RIP Al Jackson, 1935-2019

[G-Fafif]

We've lost an Original Met, a Recidivist Met and a practically lifelong Met today, as Al Jackson passed away today at age 83 in Port St. Lucie. He suffered a stroke in 2015.



He was "my guy," SABR-wise, the only bio I'd written, recently updating it to encompass what I filed ten years earlier -- not only the illness but more about the obstacles he faced coming into and staying in baseball.



Everybody spoke so highly of him throughout his career, which didn't really end until the stroke. He was, like Phil Regan, our organizational pitching guru, except he did that pretty much forever. You will remember him from Bobby V's coaching staff on those playoff teams of 1999 and 2000. You'll remember him in a second go-round in 1969, perhaps, and you're surely familiar with his being the rock of the staff from 1962 through 1965, tough years for a rock, but Al never sank.



Little Al Jackson, as Bob Murphy called him. He is missed already.

Edited August 19, 2019 by Guest

[seawolf17]

An absolute all-time Met in every sense of the word.

[Benjamin Grimm]

https://image.freepik.com/free-photo/baby-boy-crying-sad-child-portrait_1150-3927.jpg>

[Guest 41Forever]

He was the Orioles pitching coach when I was writing about Mickey Weston. While Frank Robinson was a bit gruff, Al Jackson was gracious with a starstruck young reporter, providing good information in a very friendly way.

[Benjamin Grimm]

At the time of his death, Al Jackson was the 20th oldest living Met. John DeMerit now moves into the Top Twenty, and Bob Aspromonte moves into the Top Forty.



http://leaptoad.com/mets/oldestliving.phpOldest Living Mets

[Edgy MD]

When Ron Darling talks about who got him over the hump as a pro pitcher, it's rarely Bill Monboquette or Mel Stottlemyer he talks about. It's usually either Al Jackson or Davy Johnson.

[G-Fafif]

SABR has posted the updated bio here...



https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9bc53b1dhttps://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9bc53b1d

[MFS62]

My favorite all-time Met.

I am very sad today.

This sentence from Greg's article says it all:

“No one,” the Mets' 2018 media guide declared, “exemplifies the Mets organization more than Al Jackson.”

RIP

Later

[dgwphotography]

=MFS62 post_id=19345 time=1566263260 user_id=60]
My favorite all-time Met.

I am very sad today.

This sentence from Greg's article says it all:

“No one,” the Mets' 2018 media guide declared, “exemplifies the Mets organization more than Al Jackson.”

RIP

Later

[Frayed Knot]

We saw him pitching in the sixties, the little lefty from Waco town.

We've been seeing Al Jackson, ever since the team's been around.

We're talking Jackson ..

[Frayed Knot]

We saw him pitching in the sixties, the little lefty from Waco town.

We've been seeing Al Jackson, ever since the team's been around.

We're talking Jackson ..

[G-Fafif]

Al pinch-ran 51 times as a Met.