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    Becoming Mr. October
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    Becoming Mr. October
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    Becoming Mr. October
    Audiobook10 hours

    Becoming Mr. October

    Written by Reggie Jackson and Kevin Baker

    Narrated by Reggie Jackson

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A soul-baring, brutally candid, and richly eventful memoir of the two years-1977 and 1978-when Reggie Jackson went from outcast to Yankee legend

    In the spring of 1977 Reggie Jackson should have been on top of the world. The best player of the Oakland A's 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 hadn't 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 didn't know what alone meant."

    His manager, the mercurial, alcoholic, and pugilistic Billy Martin, never wanted him on the team and let Reggie-and the rest of the team-know 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 York's tabloid culture, Reggie hadn't realized how rumor and offhand remarks can turn into screaming negative headlines-especially for a black athlete with a multimillion-dollar contract. Sickened by Martin's 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 then: Reggie vowed to persevere; his pride, work ethic, and talent would overcome Martin's 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 over-until 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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 8, 2013
    ISBN9780804148344
    Unavailable
    Becoming Mr. October

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    Reviews for Becoming Mr. October

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      An interesting but somewhat self serving autobiography chronicling Mr. Jackson's early years up through his two championship seasons with the New York Yankees. There is a wealth of great baseball insight and inside information but is there is a central theme it is the clashes that he had with manager Billy Martin and others. Every single perceived slight is told in graphic detail. In fact, sometimes it is hard to revel in great teams, players (other managers and owners) and Mr. Jackson's wonderful accomplishments when the author constantly has his antenna up for personal grievances that bring things down.
    • 4/5
      This was a fun read for me, a baseball fan from the late 1960s. I liked the great Oakland Athletics teams Reggie played on before he went on to the larger stage with the Yankees. Reading lots of familiar baseball names helps to tide me over until spring training begins again.