Reggie Jackson: Bryce Harper needs to win for epic playoff run to matter

HOUSTON — Reggie Jackson stood near the batting cage Thursday as the Houston Astros went through their World Series eve workout at Minute Maid Park.

“Let me watch this hitter while we’re talking,” he said.

Though his baseball roots go back to when he starred at Cheltenham High School in the 1960s, Mr. October is now a senior adviser to Astros owner Jim Crane. So he has been preoccupied lately with providing feedback to the players and coaches to help Jose Altuve snap out of a 3-for-32 postseason funk and get Yordan Alvarez back on track after a quiet American League Championship Series.

But Jackson knows what you want to ask him. It’s what everyone in baseball is talking about. The Phillies are in the World Series because Bryce Harper put them there with an eighth-inning two-run homer for the ages last Sunday at Citizens Bank Park, the latest superhero turn in an all-time great postseason.

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The numbers leap off the page: 18-for-43 (.419), six doubles, five homers, 11 RBIs, .444 on-base percentage, .907 slugging percentage. The achievements are piling up: Most hits and extra-base hits by a Phillies player in one postseason; a 10-game hitting streak that is tied with Lenny Dykstra’s in 1993 for the longest in the franchise’s playoff history.

Before our eyes, Harper is turning into, dare we say it, the new Mr. October.

“I know Bryce Harper is a good player. I think he’s moved himself up a notch,” said Jackson, who has “Mr. October” embroidered in cursive on the back of his navy blue Astros cap. “But it won’t matter if it stops. Now it counts. Now it starts. You’ve got to finish.”

Jackson, 76, built his reputation in the World Series. In 1977, he went 2-for-16 in the ALCS before going 9-for-20 with five homers in the World Series, including three in the Yankees’ crowning Game 6 victory in New York.

That was how the legend of Mr. October was born.

Harper’s legend is growing with every swing. The reigning National League MVP missed two months over the summer while his broken left thumb healed, then struggled to regain his timing at the plate. He often lamented being late on fastballs and out in front on breaking pitches.

But the biggest swing of Harper’s season may have come in Game 2 of the wild-card series. He stayed back on a first-pitch curveball from St. Louis Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas and crushed it into the right-field bullpen.

Since then?

“I mean, he’s the showman,” Phillies center fielder Brandon Marsh said. “He’s got that clutch gene in him.”

In Jackson’s day, they’d put your name on a candy bar for slugging like Harper and leading your team to a ticker-tape parade.

Harper mirrors Jackson in other ways. Through 11 major league seasons, Harper is a .280/.390/.523 hitter with 285 homers and a 142 OPS+ in 5,908 plate appearances. At the same point in his Hall of Fame career, Jackson hit .268/.360/.508 with 313 homers and a 150 OPS+ in 6,222 plate appearances. Harper has two MVP awards; Jackson had one.

Like Jackson, Harper isn’t the best player in baseball. But he’s the biggest name and most recognizable star, embraced by the baseball-crazed fans of a Northeast team he joined via a historic free-agent contract, and a favorite villain in road ballparks.

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Jackson is close with Phillies manager Rob Thomson, whom he described as “one of my most favorite people” from working together with the Yankees. He said he doesn’t know Harper, other than having shaken his hand before a spring training game in 2019.

But Jackson has followed Harper’s career from his days as a teenage phenom in Las Vegas and acknowledged the similarities.

“I think when he got to Philly, he seemed to have a greater appreciation for the game,” Jackson said. “He matured, or whatever you want to call it. I don’t mind his cockiness or his self-assuredness. He’s a great player. I was cocky, too. I was sure that I was good. I like to see a guy, he’s a good player and he knows it. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.”

But Jackson also had some things that Harper lacks: five championship rings and two World Series MVP awards.

“I think being able to go out there and play the game that I love, do the things that I’m able to do, I’m grateful for the opportunity,” Harper said. “I have so much gratitude toward the organization and to be able to play in front of a fan base like this in Philadelphia. I don’t think about anything else besides trying to go out there and win for them.”

And maybe take the Mr. October mantle from Jackson.

“I want to see Harper finish like he started,” Jackson said. “But I want to win. I want us to win.”

Join Scott Lauber and Alex Coffey, Phillies beat writers for The Philadelphia Inquirer, as they preview the World Series on Gameday Central, Friday at 6 pm at inquirer.com/PhilliesGameday