Monday, January 15, 2018

Keith Jackson (1928-2018) Baseball Broadcaster?

Over the weekend we got the sad news of the passing of Sports Announcer Keith Jackson.

1994 Action Packed #66 Keith Jackson (image swiped from COMC)

Most of us know him as the voice of College Football, but he called a variety of sports including baseball.

One of the most famous ballgames he called was game 6 of the 1977 World Series.

That night Reggie Jackson hit 3 Home Runs and the Yankees defeated the Dodgers 8-4 clinching their first World Series Win in 15 years. The TV broadcast of the game can be found on YouTube. I did not check out the entirety of the broadcast, but I did drop into a few spots. It is a good listen despite the fact that Howard Cosell elephants his way into all the big moments. Also of interest is that the third man in the booth is Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver.

1978 Topps #7 RB Reggie Jackson

Reggie's 3 Homer game is commemorated in the 77 Record Breakers Subset at the top of the 1978 Topps.

1978 Topps #7 RB Reggie Jackson (b-side)

The back of the card does a real nice job of summarizing the MANY accomplishments of Reggie Jackson during the 1977 Series. Right at the top we see the 5 Homers hit by Jackson, A record that was matched in 2009 by the Phillies own Chase Utley, however that was in a losing effort.

All three of Reggie's Game 6 Homers can be found on the YouTube link cited above, unfortunately as I mentioned Cosell walks all over Jackson on each Homer.

I always like Newsprint themed cards, not sure this really considered one as there is no Header or dateline. There is a Headline and a tear at the bottom, I suppose that is close enough.

Sources and Links
Reggie Jackson HOF Index
Game Dated Cards 
Baseball-Ref 
imdb
COMC
YouTube
@KevinCooney (Twitter h/t for the heads up on Jackson covering the 1977 WS)


2 comments:

night owl said...

I know Keith Jackson more as a baseball announcer than college football as he was on Monday Night Baseball when I was first getting to know the sport on TV. I would get annoyed when he'd get revved up over whatever college football game that they were promoting during the baseball telecast.

Jackson was also the play-by-play announcer in the 1981 WS, along with Howard and Jim Palmer.

Jim from Downingtown said...

So soon after Dick Enberg's passing.

Jackson was also on the 1st season of Monday Night Football, before Al Michaels joined the team.)

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