The first time was a Friday night, April 27, 1982. Rain was falling at old Yankee Stadium in the top of the seventh inning, the Angels were beating the Yankees 2-1, and Reggie Jackson, playing his first game in New York after George Steinbrenner chose not to re-sign him, stepped to the plate.
Ron Guidry’s first pitch was a slider. It wasn’t a good one. Reggie sent that slider up to a place he knew awfully well, the third deck at the old stadium, and he took his sweet time circling the bases. And it was at that moment that a chant arose among the 35,548 people in the stands, lightly at first, then louder, then enough to rattle the statues and the plaques in Monument Park.