A lot of people don't know this, but besides playing for the Atheletics and the Yankees, Mr. October also played one season with the Baltimore Orioles. The Bicentennial year, 1976, Reggie donned the bird's orange, black, and white uniform, batted .277 with 27 homers, 91 RBIs, and won a lot of votes for league MVP. Reggie wasn't finished - 76' was not the twilight of his career. His two best home run seasons were still ahead of him, so he was hardly a "has been" when the O's acquired him. Still, his season with Baltimore is now little more than a footnote in his glorious and distinguished career. The youthful, rookie, Jackson is associated with Atheletics, while the older, seasoned, Jackson is always associated with the Yankees. But he was one of ours, once!
I've had an autographed 8x10 photo of Jackson in an O's uniform for years. I bought it at a baseball card show back in the early 1980's, when it had no particular premium value. I've been offered up to $100 bucks for it, but I kinda like it. Recently while browsing ebay, I ran across a game used jersey card of Jackson - an Orioles jersey! Needless to say, I bought it and it will have a special place among my other Orioles game-used jersey cards. I suppose it's just a little bit of Baltimore history as well as MLB history, but I still think it's kind of special.
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