Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania (5 page)

Long before he became Mr. October, baseball's premier clutch hitter was just a kid from Wyncote, PA. Here's more about his early years and how he put his name into Major League Baseball's record books
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For the Jacksons, baseball was more than just a sport; it was also the family business. Reggie's father, Martinez “Marty” Jackson, was a talented second baseman who played for two seasons in the Negro Leagues in the 1930s with the Newark Eagles before becoming a tailor in Wyncote. Marty instilled in Reggie a love for the game and gave him a little extra incentive to become a star. “I told Reggie that if he didn't make the team, he'd have to work in my shop,” he recalled. (Marty later carried business cards that read “Marty the Tailor, Father of the Famous Reggie Jackson.”)

Reggie Jackson began playing softball in his backyard when he was 7 years old, and by the time he was 11, he had become so skilled that his reputation as a ballplayer spread beyond Wyncote. That year, while playing in a sandlot with his friends, a scout from the New York Giants approached him, gave the boy his card, and told him to look him up in a few years. Their relationship never advanced beyond that initial meeting, but the brief encounter helped inspire Jackson to pursue a career in professional baseball.

Jackson attended Cheltenham Township High School, the same school that graduated Israeli prime minister—and fellow southpaw—Benjamin Netanyahu. (Netanyahu's family lived in Pennsylvania for a few years in the early 1960s.) Jackson was a senior when Netanyahu was a freshman, so the two likely had very little interaction. But Mr. October was a classmate of Netanyahu's older brother, Yonatan. (Other Cheltenham Township High School alumni: poet Ezra Pound and comedian Bill Cosby.)

Jackson was a phenomenal halfback on Cheltenham's football team. His combination of speed and power attracted plenty of college scouts, and he eventually accepted a scholarship to play football at Arizona State University. But the team wasn't a good fit, and when coach Frank Kush tried to convert him into a defensive back after his freshman season, Jackson decided to quit and play baseball instead.

That proved to be a good decision. Jackson soon became the first college player to hit a ball out of Phoenix Municipal Stadium, the team's home field, and by 1966, he was named College Player of the Year by the
Sporting News
. Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley was so impressed with Jack-son's exploits that he selected him second overall in the 1966 Major League Baseball amateur draft and offered him a $95,000 signing bonus. Jackson accepted the offer and left college to go pro.

A youth named Stanley Burrell worked as a batboy for the Oakland Athletics from 1972 until 1980 and was around during Jackson's tenure with the team. On meeting Burrell, Jackson mentioned that the boy bore a striking resemblance to Hall of Fame outfielder “Hammerin'” Hank Aaron, and Jackson began addressing the youngster as “Hammer” for short. The nickname stuck, and Burrell combined it with MC (Master of Ceremonies) later when he began performing at local clubs and bars around San Francisco.

 

Yo, Adrian! Here are some facts about the most famous movie ever to be set in Philadelphia
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If you look closely at the official documents and legal processes of Pennsylvania, you'll see that it's not only a great state; it's also something called a “commonwealth.”

A “commonwealth” is a political entity with a government that operates for the common weal (the common good), rather than to benefit the rulers (kings, emperors, etc). This was a revolutionary idea in the 17th century, particularly for the British, even though from 1649 to 1660, England itself was a commonwealth, rather than a monarchy. (The Brits beheaded Charles I to do it.)

The term was commonly used during the American Revolution because it signified that a state's residents saw themselves as having a government legitimized by the people, rather than by a monarchy.

Today, Pennsylvania is one of four U.S. states that still calls itself a “commonwealth.” (The others are Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts.) Pennsylvania's interchangeability of the terms “commonwealth” and “state” goes back to 1776, when the state's first constitution used both to refer to itself. Additional state constitutions in 1790, 1838, 1874, and 1968 also used the terms interchangeably.

He's best known as the Quaker who founded Pennsylvania. But did you know that William Penn was once a highborn rebel who got tossed out of school and thrown into jail before his parents finally disowned him?

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f you want to go back to the beginning of Pennsylvania, there's only one man to start with: William Penn. He was born in London in 1644, and his father was an English admiral who was friendly with King Charles II. William served as his father's personal assistant and often delivered military messages to the monarch. That relationship seemed to assure young William's future as a favorite at court.

But William Penn also had a spiritual side. At the time, the Anglican Church was Great Britain's state church; every citizen belonged to it. But at the age of about 20, Penn strayed from Anglicanism after he heard a talk by Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary. Unlike Anglicanism, which emphasized loyalty to the church and the monarchy, the Quakers encouraged a direct and personal relationship with God, and believed that a person's conscience should be his moral authority, not directives from the church or king. Quakers also lived and dressed simply and, instead of formal services, held meetings during which both male and female parishioners meditated in silence until someone was “moved” to speak.

But there was no freedom of religion in 17th-century England. When he was a student, Penn spoke out at Oxford—attendance at the Anglican chapel was mandatory, and Penn was expelled for
protesting the policy. His irritated father packed him off to school in France in the hopes that he would shape up into a proper young aristocrat. Eventually, William Penn returned to England, studied law, and appeared to be conforming to the mainstream. But at age 22, he shocked his family—and society—by officially becoming a Quaker.