Reggie Likes A’s in Dynasty Duel

He was the young slugger on the Oakland A’s team that won three consecutive World Series in the early ‘70s. Now he is an executive with the New York Yankees, who defeated the Mets Thursday night to complete the first three-peat since the A’s.

Who would win a seven-game series between those A’s and these Yankees?

“I like the A’s,” Reggie Jackson said, standing near the batting cage before Game 5. “Oakland’s pitching was better and I think it’s all about pitching, but it would be a great Series and they’re very similar teams.”

Jackson said four World Series in five years would translate to a Yankee dynasty.

“Four of five,” he said. “That’s big. It hasn’t happened since the ‘50s. Our Oakland team ran into free agency [in the late ‘70s]. We were all kids and played for an owner [Charles Finley] who didn’t pay anything. If they’d kept the nucleus together, we might have won five or six times in eight years, something like that.”

Jackson was asked if he took a proprietary view of the A’s three titles, hoping the Yankees wouldn’t match it?

“No,” he said with a laugh, “I just don’t want anyone to hit three.”

He alluded, of course, to the record three home runs he hit against the Dodgers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series.