Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and Me

Seeing the beginning of spring training takes me back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1977. I was sent there to get Reggie Jackson to talk, honestly, about how he felt joining the Yankees. He'd been there for about a week or so and had been playing the "team guy" the whole time.

But my editor, Dick Schaap, knew it was an act. "He'll eventually open up to someone. It better be you, Ward," Dick laughed.

I wasn't laughing when I went to the Banana Boat Bar, a Yankee hangout. Reggie had already said he wasn't sure he wanted to talk, and I was trying to find the right way to ask questions. That is the reporter's true art. And the right questions means the right tone to the questions as well. Not "How's your toe, Reg?" which is what the beat guys asked him. What can he say to such a question? Only "good" or "bad."

But I got a break: When Reggie came in to see me, he had to walk right past Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and Whitey Ford, who were playing backgammon at the other end of the bar. Reggie stopped to say hello, and they immediately began ribbing him about his Battle of the Superstars T-shirt.

"Man, oh man, a superstar!" said Mick. "Wow," said Martin. Reggie laughed, but by the time he got to the end of the bar with me, he was hot. I picked up on it immediately and said something like,"Maybe they don't understand how good you are, or how smart." Reggie nodded and shook his head.

Back at the locker room, I had interviewed some of the other Yankees while he was getting into his street clothes, and now he asked me about what they'd said. I told him the truth. Some of the guys said that they wondered why they needed him. I think that and the kidding by the older, greater Yanks set him off, and soon he was off and running.

Not long after, when we were discussing team captain Thurman Munson, he said the fateful words that still live in baseball lore today: "I'm the straw that stirs the drink. Thurman Munson thinks he can stir it, but he can only stir it bad."

I got the greatest story of my life as a sports reporter and even got to play myself in the ESPN mini-series The Bronx Is Burning.  Why? A combination of luck—luck that Mickey, Billy and Whitey were there and got him incensed and also of my own reporter's savvy. I saw how quickly he got upset and fed him the questions I knew he wanted to answer. 

He wanted the world to know how great and how smart he was and how awesome he was going to be. And, in the end, though he caused a furor on the Yankees, he was right. He led the Yanks to a World Series victory that year and was the team's most valuable player.

Robert Ward is a novelist (latest novel "The Best Bad Dream" Grove/Atlantic 2012), journalist (latest book "Renegades," a collection of his best non-fiction pieces from the 70's and 80's, TV writer/producer ("Hill Street Blues" and "Miami Vice") and actor. He last appeared playing himself in the ESPN mini series "The Bronx Is Burning." He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, journalist Celeste Wesson ("Marketplace") and his son, Robbie Ward.