July 2, 1969: Before he was Mr. October, he was Mr. July: Reggie Jackson hits 3 home runs to lead A’s over Pilots

In the Oakland Athletics bullpen, pitchers had a tradition during the 1969 season whenever their burgeoning superstar Reggie Jackson hit a home run.

“We had carved [notches] in the bench, just like would be in a gun handle, for home runs,” said Marcel Lachemann, now eighty-four, a reliever for the A’s that season.1

On July 2, the A’s bullpen bench had an especially busy night, with the twenty-three-year-old Jackson hitting three home runs, all solo, in a 5–0 rout of the visiting Seattle Pilots. Blue Moon Odom did his part by pitching a five-hit shutout and hitting a home run of his own.2

Because the A’s finished 88–74 and nine games back of the division-leading Minnesota Twins in the newly formed American League West, Oakland’s 1969 season or this game isn’t especially remembered. But it foretold the heights that Jackson and the A’s would reach in the years to come.

In the 1977 World Series, Jackson famously hit three home runs for the New York Yankees and earned himself the nickname Mr. October en route to a Hall of Fame career. On this day in 1969, though, he was Mr. July.

Before the game on July 2, the Pilots strategized about how best to pitch Jackson, who was playing in his second full season in the majors and who had hit 29 home runs in 1968.

Already, Jackson had been making short work of Seattle’s pitching, smacking two homers on April 25 and another two on May 4. Jackson was on his way to slashing .321/.520/.811 that season against the Pilots, a hapless expansion franchise that relocated to Milwaukee and became the Brewers during spring training in 1970.

In his landmark diary of the 1969 season, Ball Four, Pilots relief pitcher Jim Bouton made note of the clubhouse meeting Seattle held before the July 2 game. Bouton wrote of Pilots pitching coach Sal Maglie, a former ace himself, saying about Jackson during the meeting, “Once in a while, you can jam him.”3

Maglie also offered that one way the Pilots could handle Jackson was by simply not throwing him strikes. After each homer Jackson hit that night, Bouton wrote, Pilots pitchers would say, “There’s another one of those goddam [sic] strikes.”4

Jim Pagliaroni, a catcher purchased by the Pilots from the A’s on May 27, 1969, also offered advice before the July 2 game on how to pitch to Jackson, according to fellow Pilots catcher Jerry McNertney: “Just keep the ball away from him. … I remember him hitting two home runs [on pitches] that we stayed away.”5

Getting the start for Seattle was Marty Pattin, selected from the California Angels in the expansion draft the previous October. He’d struggle through the year to a 7–12 win-loss record and 5.62 ERA for the Pilots, who’d finish 64–98–1.

Jackson struck early, getting the A’s on the board with no one on base and two men out in the bottom of the first inning. The Oakland Tribune made note of the shot the next day, writing, “Homer No. 1 was Reggie’s only cheapie of the season, sort of a high pop fly that barely made it over the right field fence near the 330-foot mark by the foul pole.”6

Even Jackson, whose confidence could grate those around him, was deferential about his first home run of the night, with the Associated Press quoting him saying after the game, “The first one was lucky. The wind blew it out.”7

Pattin struck out Jackson his next time up in the third inning. In the sixth inning, Jackson got hold of a curveball that was low and away. The pitch was, as the AP quoted him saying, “not normally a home run pitch but I hit it good.”8

Diego Segui relieved Pattin in the seventh inning. When Jackson came back to the plate in the eighth inning, he hit a Segui fastball for his third home run of the night.

“I knew he’d throw me his best pitch and I was looking for it,” Jackson said after the game. “I was fortunate to get my pitches and not foul them off. That’s the difference between a good hitter and a bad hitter.”9

Among the Pilots, the mood was grim after Jackson hit his final home run, with Bouton reporting that fellow reliever John O’Donoghue planned to hit Jackson. After Bouton took issue with this, O’Donoghue elaborated. “I wouldn’t mean to hurt the guy,” O’Donoghue said. “I don’t mean throw at his head. Just let him know he should have some fear up there.”10

Pilots manager Joe Schultz might have summed it up best, saying after the game, “We were all right until Baby Ruth showed up.”11

Compared to other great A’s pitchers of the era like Catfish Hunter or Vida Blue, Blue Moon Odom never had a period of sustained stardom. Some of this was due to control issues, with Odom averaging 4.7 walks per nine innings compared to 5.1 strikeouts during his career.

“I remember that the catchers had a hard time catching him,” recalled a seventy-eight-year-old George Lauzerique, who was in his third season pitching for the Athletics in 1969. “His ball moved around so much.”12

Between 1968 and 1969, though, Odom had arguably his two finest seasons, going a combined 31–16 with a 2.68 ERA and making the American League All-Star team both years.

Odom improved to 11–3 with his outing on July 2, striking out eight and walking just two to go with his five-hit shutout. He added a solo home run off Pattin in the second inning, one of five he hit that season. “Hey, you guys! I hit a tater, too,” Odom told a dozen reporters gathered around Jackson’s locker after the game.13

In fact, Odom was in the midst of an outstanding hitting season for a pitcher. Odom’s .799 OPS, 125 OPS+. and .506 slugging percentage for the 1969 season are all well above average for a pitcher.

“Johnny Lee was a great athlete,” Lachemann said, referring to Odom’s given name. “He could swing the bat. He was a good hitter, he was a good fielder, and he actually perfected his craft a little bit more than you would think. I mean, obviously the master on that group was Catfish, but Johnny, he could pitch. He was a very solid, solid, solid pitcher.”14

Jackson’s night continued a torrid stretch, in which he had hit 20 home runs since May 30. While the game on July 2 came in front of just 5,012 fans at Oakland Coliseum, Jackson was definitely attracting notice.

Coverage of the game made note that Jackson was 10 games ahead of Roger Maris’s pace when the Yankees slugger hit 61 home runs in 1961 and 23 games ahead of Babe Ruth’s pace when the Sultan of Swat hit 60 home runs in 1927.16

“How many did Ruth hit in September? 17?” A’s backup catcher Larry Haney told a teammate in the clubhouse, according to Bergman. “The way Reggie is going, he’ll have the record by August 30th.”17

Alas, while Jackson had 41 home runs by August 2, he’d hit just six more homers that season. Lachemann said that he thought Jackson contracted shingles, though he added, “You’d probably have to check on that.”18

Jackson was unavailable for comment. Ted Kubiak, a utility man for the ‘69 A’s, also said that Jackson had shingles the final months of the season. “I think it was just nervousness and the tension that he was under, but he did go through that, I know,” Kubiak said.19

Joe Rudi, a future A’s standout, spent part of the ‘69 season in Oakland and part in Triple A. He didn’t specifically recall if Jackson had shingles, though Rudi said the organization offered scant support. “There was nobody there to help with a national sensation, when Reggie got all those home runs, to help Reggie handle the press and all the pressure and all the other crap that came aboard.” Years later, Rudi noted, José Canseco and Mark McGwire would have similar experiences with the A’s.20

Nevertheless, the season showed that Jackson, who was the second pick in the 1966 draft, was a significant star. In the years to come, he’d establish himself as what Sports Illustrated would eventually refer to him as on its cover of June 17, 1974, as a “Superduperstar” while the A’s would continue building toward success until winning three straight World Series titles from 1972 through 1974.

Even on July 2, Jackson knew what mattered to him: “If I hit 90 homers in a season and we don’t win, it’s a bad season.”21

Reggie Jackson at the plate in 1969. The 23-year-old launched 47 homers that year. (Courtesy of the Athletics)

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK196907020.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1969/B07020OAK1969.htm

Notes

1 Marcel Lachemann, telephone interview, August 21, 2025.

2 Details of game accessed on Baseball-Reference.com.

3 Jim Bouton, Ball Four (New York: Macmillan General Reference, 1990), 270.

4 Bouton, 270.

5 Jerry McNertney, telephone interview, August 21, 2025.

6 Ron Bergman, “A’s Star Hits 3 Homers,” Oakland Tribune, July 3, 1969: 37–39.

7 Associated Press, “Jackson 10 Games Ahead of Maris Home Run Pace,” Houston Chronicle, July 3, 1969: 4: 2.

8 Associated Press, “Jackson 10 Games Ahead.”

9 Associated Press, “Jackson 10 Games Ahead.”

10 Bouton, 270.

11 Harland Beery, “Reggie Socks 3 Homers, A’s Rip Pilots,” Daily Herald (Everett, Washington), July 3, 1969: 19.

12 George Lauzerique, telephone interview, August 21, 2025.

13 Bergman, “A’s Star Hits 3 Homers.”

14 Lachemann interview.

15 Bergman, “A’s Star Hits 3 Homers.”

16 Associated Press, “Jackson 10 Games Ahead.”

17 Bergman, “A’s Star Hits 3 Homers.”

18 Lachemann interview.

19 Ted Kubiak, telephone interview, August 23, 2025.

20 Joe Rudi, telephone interview, August 25, 2025.

21 Dick O’Connor, “Jackson may earn $100,000 in 1970,” Peninsula Times Tribune (Palo Alto, California), July 3, 1969: 23.