April 13, 1978: How sweet it is! Reggie Jackson’s candy bar makes debut

While playing for the Oakland A’s in 1976, Reggie Jackson once commented that if he played in New York, they would name a candy bar after him.1 Jackson must have been prescient because that is exactly what happened, and that confectionery treat would make a big contribution to the dramatic lore of Yankee Stadium.

A free agent after the 1976 season, Jackson signed a five-year, $2.96 million contract with the Yankees and proved he was well worth the investment, hitting .286 with 32 home runs (which led the American League) and 110 RBIs. In the World Series against the Dodgers, Jackson hit five homers, four of which came on consecutive swings (one in Game Five at Dodger Stadium and three in Game Six at Yankee Stadium) as the Yankees won their first World Series championship in 15 years. After the Series, the Reggie Bar was born.

Only one player in baseball history to that point had his name on candy bar – Babe Ruth. The Curtiss Candy Company brought out the Baby Ruth bar in 1921. So that it would not have to pay royalties to the Babe, it asserted that the bar was named after nineteenth-century President Grover Cleveland’s daughter Ruth.

The same Curtiss Candy Company (at this point owned by Standard Brands) produced the Reggie Bar in 1978. The Reggie Bar was actually a large patty filled with peanuts and caramel and covered in chocolate. What made the candy extra-special was the attractive orange wrapper with Jackson’s image and the large REGGIE label. The candy was advertised heavily in television ads that featured Jackson himself saying, “Reggie, you taste pretty good.”2

After a disappointing road trip to Texas and Milwaukee to open the 1978 season (losing four of five games), the Yankees returned home on Thursday afternoon, April 13, to face the Chicago White Sox before a crowd of 44,667 (all of whom were handed a Reggie Bar upon entering). Before the game, Yankee heroes Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris raised the 1977 World Series Championship flag. It was Maris’s first appearance at the Stadium since he was traded in 1966. 

Ron Guidry was the starting pitcher for the Yankees. It was his second start of the season after pitching seven innings on Opening Day in Texas. Starting for the White Sox was veteran Wilbur Wood, who had lost his first outing, against Boston, four days earlier despite pitching a complete game. The Red Sox were off to a fast start, having won four of their first five games.

The Yankees scored three runs in the first inning. Willie Randolph led off with a walk and Mickey Rivers singled. Thurman Munson struck out and Jackson came to the plate. With the count 3-and-1, Jackson hit a long homer to right field, giving the Yankees a 3-1 lead. The fans went wild. “Like biblical manna, (Reggie) candy bars rained from the heavens at Yankee Stadium,” declared a sportswriter,3 referring to the fact that more than 500 fans threw the candy onto the field to show their appreciation for Jackson, who had just homered in his fourth straight plate appearance (and fourth consecutive swing) at The Stadium. It was the perfect marketing ploy for the Reggie Bar. The game was delayed five minutes as the grounds crew and 20 youngsters from the left-field stands scooped up the candy bars.

Despite the fans’ good intentions. PA announcer Bob Sheppard told the crowd, “The Yankees can understand your enthusiasm in the last half-inning. However, we ask you once again, in the name of good sportsmanship, to refrain from throwing anything on the field. Thank you.”4 The White Sox scored two runs in the second when Eric Soderholm doubled and Wayne Nordhagen, Don Kessinger and Junior Moore singled, making the score 3-2. 

Wood settled down and his knuckleball baffled the Yankees, who managed just four singles from the third inning to the eighth. The Yankees got another run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Bucky Dent, making the score 4-2. In the meantime, Guidry went the distance for the Yankees, allowing 10 hits while striking out four to earn the first win of what would turn out to be a spectacular 1978 season for the left-hander.

After the game Jackson said he thought the fans didn’t like the Reggie Bar. White Sox manager Bob Lemon grumbled, “Must be some great candy bar if they throw it instead of eating it. They ought to advertise it as the candy bar built for throwing.”5 Yankees manager Billy Martin had a different take: “Naw, they were throwing sweets. It shows you we have sweet fans. Wait until the next time we have a full house. I’m going to collect them all by myself and open a candy store. And I’ll sell them for a nickel less with a label on them that says, ‘These candy bars were thrown once.’”6 

Jackson focused more on the significance of the day for the Yankees and himself: “It’s fun now. You’re damn right it’s fun. We’re back home, we’re on the right track. And it’s better to be 2-4 than 1-5. Today was special for me. You see the championship flag, Mantle and Maris, everything. Roger told me several times they ran him out of town. They almost did that to me last year. I never want to go through another year like last year.  Right now, mentally, I’m happy.”7

The Reggie Bar was popular and reportedly made $11 million in the New York area alone in 1978, due in part to the success of the Yankees. Despite its popularity, the Reggie Bar had a short life. It was pulled off the market in 1981 during a dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the late 1990s Clark Candies briefly reissued the bar, but it disappeared shortly afterward.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the following websites:

https://classicnewyorkhistory.com/history-of-the-baby-ruth-bar-and-reggie-bar/

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA197804130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1978/B04130NYA1978.htm

Photo credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Notes

1 “Reggie Jackson quotes,” baseballalmanac.com. https://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quojackr.shtml, accessed September 20, 2022. 

2 “Reggie Candy Bar 1978 Commercial,” YouTube.com., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLO62LkosDI, accessed July 25, 2022. 

3 Dick Young, “Bars Are Hurled Down Upon Reggie,” New York Daily News, April 14, 1978: C26.

4 Reggie Jackson Recalls Yankees Fans Throwing Reggie! Bars on Field at 1978 Yankee Stadium Opener, YouTube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYV4sziN2Vk, accessed July 25, 2022.

5 Steve Jacobson, “Yanks’ Opening-Day Production,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), April 14, 1978: 138.

6 Al Mari, “A Real Sweet Home Opener,” Yonkers (New York) Herald Statesman, April 14, 1978: 23.

7 Al Mari, “Reggie Basks in the Limelight,” Yonkers Herald Statesman, April 14, 1978: 23.