When Jackson began his first full season in 1968, he decided to room with twenty-four year-old right-hander Chuck Dobson, who was white. “In the sprawl of baseball history, a black player and a white player had never roomed
together…Reggie saw an opportunity to agitate and make small amends for his behavior in Birmingham” (Perry). Jackson played for the Athletics until 1975, winning three World Series (1972-74), one World Series MVP (1973), six All-Star Awards (1969, 1971-1975), two AL homerun champion Awards (1973, 1975), and one AL RBI Champion Award (1973). When the team owner of the Athletics, Charlie Finley, would not pay what Jackson wanted, he was traded on April 2, 1976 to the Baltimore Orioles. After the 1976 season Jackson signed with the New York Yankees.

           

            While in spring training in his first year with the Yankees, Jackson was quoted saying that he was “the
straw that stirred the drink.” This did not settle well with the veterans from the Yankees and made a bad first impression for his new ball club. In the 1977 World Series against the Dodgers, Jackson got his famous nickname of “Mr. October” from Thurman Munson based on his clutch previous performances with Oakland. Later Jackson would hit three homeruns in game six of the World Series leading the Yankees to win the series. In the 1978 season Jackson would get his own candy bar called the “Reggie!” Jackson was quoted with the Baltimore Orioles in 1976 that “If I played in New York, they’d name a candy bar after me” (Perry,50) and they did. Jackson played with the Yankees until 1981 winning two World Series (1977, 1978), one World Series MVP Award (1977), one Silver Slugger Award (1980), five All-Star Awards, and two AL Homerun champion awards (1975, 1980). After the 1981 season Jackson left New York to join the California Angels signing a five year until the 1986 season.

In the 1986 season Jackson accused the Minnesota Twins of being racist, because the team had only two players on their team that was not white, Kirby Puckett and Alex Sanchez (The Evening Independent). The Twins disagreed with Jackson, saying that they put the best team out there regardless of race. Jackson, with the Angels, won one Silver Slugger Award (1982), one AL Homerun Champion Award (1982), and three All-Star Awards (1982, 1983, 1984). After the 1986 season Jackson signed a one year contract with the Oakland Athletics, coming back to the team he started his career with. Jackson also came back to the Athletics to help mentor Jose
Canseco and Mark McGwire, its two young sluggers.