#39 1982 season – Anaheim Stadium - Reggie Jackson’s 39 HR

When the 1982 season dawned, no baseball star was brighter than Reggie Jackson. The self-proclaimed “straw that stirs the drink” left the Bronx Zoo to sign a four-year contract with the California Angels with the expectation that he could be the missing link in bringing the Singing Cowboy a championship. After all, Jackson joined Rod Carew, Fred Lynn, and Don Baylor to make the Angels the only team with four former MVPs.

Jackson’s presence in the Angels’ line-up paid immediate dividends. Attendance figures rose dramatically following his arrival. Although Jackson got off to a slow start, his fortunes changed upon his return to the Big Apple. On 04/27/82, his first game back at Yankee Stadium, Yankee fans, disgusted that Steinbrenner had let their star go, greeted Jackson with the familiar “Reg-GIE” chant. Reggie responded by going 2 for 3, including a 7^th inning homer off Yankee ace Ron Guidry to help the Angels earn a 3-1 victory. It was his first home run of the year, and Yankee fans responded by jeering the Boss with the chant “Steinbrenner sucks.”

Throughout the summer, Jackson dazzled Angel fans with his mammoth home runs, and confident aura. As the season drew to a close, the Angels were in a tight pennant race with the Kansas City Royals for the AL West title, and Jackson was slugging it out with the Brewers’ Gorman Thomas for the HR Crown. In the final game of the season, Jackson came up in the bottom of the first with runners on second and third. Leading 1-0, Jackson took Texas hurler Mike Smithson deep to give the Angels a 4-0 lead in what would eventually be a Halo 7-6 victory. The home run was #39, tying him with Thomas for the home run crown.

In addition to his 39 home runs, Reggie scored 92 runs and pounded out 101 RBI during his first year in Anaheim. Jackson’s heroics, paired with huge contributions by Doug DeCinces, Brian Downing, Don Baylor, Rod Carew, Fred Lynn, and others, powered the Angels to 93 wins and their second AL West title – the most wins of any Angel team in the 20^th century.