Feat to beat- Three pitches, three swings, three home runs

NEW YORK -- There is something about the month of October, with its autumn colors at the start and trick or treat at the end, that always got Reggie Jackson's juices going.

"I've always loved October," Jackson said. "It's cool. It's dark at 6:15. There's a nice tingle in the air. It makes me feel so good."

And, oh yes, there's the World Series.

Jackson made baseball's championship series his personal showcase. A career .262 hitter, he hit .357 in 27 World Series games and was nicknamed after his favorite month -- Mr. October.

His 563 career home runs defined Jackson's Hall of Fame career. One magical night in the 1977 World Series punctuated it.

Three pitches. Three swings. Three home runs.

Twenty-five years later, that game remains the exclamation point for Jackson, the signature statement that separated him from the pack. For him, the setting was as important as the accomplishment.

"That's a kid's dream, to play in Yankee Stadium, to do something like that in a place like that," he said. "Players who've never been there before are always curious about the stadium. The nostalgia, the monuments. Doing things in Yankee Stadium is special for anybody who is an American."

Jackson had struggled in the pennant playoff that year, going 1-for-15 against Kansas City and benched in the final game by manager Billy Martin, who had become a constant antagonist.

Now, on the main stage, Jackson would wipe out that bitter memory. The World Series would turn out to be a romp for Reggie.

The start of it all

Jackson's longball assault on the Dodgers' pitchers began in Game 4 when he homered in a 4-2 Yankees victory that gave New York a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Los Angeles prolonged the series with a 10-4 victory in Game 5. In his last time at bat, Jackson homered again, setting the stage for the Game 6 barrage.

On Oct. 18, Jackson walked in his first at-bat against Los Angeles starter Burt Hooton. On his next swing, he hit Hooton's first pitch into the right-field stands. In the fifth, with reliever Elias Sosa on the mound, Jackson hit the first pitch again, this time even deeper into the right-field seats.

In the bottom of the eighth, Jackson came up again, this time against knuckleballer Charlie Hough. Once again, he hit the first pitch, this one deep into the center field bleachers, a black section left deliberately vacant to provide a better background for hitters.

This was record territory -- three home runs in one game, five home runs in the Series.

The three homers were made more remarkable because each came on the first pitch, each from a different pitcher, each hit further than the one before.

"I saw a different pitch each time," Jackson said. "The first time up, I saw four balls, nothing to hit. The first homer against Hooton was a fastball. The second, Sosa tried to get ahead with a fastball and I got it. The third, Hough threw knuckleballs.

"Hooton was different from Sosa, and Sosa was different from Hough. It was an awesome feeling, a euphoric experience. There's a picture of me with my feet off the ground and that's how I felt."

Jackson became the only man to hit five home runs in a Series and just the second with three homers in one Series game. The other was Babe Ruth, who did it twice.

That, as much as anything else about the record, sticks with Jackson.

"It's a sentence in the company of Babe Ruth," he said. "That's very special."

Could it happen again? There is, remember, Barry Bonds, equipped with more than 600 home runs in his career, playing in the World Series this October.

Jackson has noticed.

"If they pitch to Bonds," Jackson said, "he could get four."