- Darrin Jackson
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Darrin Jackson Center fielder Born: August 22, 1963
Los Angeles, CaliforniaBatted: Right Threw: Right MLB debut June 17, 1985 for the Chicago Cubs Last MLB appearance October 3, 1999 for the Chicago White Sox Career statistics Batting average .257 Home runs 80 Runs batted in 317 Teams Darrin "D. J." Jay Jackson (born August 22, 1963 in Los Angeles, California) is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball who played 12 years for the Chicago Cubs (1985–1988), San Diego Padres (1988–1992), Toronto Blue Jays (1993), New York Mets (1993), Chicago White Sox (1994, 1999), Minnesota Twins (1997) and Milwaukee Brewers (1997–1998). He also played for the Seibu Lions in Japan (1995–1996).
Playing career
1981 Selected by the Chicago Cubs in second round of 1981 free agent draft, but would never appear in a game for the team during this stint.
1985 Jackson was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues. Jackson made his major league debut on June 16, 1985. Darrin said of his first week with the Cubs "I remember facing Ron Darling of the Mets in my first big-league game. My second game was against Dwight Gooden, and my third was against Ed Lynch. I ended up getting my first big-league hit off the former general manager of the Cubs - a line drive over the second baseman. Every time I see Ed, he says 'Yeah, yeah, I know.' That was my claim to fame in 1985." ... Spent five games with the Cubs before returning to Pittsfield.
1986 Spent the season with the Chicago Cubs AA affiliate Pittsfield, Mass., and was named to the Eastern League's all-star team.
1987 Recalled from Iowa, the Chicago Cubs AAA affiliate, Sept. 4 but underwent surgery Sept. 21 to remove a small tumor from his groin area and missed the rest of the season ... Batted .800 (4-for-5) with one double for the Cubs.
1988 Played in 100 games for Chicago but had only 188 at-bats ... Became the third player in Cubs history (joining Dale Long and Carmen Fanzone) to homer in consecutive pinch-hit at-bats, going deep against St. Louis' Ken Dayley Aug. 14 and Cincinnati's Tom Browning Aug. 16 ... Had first two-homer game of his career Sept. 17 against St. Louis.
1989 Spent time at Iowa (AAA) and with the Cubs before being traded to the San Diego Padres Aug. 31 ... Made 23 starts for the Padres.
1990 Darrin split time between San Diego and Class AAA Las Vegas ... Hit the Padres' first pinch-hit homer of the season April 27 against Pittsburgh ... Had his first career four-hit game Oct. 3 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1991 Hit a career-high 21 homers in 122 games after entering the season with a career total of 13 ... Ranked fourth in the NL with one homer every 17 at-bats ... Seven of his 11 hits in 19 games June 9-July 12 were homers ... Hit first career grand slam Aug. 25 off Chicago Cub's Bob Scanlan ... Made his only career pitching appearance with two innings at Houston May 26.
In 1991, in a game that the San Diego Padres, Darrin's team at the time, were down 11-4, DJ was put into the game as a relief pitcher. This would mark his only pitching appearance in the MLB. Darrin pitched the last two innings of the game, allowing 3 hits, walking 2 batters, and allowing two earned runs.
Darrin had this to say about his pitching performance "We were losing like 11-4 in Houston (6) and my manager, Greg Riddoch, knew I'd been messing around in the bullpen. The pitching part wasn't the most difficult thing. It was after. I could barely move and my butt was killing me from stretching out the glutes and hamstring. It took me five days not to feel sore. I was throwing 86-87 m.p.h. I didn't throw a curveball because I was scared to hit somebody."
1992 Set career highs in games (155), RBI (70), hits (146) and stolen bases (14) ... Tied his career high with four hits in two games, July 7 against St. Louis and July 19 at Montreal ... Had his fourth career two-homer game April 28 against Philadelphia, the second homer leading off the bottom of the ninth and giving the Padres a 7-6 victory ... Had three game-winning homers on the season ... Tied for second among National League outfielders with a .996 fielding percentage, a San Diego club record ... Led the majors with 18 outfield assists.
1993 Was with San Diego for spring training, and was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, where he played until June 11, before once again being traded and played for the New York Mets for the rest of the season ... His solo homer in the eighth inning off Chicago's Alex Fernández April 25 was the difference in a 1-0 Toronto victory ... Had a tough year at the plate, batting .216 for the Blue Jays and .195 for New York ... Did not commit an error in 23 outfield starts with the Mets, handling 55 chances and making four assists ... Spent July 19-Sept. 1 on the disabled list with hyperthyroidism.
1994 Strung together two 8-game hit streaks (May 13–20 and June 18–24).
1995 Signed with Seibu Lions of Japanese Pacific League ... Ranked 7th in league with .289 average ... Collected 20 home runs and 68 RBI.
1996 Played with Seibu Lions of Japanese Pacific League ... Hit .266 with 19 home runs and 64 RBI in 126 games.
Jackson became the television color analyst for the White Sox in 2000, alongside play-by-play man Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. On Friday, September 12, 2008, he was informed by the White Sox that he would be replaced on television broadcasts in 2009 by Steve Stone. On December 13, 2008, the Chicago Tribunes reported that Jackson had elected to stay with the White Sox and become the radio color analyst position alongside Ed Farmer. "This has been my home," Jackson told the Tribune Saturday. "Farmio (play-by-play announcer Ed Farmer) is a friend of mine, and we're going to have fun." Jackson had interviewed with numerous media outlets including ESPN and the new Major League Baseball channel.
Personal life
He grew up in Culver City, California where he played baseball in Culver City National Little League, Culver City Babe Ruth League, and was in the 1978 Babe Ruth World Series where his team took second place. Of this team, five went pro. He attended Culver City High School and played for its baseball team as well. In the offseason, Darrin resides in Arizona with his wife Robin. They have four children: Alexandre, Arianna, Adian, and most recently Tatum.
External links
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
- Culver City National Little League
- Culver City Babe Ruth League
Categories:- 1963 births
- Living people
- African American baseball players
- American expatriate baseball players in Japan
- Baseball players from California
- Chicago Cubs players
- Chicago White Sox broadcasters
- Chicago White Sox players
- Major League Baseball announcers
- Major League Baseball center fielders
- Milwaukee Brewers players
- Minnesota Twins players
- New York Mets players
- People from Chicago, Illinois
- People from Los Angeles, California
- San Diego Padres players
- Seibu Lions players
- Toronto Blue Jays players
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