitting here, Reggie Jackson here on The Rich Eisen Show and the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, Richard Lapchick here on the phone. Richard, I guess, what would you say is the barrier that so many people of color keep running into when it comes to being hired at the highest levels of management in North American major sports? Well, Rich, we've been monitoring this since literally the late 1980s, and various leagues are putting various policies in place to try and modify who gets hired in terms of increasing the opportunities, particularly for people of color. I went with Johnny Cochran and Cyrus Merry in 2002 to the NFL to threaten legal action if they didn't change their policy, and that's when the Rooney Rule was established, which worked really well for a while, but hasn't in some time.

But Seale could actually put that rule in place in baseball before the Rooney Rule. But I think the bottom line, and what I'm encouraged, I'm not sure if it came up in the early part of the discussion, is that Reggie, I believe, is going to have the opportunity to speak to the owners because that's where the decisions are finally made that stop the progress. I mean, you can put all the policies and the world in place, but if the owners don't want to bring about that type of change, then they can beat the blockage. And I think one of the things that Reggie and I have talked about so often is that when I started getting involved myself 50 years ago, we used to call diversity a moral imperative. Now I think everybody realizes it's also a business imperative that's good for business to have a diverse staff working for you because you're serving a diverse audience in different markets around the country and around the globe.

And the compelling kind of change of the body politic after the murder of George Floyd was to look more deeply at the causes of systemic racism. And this is one of them, and the wealth that's represented by the owners is something that if they can be spoken to and influenced as I hope Reggie will be able to do it, I'm convinced he will, then they can understand that this is not just about making this a more inclusive world, but making it a more inclusive world that's going to make the world itself better. You know, as Richard states, Rich, the important thing is if you get more people... We're about to release the Major League Baseball report card next week, and it's still a very obviously one owner of color, bought the team in 2003.

Nobody's bought a Major League Baseball team as a majority owner for the next 20 years. We're still hovering with a relatively small number of black head coaches and black general managers in the league. It's better in the league office, but as Reggie pointed out, there's a lot of way to go to make that improvement so that we can emphasize that business imperative as well as the inclusive part of it. All around, whatever way you look at this, it's a step forward to be more diverse and inclusive for your business as well as for your fan base. It's very, very important to have the judgments be on meritology rather than just the color of your skin. Yeah, the qualifications of a candidate.

Women, men, all different types. And so when you can talk about that, and I believe I need to talk about it or that we need to address it to the owners. Because if you own a $2 billion franchise and that's on the lower end, running up to $4, $5, $6 billion, it's going to be difficult for you to tell a person who to hire.

At the same time, I think if you recognize that there's significant value here, which they're eventually looking for is people to come to the ballgames. And so if you see a woman that's a general manager or a woman that's a president of a team, if you see an Amerasian or a Latinx or an African-American, then that particular community recognizes it. At the same time, there are so many whites that recognize it as well. And there are so many people that when I got done doing my documentary, I have had more whites. And it should be that way if the population reacts to you in reference of what's going on with the demographic communities that we live in.

It should be more white people. And it has been that way that it said, gosh, Reggie, I really enjoyed what you said and the differences that you had, the issues that you had when you were a baseball player. Thank you. And so that to me means I'm reaching everybody. So if we reach everyone and are doing the things and hiring the right people, putting the people in there on their merits, then you have people looking from different communities. And that whether they're African-American community or whether it's a woman, you're going to attract that person as a fan and get them interested because you're showing that you care, you're concerned and you understand what's going on socially. So what do you say?

And I got Richard Lapchick on the phone and you can answer after Reggie does, Richard, if that's fine. What do you say to people who have the opposite point of view, though, Reggie? It's just like, you know, why does everyone have to have a label? Why do we have to see things through race and through gender? Shouldn't somebody just get the job regardless of that? Why does diversity have to matter is essentially the question.

Because of what you said, if that person said what you said, you said, why shouldn't the person get the job on his merits or was in the paragraph of, well, why do you have to be recognized that white, black, Asian, Latinx, whatever? Well, you have to be because I can look and see how the decisions are being made. You don't have any amorations there. You don't have any women with you. Now, there's someone that's qualified. So that's why we have to at least make mention of it, because it's not happening with your actions.

So you need to change them. Rich, I'm handing off to you. Richard, Richard, Richard, go ahead. Sure. Yeah. And I think a perfect example of where you have the right people in place as opposed to not having them happened just several years ago with the commissioners in both the NFL and the NBA. When the Ray Rice story broke and he got a two game suspension after the video of his assault on his girlfriend.

And then the public had a big outcry. There was only a two game suspension for something so terrible. So he made it a six game suspension. And at that point, there were no senior women in leadership positions in the NFL league office to advise Roger Goodell on what to do and how he should handle it. And during that year, finally hired three senior women as VPs to advise him, change the policy and started to get it back on the right track with the NFL actually taking offensive position against men's violence against women. But that could have happened right from the beginning and been great in the NBA. On a Friday night, a tape leaked with the owner of the L.A. Clippers making racist remarks to his girlfriend.

Yes. And by the next morning, Adam Silver said, I will hold a press conference on Tuesday and let you know what the NBA's intentions are here to tackle this terrible thing. And Adam had a whole office full of people who look different from each other, men, women, blacks, Latinos, everybody that could possibly advise him on it. And when Adam came out and said, we will no longer this man will never own a team in the NBA anymore.

We're moving him as an owner. I never thought I would hear a commissioner say that. But Adam was saying that because that was the advice he was getting from that diverse group that worked with him. And that's why diversity is so important as you get those different perspectives and then can make your best judgment in terms of who we hire. Specifically, you know, I think both Reggie and I would say you need to have a diverse pool of candidates in the room for every significant position. But in the end, if if the guy looks at the person who was chosen, looks like me and I'm a white guy instead of Reggie, who's black, then if that person was really chosen because he was the best. I think Reggie and I would both say that's the right person then. But you've got to have the best people in the room so you know you're choosing from the best to get the best. There are so many people, Rich, if I can jump in ahead of you.

Yes, Reggie. That come from different areas, different communities, and their thoughts are different. What's important to someone that lives in Compton is not the same as someone that lives in Beverly Hills or Harlem and Scarsdale. The needs, the desires, what's important to them is very different. One group is concerned about clothing, food and heat.

And the other group is concerning about either extending something on the house or what the holiday is going to bring because they live in a much more comfortable life. Reggie Jackson here, Richard Lapchick. Hey, Richard, I heard you're getting the Stuart Scott Inspire Espy Award next month. Congratulations on that. You know Stuart's so near and dear to me, having spent so much time with him on the set, he would be all about what you're all about, Richard. That's for sure. Truly. To say I'm honored and humbled by getting that award is a huge understatement, especially since it's named after Stuart. But thank you. I appreciate that.

You were, if I may say, you were cooler than the other side of the pillow. I was just going to say that. I beat you to it.

No, it just belongs to him. I'm glad that you did. I feel like you need to come to a break. Go ahead, Reggie. Richard, I don't know how long you're going to be with us, but what I'd like you to add is I know I take a look at, I'm a car person, which everybody knows. And so if I was going to build a car, I would look for an engineer to design my heater that is from Alaska. If I was going to do the suspension, I would get an engineer from the Colorado Rockies.

If I was going to do an air conditioner, I'd have my engineer be from Arizona, from Phoenix. And if I was going to get my navigational system done, I'd have some guy from New York or from Harlem where it's crowded and cluttered to my nav system. And so those different views, ideas from the people, from those different communities, all are going to look different.

All are going to be different. But, you know, the commonality of what I'm trying to do requires a unit to give me the best opinions. And along with that, Richard, I want you to pick up on what I'm saying here to give it your definition.

When people see people like them in positions, then they're attracted to what you're doing and want to learn more about it. So in the end run, Major League Baseball, the National Football League wants more people to come to the games. And so there's some green to it in my experiences with Honda, Amazon, PepsiCo, the Astros, Jordan Brand, Nike.

Remind me, Ryan, if I'm leaving anybody out. But they all want to do business with people that have diverse committees and people that want to work together and have differences and understand different things. And those companies that I've mentioned, most of them won't work with a company if they don't have a diversity group. They have all, several have told me, Reggie, in interviews now with young people, within the first 30 seconds, they're interviewing the company. And the young person will ask, do you have a carbon footprint?

Do you have a diversity group? And if they don't, they'll get up and walk out. Reggie Jackson here on the Rich Eisen Show. Richard, you have one last thing to add before we send you on to your good day, sir? Well, just that I want to point out that it's much easier today for athletes to speak out because of the rise in public opinion after the racial reckoning a couple of years ago. But when Reggie Jackson started speaking out during his playing career, it was literally a threat to his playing career because players like Kurt Flood and others paid tremendous prices for speaking out. So, you know, to have Reggie still all these years later, still speaking out, still fighting for the right thing is a real testament to who he is.

Still swinging for the fences. Richard, thanks again at Richard Lapchick. Follow him on Twitter for more on this very important issue. Congratulations in advance of the Inspire Espy Award next next month.

Thank you so much. Hey, Richard, if you need any Stuart Scott phrases to put into your speech, I'm a walking encyclopedia. I'll be back at you.

You're doing it, you're doing it, you're doing it and doing it well. Thanks for the call, Richard. Talk to you soon, Rich. That's Richard Lapchick here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's take a break. Do you want to talk a little baseball when we come back? Absolutely. This is so awesome. Reggie Jackson is here on the Rich Eisen Show in the flesh.

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It's like saying, you're not allowed to use a pencil to create a piece of art. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen. All right, radio audience is still away for a couple more minutes, sitting on the Roku channel live with Reggie Jackson, Hall of Famer. Let's sneak in a clip of Reggie on Prime Video, which is also available right here on Roku. He created excitement on and off the field. Please welcome number 44, Mr. October, Reginald Martinez Jackson. Reggie Jackson, that one is long gone. This is about my past. I don't think it's checkered.

Reggie is out of the ball game. I wasn't like because I'm the truth. And the truth is painful. It's not cocky, it's real. You aren't going to sugarcoat it anymore. I'm happy for him to have an opportunity over here and spread his knowledge.

Reggie is a guy that can carry a ball club. You were involved all over the place. I said, well, maybe this guy's for real.

You were. This is my story and how I see it. My history of the past 74 years makes me think, have I done enough?

I was angry because I've constantly fought an uphill battle. Strike three. Once I was on the field, I felt like I was in charge.

And it is a home run. At this stage, I want to make change. We still need dignity. That is not too much to ask for. Fantastic, Reggie.

Thank you, sir. Just absolutely, I mean, that's our childhood, right? He's from New Jersey. I saw Reggie play as a kid. This is amazing.

This is amazing. Reggie Jackson here on The Rich Eisen Show. Our radio audience is about to return right here on the Roku channel.

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. We just saw on our Roku channel only segment a terrific trailer for the spectacular film Reggie on Prime Video available on Roku right now. Reggie Jackson here in studio. When you see old footage of you Homer-ing, just lashing balls in the right field stands, hitting light towers, home runs in the World Series, what do you think when you see that footage, Reggie? I never get tired of it.

I'll say that. At the same time, I'd like to see him maybe show a few stolen bases or maybe throwing a couple of guys out or a catch or two. But, you know, as long as they keep playing those little short vignettes or short pops of me hitting the ball out of the ballpark, people will remember you and it always makes your family feel good and me as well.

What was about October that caused you to just rise to the moment, Reggie? I had an ability to focus and really narrow it down to pitch by pitch, you know, at bat by at bat, but really it went to pitch by pitch. I think that I used our scouting reports, which now would be called analytics, in order to narrow things down against different pitchers. And I had the fortune of taking pitches away from certain pitchers. If I played against Master Smith who pitched for the Dodgers and he had a great fastball, a great curveball and a fantastic changeup, I hit his breaking ball out of the ballpark two or three times in facing him. And so I could eliminate, I could take things away from certain pitchers. I'd hit a couple home runs, but I hit home runs off a lot of guys. And so I could take a slider away from this guy and I could take a fastball away from that guy that he couldn't throw me in those situations. So when you devaluated and said, well, this guy throws a lot of fastballs, I'd say to myself, not to me, he don't. He ain't going to throw me no fastballs. But that's all well and good, but when you're in the crucible of a World Series in New York City, right? Yes, yeah.

Where's the laser focus come there? Or is it just like you, did you envision like, I homer here, this is just going to be lit. Did that ever go through your mind? I did go to home plate to hit home runs sometimes. I would be lying if I told the Little League kids, you should never go to home plate and think of hitting the homer. Because I remember Mickey Mantle said, I tried to hit a home run every time I went to home plate and I was only successful five hundred and thirty six times. But I did go to the plate in the World Series and my third time up to hit the ball out of the ballpark. And I hit it. And I've had other times in my career when I went to the ballpark, I went to the home plate to hit the ball over the fence and did it. I'm so, I get emotional seeing you talking to you, you know, seeing my name on a microphone because that home run, you just referred to the third one against the Dodgers. If I had to be, if I had to pinpoint the moment I fell in love with baseball, if I had to pinpoint the moment that I fell in love with the Yankees, that was it. Had to be it. Because I'm like, he's not going to hit this thing.

There's just no way he's going to hit this thing for a third home run in this World Series to win the World Series. And then you did and it was longer than the ones you had already hit. And I'm getting goosebumps just even talking about it. I have an opportunity to tell you this in front of everybody here.

That was it for me, Reggie. So thank you. I appreciate it.

And I thank you. You know, because I will never forget that. Is that your biggest home run, do you think? I mean, I know you hit a light tower in an All-Star game, but I mean, is that your biggest out of all of them?

That's probably the most well-known. I don't know if it was the biggest home run. I hit a ball in September in 77, I think it was, against Reggie Cleveland. And it was around middle of the month of September, and we were a half-game head of the Red Sox. And we had a three-game series.

And I've always tell people when this postseason starts, or when the stretch starts, it starts around August the 20th, 15th to the 20th. Then all the games are two, because the loss column is what matters. Go back to the game against the Red Sox, and we were a half-game in, and I was hitting in the bottom of the eighth. And I hit a home run off Reggie Cleveland to make the score three to two. We were losing two to one. If we lose the game, we're a half-game out. If we win, we're a game and a half in. That's two in one game.

And that you think is bigger than the... The loss column. It's the loss column that counts.

Sure. Even in the loss column. Now we're two in the loss column, because we were one up. And that's bigger than the one that you hit in the World Series? You think just because of that? It was the most meaningful.

How about that? Most meaningful. When you get to the loss column, once your team is ten games out in the loss column, look for next year. Because to me, that home run when you beat the Dodgers and you win that World Series, it felt to me, maybe, you could tell me I'm wrong, that it was like, yeah, that's why I'm here. That's why I'm here. That's why Steinbrenner brought me here. That's why I said I'm a straw. That's why I said this is a drink that I'm stirring.

And that's why I am here, not in Oakland anymore. I'm on the biggest stage, and I just did that. And so to hell with you all. Like, is that a...

I would say you're right there. I'm not going to die. I even said to hell with... Didn't say to hell with it all.

But you're right with all the words. But for me, the most meaningful was the one that helped us win better. That was like this... So obviously, I'm going to rub this in your... The last home run was like, I can either rub it in your face or I can run around the bases.

I could do that kind of thing. But the most meaningful homer for my image was the third home run. But the most meaningful home run probably in my career was the two-game move against the Red Sox. And the best hit you ever had, though, was on the fan when you were coming off the field, right?

The best contact of your career? Were you hitting the fans coming off the field when they were coming? Yes. Was that some of your football background coming?

Yes. Joe Montana signed a football, autograph of football for me. And he said, Reggie, you should have played our game, Joe. When did you meet Franco Harris for the first time? Because you're a Steeler fan, right? Yeah, I met Franco Harris when Franco had injured ribs in 1972 in Oakland in their game against them.

Yeah. That's when you met him. That's when I met Franco. Were you a Steeler fan on the spot or were you a Steeler fan growing up? I was a Steeler fan growing up.

Okay. Yeah, because they had more black players than the Eagles. And so you just gravitated toward them. And then they got good. Then they got great.

Thanks to Franco's catch. You know, he just passed. You got a good Jim Brown story for me, Reggie? One of the great things I learned about Jim, and I met him here in the L.A. area for the first time. But Jimmy said to me, he said, Reggie, you know, when you're talking about making change and having blacks in certain positions, being treated differently, don't ever disparage the white man because you need the white man to make change. He has power.

So be sensitive there. And so and I've told that story and I'm proud to tell it because people think Jim was so gruff. He had a he had a great style for all of us that followed him and all of us that might admired him because he was invincible, you know, throughout his entire life. And I think one of the things I wish that that could have happened, I think Jim asked for a not a funeral. No, no, no glorification. I wish they would have had a memorial for him because the world would have came. Well, there's still time, I hope.

I didn't know that about what Jim's wishes were, huh? Yeah. I mean, Reggie Jackson here on The Rich Eisen Show. Let me just return to some baseball. Who's the toughest pitcher you ever faced?

I get this question a lot. There were a lot of guys that were tough from time to time. Be it a Seaver or Jim Palmer or Fergie Jenkins or be it a an obscured left hand pitcher. Rudy May was tough. I was a guy that pitched for the Angels and he pitched for the Kansas City Royals and his name was Andy Hassler. He was six five.

He threw 95 to 98 and he was wild and he was left handed. And, you know, I was pretty good intimidator when I when I was younger. But I always thought, like, I really don't want to fight this dude. But if he hits me, I don't know what I'm going to do because I don't want to get my ass beat and get hit. You know, but he was tough because he he he was he was lefty and he was wild and he didn't hit you on purpose. Right.

But, you know, you just were a little afraid. That's the guy. One of the I hit a home run off him and I was so proud.

OK. I was running around the base. I finally got Andy Hassler. Reggie Jackson here on The Rich Eisen Show. Your favorite George Steinbrenner story. Oh, Reggie Jackson. What do you have for me there? George M Steinbrenner, the third. What do you got for me?

I have I got a couple. And George was. Was getting on one of our people.

And it was it was unnecessary, you know, are one of our ticket guys. OK. And I was like, George, what are you doing? Is she yelling at that guy?

He's going to be crying pretty soon. And he says, you be quiet. Let me just yell at him. Like, OK. That was it? Yeah. Yes, I shut up. When did so he he did you get along with him? I did get along with George. There would be people that in order to get to the seats, if you were an owner, you had to go through his office to walk through the past the office and then go out and sit in the Yankee seats that were outside his office.

Yes. And the people that would come by were New York people, super wealthy. And he was in a bad mood. And people would come by and he would say so. So they could hear it.

Who are they? And I said, well, they're the O'Shan's. You know, they've been here for like twenty five years.

Boss, they're going out, sit down. Well, I don't like him coming through here. And he made sure they heard it. There were people, you know, anybody would come in and he'd look and he made a comment and the same thing. I remember sitting in his office when the season was over. I was talking to him before I went home and I was working as his personal assistant or special advisor. And our trainer was outside, Gene Monahan. And he was sitting outside when I got there.

And I'm there an hour and a half and he's still outside. And I said, George, you know, Gene Monahan is out at the waiting to visit with you. He said, he is? I said, yeah, he just wants to visit with you and talk about some things before he goes in. He says, have him come in.

So Gene is a super guy, tremendous trainer. And he comes in and George goes, Monahan. Reggie, is he still with us? And I didn't know what to say. He looks at Monahan and he says, are you still with us?

Are you on our staff still? And after he got over that, you know, they had a conversation. But he would do stuff like that. You met Joe DiMaggio, I imagine, right? Yes. You got a good Joe D story?

I mean, what is it? So Joe D was with the A's. And just having him around, it was special. You know, he was just like a maze or Bill Russell came in and sat down and he was sitting on the bench. He didn't say anything to you, but he's just there.

So he was that kind of an icon. So I see Joe after I'm retired and we're going to an autograph show. And at the time, for autograph shows, Joe got 250,000 who didn't come. So we're going to an autograph show in Chicago. We're in the same cab. And so a beggar comes up to the cab and the cab driver stops. Joe turns to me and says, get the cabbie, will you, Reggie? I said, sure. So we get outside and we walk by the beggar and he says, Reggie, give that guy 20, will you? And I was like, sure. You know, I was going to get about 20 grand. Joe was getting 200 and I'm tipping the people for him.

That's how, so wait a minute. You and Joe DiMaggio were in a cab together in Chicago going to a signing show? He was frugal. Yeah. I picked that up. You have to say that.

Joe DiMaggio gets to be frugal, not cheap. I'm going to take a break, one more break if you don't mind. And then have you, I got a couple more questions for you. Reggie Jackson's here for crying out loud. This is amazing, man. This is a lot of fun. Reggie Jackson is here on the Rich Eisen Show. He's going to be here the full hour. This is how we roll into break.

We'll be back with more in just two minutes. Get an inside look at Hollywood with Michael Rosenbaum actress Kristin Ritter. Your parents let you travel by yourself. It was a different time. They just put you on a train as a 15 year old girl. You went to New York. You went on a bus. And I did get picked up at Port Authority. They thought I was a runaway. What would they do?

They'd detain you and get people on the phone and then they finally let you go to your modeling job. How many times did it happen? Once or twice. It just seems like it wouldn't happen.

It happens, yeah. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum, wherever you listen. All right, we've been on the air almost nine years. This may be the greatest thing that's ever happened on this program. Reggie Jackson, you were opening up Reggie bars? I can't get it open. Here, I'll do it.

Thank you very much. These are honestly, Reggie, some of the best candy bars in the history of candy bars. Oh yeah. Didn't they throw it at you once? Weren't they like, thank you. In 1978, they covered the field with them. I remember that, right?

You're out there in right field and people start throwing Reggie bars at you. There you go. Oh my gosh. These are the greatest of all time, Reggie.

Another goat was made. It is. Have you guys ever had a Reggie bar? Oh, I definitely have. Oh my God.

Ready? Yeah, Brockman. Oh boy. Go get it. TJ, you want a Reggie bar? There you go. Hey, give me that.

Here, hey. Here you go. Here you go, TJ. There you go. Better throw.

Give me another one. There you go, Reggie. There you go. Reggie bars being thrown out.

You ready over there? There you go. Perfect. By the way, Montana's right. By the way, Montana's right.

You should have played football. This is amazing. We're going to keep these on the set here. Yes. Got them going on. We got them in Houston and there's a grocery store called HEB. They're in 18 states. They're going to have them out in about a month or so. They're at Dylan's Candies in New York. Okay.

They're going to be at the Academy, the sporting goods stores in Texas and all the areas around that. Should be in the friggin' Smithsonian, Reggie. We are.

These are so good. I'm serious. So we are. I can't wait to bite into one of these Reggie bars that forever here on the Rich Eisen Show set now. How great is it, Chris? Right?

Is this the greatest ever? Yeah. What? Did you take a bite? Did you take a bite? Fantastic.

Back here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. Let me get a photo with one on your deal. Oh, yeah. Sure. Here we go.

Right now? You want to hold it up? Here you go. No.

I was going to take one. Reggie. Oh, okay. There you go. Reggie bars. Reggie bars. Reggie bars. This is first brought up to you in 1977, right? 1978.

Okay. We went to the... I did a deal with Standard Brands and Nestle's and first time up, they gave out 40-some thousand bars or as many as you want, and we had about 45,000 people. And I hit a home run because I did a home run into Dodger Stadium, went to New York, hit three. And then the next time I went to bat, I hit another home run. So I hit the home run this time and they threw the bars on the field and I was seeing it and I said, guys, I wonder if it tastes good. Maybe they don't like it.

I didn't quite understand what the celebration was about, you know, and so it was pretty cool. Look at this. There it is on the field.

That was the old Clark bars. There it is. Oh my gosh.

I'm eating Reggie bars with Reggie Jackson on the rich-eyes roll. This is insane. This is amazing.

I never thought this would ever happen. You have it. Enjoy one, two, three.

Everybody. They're so good. Although the one Reggie threw to me, I'm putting that to the side. I'm going to leave that one and they'll sit here on set in New Jersey.

I'm never going to eat that one. It might have something going on with Jordan for a legacy shoe. Okay. Possibility.

That would be great. Oh, by the way, Dodger Stadium, if I'm not mistaken, despite you playing for the Angels against the Mariners, also the spot where you attempted to kill the queen, right? Right?

And the naked gun is in that Dodger Stadium? Yeah. How'd you get involved with that in that movie, Reggie?

I can't think of the guy that I knew that got me involved, but he was a producer, one of the Zucker brothers. Okay. Right.

Okay. And so... That's how I got involved with that. Did they explain you that you're an assassin? No, not really an assassin. You didn't want to be in a movie.

And at the time I'd been in a couple movies, I think I'd been in about 10 or 11. And I said, sure, it pays good. There you are.

It's in California. I'll be there. There you were. Right there.

I met the Queen of England in 1976 when I was with the Orioles. The real one? Yes. Okay.

And she said after the game that there was a Sir Reginald there. And he took off, he's the only gentleman that took off his bonnet. Okay.

I had taken my hat off. And so she made a note of that. Okay.

So you have actually met the real queen? Something like that. Okay. I think you got some water in the Rich Eisen Show mug to you right there, Reggie. This is great. Reggie Jackson is washing down a Reggie bar with a Rich Eisen Show mug full of water.

This is happening. If you had told me when I was eight in 1977, falling in love with this man in baseball, I'd be like, yeah, that's exactly what's going to happen in my life. Rich, I'm looking at Reggie's IMDB page and just keeping in tune with other things you love.

Yes, sir. Like you love Reggie. Reggie was also on the love boat. You were on the love boat?

Yes. That would have been my guess. I was on the love boat. Who were you in the love boat with? Remember? The black guy that had a mustache. That was the bartender. It was a thousand of them.

No, I just didn't know what was your plot. Were you Reggie Jackson on the love boat or were you playing someone else? I was Reggie and I wasn't being able to meet any girls or something like that.

And then I just started walking around the boat yelling my name. It was something like that. 1979. 1979. Who else was in that episode?

Do we know? Come on, look it up. This is amazing. No, it can't be anybody. I had to be big enough to hold a whole show. If you have other guys on the show, then guys like Rocket and Montana say, man, you couldn't do it alone. Of course not.

You couldn't carry it by yourself. It's like Phyllis Diller, like 1979, where that's like, oh boy, these are really great. I have to get that from Jeter. Jeter will say, oh, you must have needed help. Your name didn't carry the show, Reggie, so you can't do that. Jeter? Is that what you said?

Yeah. You can't have help. You have to go somewhere and you can't get in, and then you have to tell them who you are. You better not tell anyone else, because they're like, really? Man didn't know you when you walked up.

You ain't one of the guys anymore. Oh, Reggie, this has been amazing. I can't thank you enough for coming on here.

This place is available to you whenever you want to promote anything, talk about any subject matter. Appreciate you, buddy. You got to have me back one day. I see I'm invited.

Anytime. What are you doing tomorrow? You know, you know, before we go here, you got a minute? We will have a minute and a half and about 30 seconds. Okay. All right.

So I don't know. I will. I want to make sure that the diversity thing that I'm embarking on with MLB, I'm looking forward to being able to talk to ownership next week at the owner's meeting. And I'm really proud that so many of the companies I'm associated with from Nike to Jordan to and they're almost the same, but not Honda, Amazon, that they're all back in your play. They're all back in my play and proud to be associated with the thing with with the diversity.

What I'm trying to call I'm trying to communicate to make the world a better place for everybody. Reggie, I'm glad that you have these people in your life. And I'm just know they Honda. Yes, you did. I heard that. Just know that Susie and I are two of them. You know that I know that, you know, whatever, whatever you need, whatever we could do to help and, you know, say the Mrs. Hello to the Mrs. Well, I'm sure she's driving right now saying how the hell is Reggie not mentioning me more often. And by the way, just so you know, I'm going to need another Reggie bar because, well, there were twenty four of them in here. There were twenty four of them in here because just the latest example, by the way, of people that I met through Susie, you people assume that people assume I was just me on my own, you know. And then there's this card. This is my first card I put it in. I might have put it in this plastic literally decades ago.

The nineteen all. Yeah, it's a little bit it's a little bit ragged. I got to throw a sign on it for you when God bless you. I appreciate that. We also, if you don't mind, we've got a New York Yankee Stadium bench as well, if you from the bleachers. Right.

Let's probably hit a home run onto one. All right. Here's the note. Here's the note.

Reggie's two run home run in the ninth inning helped the Yankees beat the Bosox on September 14th, nineteen seventy seven. That's just the one note. That's what it's not. I swear to you, the one that you kind of brought up as your biggest home run is on the back of this baseball card and seen.

I had no idea. Conspiracy theories, paranormal UFOs, science teacher Andrew Greenwood stated that a child ran into his classroom and was hysterically screaming and talking about the flying saucer outside. Hundreds of children ran out of their classrooms to go outside and see this unidentified flying object that was just above the school. Just imagine a bunch of kids running out of school. Most of them just ran home. Race of the third kind on YouTube or wherever you listen.