This Bo Jackson home run, hit 30 years ago Wednesday, remains a favorite memory
The first time I saw Bo Jackson play, Royals fans booed him.
It was 30 years ago Wednesday and I was an intern at a small-town newspaper in Iowa. To my surprise, the sports editor had received media credentials for a July 1, 1990 game between the Royals and Tigers at Royals Stadium.
What we were there ostensibly to cover ... well, I can’t remember. The newspaper in Knoxville, Iowa, is a weekly and we didn’t have a pressing need to write about that particular game. But for the sports editor, it was an opportunity to step away from the summer high school sports and weekly sprint-car races.
I joined him as the paper’s “photographer,” which I put in quote marks because I spent more time gaping at the stars around me as I stood on the turf at Royals Stadium: Cecil Fielder, George Brett, Sparky Anderson, Bo Jackson.
These were the days when fans didn’t have access to every MLB game on the schedule. I’d seen Jackson on ESPN, “This Week In Baseball,” the 1989 All-Star Game ... and in NFL highlights.
Jackson was already a national star thanks to his legendary feats in two professional leagues and the “Bo Knows” Nike commercial. But, having grown up in Chicago, this would be my first opportunity to see him in person, and I was excited for the opportunity. Who knows what I might see?
It was a sweltering day and in his first at-bat, Jackson struck out against Tigers starter Jack Morris, stranding a runner at second. The same thing happened in the third inning: Jackson ended the frame by striking out with a teammate standing on second base.
Things got worse when Jackson made an error in center field and the Tigers scored an unearned run to increase their lead to 5-1 in the fifth inning.
When Jackson stepped to the plate in the sixth inning, George Brett was at first base. Some of the 25,407 on hand booed Jackson. But the mood changed quickly:
Tigers announcers George Kell and Al Kaline had never seen a ball hit that far at what is now Kauffman Stadium, and they weren’t alone. I had never witnessed anyone hitting a baseball that far and I haven’t since.
Unfortunately, the TV cameraman wasn’t ready for Jackson’s feats of strength, and you can’t see where the ball landed in the video above. It was nearly at the top of the grass embankment in left field, and I gasped at the sight of a baseball traveling that far.
A UPI story about the game incorrectly stated Gerald Perry hit a home run to left field (although he hit a solo shot to center field later in the sixth inning). But it estimated the blast to be 460 feet.
The longest home runs in Royals/Kauffman Stadium history belong to Reds catcher Johnny Bench (480 feet to left field during the 1973 All-Star Game) and Jackson’s 475-foot shot in 1986.
It’s hard for me to imagine a longer home run than the one Jackson hit off Morris. It was 30 years ago Wednesday, but I can still see that as clear as when it happened.
That’s the magic of sports, of course.
In what was a pedestrian 9-4 Tigers win over the Royals, a meeting between teams that would finish below .500 and far out of playoff contention, Jackson provided was a bolt from the blue.
It’s July 1, 2020 now and we should be in the second half of the Major League Baseball season, but we have yet to see a single pitch because of the pandemic.
There’s a sense of loss, knowing that we can’t get back those three months of games. Part of what I miss most about baseball, and really all sports, is the “it” moment like the one Jackson provided against the Tigers.
That epic home run remains a favorite memory three decades later.
