Darrin Jackson is 62 years young and in his 26th season as a broadcast analyst for the Chicago White Sox. Currently paired with Len Kasper in the radio booth, the erstwhile MLB outfielder is equally adept at breaking down plays and sharing entertaining anecdotes. Much for the latter reason, he is a fantastic fit for our Challenging Career Quiz series, which now runs 11 deep and most recently featured Baltimore Orioles legend Jim Palmer.
Jackson’s playing career comes nowhere close to rivaling Palmer’s, although he did have his fair share of success. Suiting up for seven clubs — including both of Chicago’s — over a dozen seasons, Jackson was at his best in San Diego. Across the 1991-1992 campaigns, the right-handed swinger swatted 38 home runs as a Friar while logging a 99 wRC+ and 8.5 WAR. Filling a platoon role for much of his big league tenure, Jackson retired with 676 hits, including 80 round-trippers, over 2,816 plate appearances.
Which pitcher did he face the most times? That proved to be an easy question, as Jackson correctly guessed Tom Glavine with little hesitation. When I informed Jackson that the southpaw was also the pitcher against whom he’d garnered the most hits, he offered an unsurprising recollection of Glavine. As most fans know, the Hall of Famer had a well-earned reputation for getting strikes just off the plate.
“Facing him was never a fun practice, mainly because umpires had their own strike zones back then,” said Jackson, who went 11-for-44 with a pair of home runs and one walk versus Glavine. “He knew how to abuse that strike zone by working away, away, down and away, down and away. He would get you diving across the plate, looking in that zone, and the next thing you knew, he’d be throwing a two-seam fastball on the inside corner to freeze you for strike three. I probably got rung up looking by him more than anyone else I faced, because of that exact way of pitching. It drove me crazy. Even though you said I had a bunch of hits, I never liked facing him. He was just too smart and too good.”
Glavine fanned Jackson 11 times, which ties him with another pitcher for the honor of most strikeouts. Jackson whiffed badly in his attempts to name said hurler. Ramon Martinez punched him out on just three occasions, and John Smoltz did so just four times. The correct answer is Tim Belcher.
“Oh yeah, I hated facing Belcher, too,” Jackson said of the righty against whom he went 8-for-33. “I couldn’t lay off the fastball against Belcher. That clown. It was up, up, up. He was a good pitcher. You’re making me remember all of these nightmares; I’m going to lose some sleep tonight thinking about these guys and how they worked me over. But yeah, I can see why it would be Belcher. When I was with San Diego is when I got most of my at-bats, and he was with the Dodgers.”
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Smoltz doesn’t fit into a “most” category for Jackson, but he did merit asking about. The righty surrendered eight hits, including three doubles and a home run, across their 20 matchups. That equated to a 1.100 OPS.
“I have a story about him,” Jackson said. “After I became a broadcaster, we went to Atlanta. I was on the field, and Terry Pendleton, who played third for the Braves while I was still playing, was out there. He had always guarded the line against me, because I pulled everything. I said, ‘Terry, how are you doing man?’ He turns around and starts yelling across the field, ‘Smoltsy! Smoltsy! Throw DJ another slider!’ That’s because I would dive across the plate against Smoltz and take his slider down the left field line. I knew he was going to throw it to me, so I kept looking for it. He kept throwing it and I kept hitting it.”
A free-swinger, Jackson logged just 131 free passes and a 4.7 BB% over his 2,800-plus plate appearances. Not surprisingly, his response when I asked which pitcher walked him the most times was pure gold.
“Nobody,” he said with a laugh. “I never walked. But the most times… I think I hit the Giants pretty well, so maybe it was a Giant. Mike Remlinger?
Nope. As a matter of fact, that qualified as another bad whiff. Jackson went 5-for-7 with two homers versus Remlinger, but drew nary a walk. Subsequent guesses — Bob Ojeda (two) and Sid Fernandez (none) — were also wrong. I let him know that the correct answer is Jim Deshaies, who put him on base four times in that manner.
“No way,” replied Jackson. “We were teammates. I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
I suggested to Jackson that the now-Chicago Cubs broadcast analyst was probably scared of him.
“No, it would have been the opposite,” replied Jackson, who went 2-for-16 versus the left-hander. “He was a guy who threw me high fastballs, and I couldn’t lay off them. I would either pop them up or swing-and-miss, so he’s a guy I’d never think would walk me. Him and Dennis Rasmussen. They were big, tall lefties who threw neck-hight fastballs that I would swing at.”
And then there is Ramon Martinez, who owned him to the tune of 1-for-20. Not only was Jackson able to name the one-time Dodgers ace — and older brother of Pedro Martinez — he was effusive in his praise.
“I couldn’t stand facing him,” said Jackson. “You think Pedro was nasty; Ramon set the tone for him getting to the big leagues, and was just as nasty. He whipped the ball with a three-quarter delivery and would have it running in on my hands, then would throw this slow sweeper that I couldn’t wait back on. He’d work both sides, and I didn’t know which part of the plate to look on. I couldn’t sit on anything, and was always wrong about everything he threw, which included 95 [mph] with a lot of movement. He was a nightmare.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I asked him which pitcher he took deep the most times, because the answer is a nine-way tie, and the home run total is two. In what arguably qualifies as yet another bad whiff, the only player he named wasn’t among the group. Jackson went 8-for-21 against Joe Magrane, and while four of those hits went for extra-bases, only one of them left the yard.
Nine pitchers (Glavine, Fernandez, Ojeda, Remlinger, Danny Jackson, Tom Browning, Frank Viola, Bob Patterson, and the only right-hander of the nine, Rick Mahler) present too many memories to cover for one quiz question, so I didn’t ask about the whole group, but I did want something on two of them. Predictably, he delivered.
“Danny Jackson was my first big league home run,” Jackson said of the former Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds (and a handful of other teams) lefty. “I faced him in Cincinnati when I was a rookie, and he kept throwing me these little cutters down and in. I stepped in the bucket, looking for a cutter down and in, and hit one out down the left field line. He stopped throwing that pitch after I took him deep on it. Another guy with nasty stuff, though.”
“Sid Fernandez had a delivery where he pushed the ball,” Jackson said of the erstwhile New York Mets southpaw, whose low vertical approach angle gave him what was then referred to as an invisible fastball. “He would throw a high fastball that stayed on the same plane, and you would always swing underneath it. That’s why he was such a strikeout artist. And then he would throw this big, looping curveball from a arm angle where you wouldn’t expect someone to be able to throw a curveball from. Sid Fernandez had a high strikeout rate even though he only threw 90 mph. There was a reason for that: His delivery was deceptive. He’s another guy I always hated facing. He threw funky nasty.”