Fans at Yankee Stadium throw dozens of newly created “Reggie” bars onto the field
On May 5, 1977, fans at Yankee Stadium throw dozens of newly created “Reggie” bars onto the field, halting play momentarily. Fans had been given free samples of the candy bars, which are named after New York Yankees star Reggie Jackson.
It all started with a remark that Reggie Jackson made while he was still an Oakland Athletic. ”If I played in New York,” he said, ”they’d name a candy bar for me.”
Reggie had thought the Babe Ruth bar was actually named after Ruth, initially it was not. It had been named for the offspring of President Grover Cleveland and his winsome young wife, Frances.
But this day was Reggie’s. In the first inning, facing the White Sox southpaw Wilbur Wood, with Mickey Rivers and Willie Randolph on base, Jackson took the first two pitches for balls, then pumped a knuckleball that didn’t knuckle over the fence in deep right-center field.
As soon as it was out of the park, while Reggie was still making his way around the bases, the first bars began to come down. They kept coming for the next five minutes; a rain of orange-and-blue squares, covering the grass in right and left fields — while the big crowd stood and roared, and chanted, ”Reggie! Reggie!”
The grounds crew had it cleaned up in no time, and the Yanks breezed to a 4-2 triumph, the first of Ron Guidry’s 25 victories on the season. Yet apart from the fans, the general reaction was amazingly churlish. Most of the sportswriters seemed vaguely embarrassed by the whole spectacle. Most of the players professed to be outraged.
”It was just a shame that something like that has to happen,” Wood fumed. ”It’s not called for,” Bob Lemon, the White Sox’ usually imperturbable manager, said, pointing out that someone could have been injured by one of the two-ounce bars.
”Let them throw them when he’s in right field,” Lemon said. ”See how he feels.” He then added, ”People starving all over the world and 30 billion calories are laying on the field.”
Only Reggie, with his usual showman’s eye, took it all in stride.
”I figured they’d be coming out on the field,” he said after the game. ”I just appreciated it. It was a nice gesture.”
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