his last year in the league, when his BB/9 reached the same level it had been in 1961 (5.1). In the years between it never rose above 3.9 — and was that high only in 1974, the year he blew out his knee (which hastened the end of his career).

Every player has a career arc, so using someone’s final seasons (or their first few, with the exception of Pujols) as a representative sample is not representative of that player at all — unless it’s a guy like Koufax, who retired at his peak. Frankly, I feel a little ridiculous defending Bob Gibson. His peak numbers certainly speak for themselves, as do his more phenomenal postseason numbers, and his legend is solidly cemented in the history of the game.

Jackson was a good hitter, but only if you’re looking at his power numbers; he cleared the .290 mark in BA only 3 times in a 21 year career, hitting .300 only once (an even.300 in 1980). He didn’t really draw a lot of walks, clearing 90 only twice. Even as a power hitter I would never go so far as to call him “incredible,” even when considering his overall postseason stats *. He had a couple of great world series, but I have always felt that his lasting “Mr. October” moniker owes more to a single game in the ‘77 series than to his overall October performances. Unless it’s the fact that he performed better in his postseasons than in his regular seasons. As far as his regular season career, he basically ushered in the era of the modern power hitter: lotsa home runs, but lotsa strikeouts too. And, while a comparable power hitter of today, Ryan Howard, consistently drives in over 100 runs per season to balance out his astronomical K rate, Jackson only cleared 100 RBI six times. That’s not bad… but he played for a lot of championship teams, so you’d assume there were many more guys on base for him to drive in than the numbers he delivered.

Now, all that said, I don’t dislike Reggie Jackson. He’s an intelligent guy, a decent on-air analyst, and he certainly belongs in the HOF despite his low career BA. — though he shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as upper-echelon guys like Ruth, Gehrig, Mays, Musial, Williams, DiMaggio, Aaron, etc. He gets points for being a colorful figure, something that always benefits baseball. My original point was that I can’t take seriously his insights on hitting, given all the reasons stated above.

 * Jackson went .278-.358-.527 in the postseason. Compare that to Ruth’s .326-.467-.744, Jimmie Foxx’s .344-.425-.609, Lou Brock’s .399-.424-.655, or Gehrig’s .361-.477-.731. Or even Albert’s .322-.431-.578.