When I was a kid, Reggie Jackson was my favorite ballplayer. I was always a Dodgers fan, but when Reggie moved to the Angels, we started going to Anaheim. I don't know why. He was great, but there were other greats. There was something about him that was so human and decent and warm, and there was a cadence to his at-bats — he'd strike out or ground out, and then he'd follow up in the ninth with a homer with two men on base — and somehow that warmth, that all-Americanness, came through when he was at bat or running the bases or speaking to a television reporter. All of which is to say I was not surprised to see this.