Reggie Jackson Says Race Kept Him From Ownership Role

He was part of groups that tried to buy the A’s and the Dodgers.

Reggie Jackson is one of the most iconic figures in the history of baseball. Amazon Prime Video is set to premiere a documentary on him titled Reggie, and in it he doesn’t hold back about his life—including instances of racism that he’s encountered. 

Jackson said that while he was an adviser with the Yankees after his playing days, race played a role in why he was never able to fulfill his dream of owning an MLB team. He was a part of groups that tried to buy the A’s and the Dodgers and the group that tried to buy the Los Angeles franchise also had Bill Gates and Paul Allen as members.

“That group could have bought the National League,” Jackson said in the documentary, per the New York Post. “As soon as I owned a team I was going to be a voice. I remember listening to the commissioner [Bud Selig] telling me how he was going to help [his group buy the Dodgers]. Bud said ‘Trust me. Trust me.’”

The Dodgers were instead sold to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Entertainment Group in 1998.

“I didn’t fit into the club. How else do I say that?” he said. “I didn’t fit. Can I say it any plainer? Do you want me to say because I was colored I wasn’t a fit? It’s pretty easy to realize that.”

Jackson spent several years as an adviser for the Yankees after his playing career and said even there he felt like his voice wasn’t heard, calling himself a “hood ornament.” That led to his departure and eventual joining of the Astros as special adviser to owner Jim Crane, where he was a part of their 2022 championship run. 

According to the New York Post, the 14-time All Star also spoke on the racism he faced growing up in a white neighborhood in Philadelphia and during his time in the minor leagues of the Deep South during the civil rights movement.