Reggie Jackson in awe of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He stole the lights at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night, They treat it like a solo show on Broadway. It was the 44th anniversary of Reggie Jackson He hit the ground running against the White Sox and then had fans flood the field with some Reggie bars that were handed out that night by Standard Brands, which showed they were attentive when Reggie said that if he played in New York, they’d name a piece of candy after him. And so they did.

This was six months after Reggie had the most famous three home games in baseball history. In just three racket turns in Game Six of the 1977 World Championships, he became the all-time Mr. October. Now here’s this talented kid, Vlad Jr., hitting three against the Yankees, the last two after being hit on his right hand in a play at first base and requiring a bandage to close the wound.

It all happened on the new field, in the first week of the new baseball season, when Yankees fans got to see what Guerrero could do in front of them, right there.

“It was a real New York moment,” Reggie said the next morning. “There’s just an added value when you’re spending a night in New York as he did. Now don’t get me wrong: People would have just sat and grabbed attention no matter where he got last night. It’s completely different when you’re doing it in New York. And trust me, no one knows that.” better than me “.

“Now young people may have to go back and look for what I am referring to here,” he said. But it’s like the Beatles debuted in New York on the old ‘Ed Sullivan Show’. People already knew about the Beatles by then, obviously. They were already successful. But then they came to New York. At baseball tonight Past, Vlad was like the Beatles coming back to town back in the day.”

Two home runs after Guerrero got hurt, I thought he might be leaving the game when he went to Blue Jays lair. The first two were hit by Gerrit Cole, the ace Yankees. There are other exciting twists in the game. Of course Shohei Ohtani comes to mind. No swing is more exciting, and no game more exciting than when Guerrero is on the board, naming the Hall of Fame in baseball every time he steps onto the board.

“His father was one of those guys, just like the son,” Jackson said. “The only real competition they have is the mirror. Can you imagine how much bigger his dad would have been if he had played some of his prime in NYC?”

Then, at the end of the call, Mr. October was online, as he guessed that Vlad Jr.’s father—”who swung everythingHis career average was .311,” said Jackson. It turned out to be .318.

“And he didn’t get below 0.300 until the end of his career, and even then, his lowest was 0.90,” Jackson said. “I think if he had played in bigger stages, he would have seen him as high quality [Roberto] Clemente. As great as Clemente was, he didn’t have the strength that Vlad Sr. “

Then he asked Jackson about Vlad Jr’s batting average last season. I told him .311.

“I knew one of them was .311,” Jackson said.

Then we talked again about the night Reggie Barratt was on the field in the old stadium, after a right center shot, a knuckle ball from Wilbur Wood that didn’t hit, unlike the one that Charlie Hough threw in Game 6 of the 1977 series, hit Reggie tonight The three.

I asked him if he knew it was Reggie Bar’s anniversary.

“I didn’t know that until I read it somewhere,” he said. “Maybe Twitter”.

The father of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. played the first seven full seasons of his brilliant baseball career in Canada with the Montreal Expos. Now his son, playing on what may be the best team in the Major League and perhaps the best in baseball when it’s all over, he started his own theatrical career in Canada with the Blue Jays.

With expectations too high for him after the year he had in 2021 (48 homers, 111 RBIs, .311 on average), with expectations too high for the Blue Jays, he came off the blocks with four homers and 8 RBIs in his first six games . Playing Thursday’s game against the Yankees, he was hitting 0.391. Then he spent that kind of night, against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

“I saw what happened last night, how much he could do what he did and did there,” Reggie said.

“People are talking about Reggie Bar,” he said. “Three home runs for the kid. At Yankee Stadium. Maybe it was Karma.”

Maybe if this kid played where Reggie played, they’d shoot a candy bar after him.