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The significance of the home run you mentioned was because this was his first game back after he suffered a hip dislocation while playing for the Oakland Raiders. The subsequent surgery resulted in a hip replacement. He was cut by the Kansas City Royals because everyone assumed his career was over. The Chicago White Soxs signed him and he promised his mother that when he returned to baseball, he would hit a home run for her. She died before he completed his rehabilitation. This home run was the one he promised her.
But also several stadiums do send up fireworks for any home run by the home team. My favorite story about fireworks and baseball is, however, one time that the Braves had advertised a fireworks display for after the game... and followed through, even though the game went 25 innings and it was now three in the morning. Apparently Atlanta 911 lines received calls from people who thought the Soviets were attacking!
There's a series called 30 for 30 by ESPN and the Bo Jackson one is crazy. He grew up being bullied and got so strong throwing crabapples at kids that he could throw one through a screen door as a kid. He has been clocked throwing over 100mph from outfield to home. His arm was so strong it scared people. A specimen, faster, bigger, stronger, than anyone else. A freak amongst sports full of freaks.
Also I don't know if you guys got that he threw the ball in the highlight flat-footed, meaning he didn't raise up at all like it was just a toss for him. Just try throwing a baseball as hard as you can as far as you can without raising up.
DN reacts please make sure to watch the 30 for 30 on ESPN. Bo Jackson is the freakiest level of athlete I've ever seen in my life. Not to mention even just a small detail of his speed on the football field. No one previously or since runs like Bo Jackson did with football pads on during a game. Especially no one 235 lb who never got the train for a football season because he was busy playing baseball. All the other players were lifting weights, sprinting, building up their body for the specific rigors of the NFL, and they all spent time preparing themselves to start the football season. I'm 47 years old this June and there might only be a couple of other people in the history of popular sports in the United States of America that are close to him in my opinion after watching NFL football very closely. I don't want to be an ignorant American, Bo Jackson might be the greatest athlete in the entire Western World for the entire twentieth century. Or the latter half of the twentieth century... he was different.
@soulcornflake1 he hunted deer and hogs as a teen and was already doing archery as a hobby in college while running track too. Watch the celebrity golf tournament from a few years back where he drove the ball over 300yds. The other athletes there were amazed that he did that with a golf ball and a hip replacement at almost 60yrs old.
When Bo was in high school, a major league scout came to watch him at a practice/training session. The scout knew about Bo's speed and throwing ability, but asked the coach if he could watch him hit. Bo went to the batting cage, which is basically a metal tube structure with mesh on all four sides. On the first pitch, Bo hit the ball with such velocity, that the impact of the ball against the mesh collapsed the entire cage. The scout had seen enough after one swing. He would later say that the impact of the hit "sounded like a gunshot, in a room with concrete walls". Whatever ridiculous Bo Jackson stories you hear, believe them. He long jumped across a river... True. He killed a 300 pound boar hog with a thrown rock... True. He ran a 4.18 second 40 yard dash... True. He could do a backflip while standing in mid-thigh-high water... True. I saw him play college football and professional baseball in person. However impressive he looks on film, he was twice as awesome in person. A truly unbelievable human specimen.
This is all incredible Kent! Just simply incredible! Thank you for this information. Can’t wait until we are able to visit a batting cage. Might put everyone off of baseball, mind 😂
@@DNReacts i think youll learn to appreciate the hitters in baseball way more if you are ever able to do that. Also considering it's being thrown in many different ways to different spots at 80-105 mph in the MLB
@@DNReacts The tale above can not be proven with any certainty bc of the era that Bo came of age in. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but if you look for the singular comment I made (sort by new) in reaction to this video you will see that the main reason Bo Jackson is so universally regarded in the US (even though his careers were cut short by that terrible hip injury) is because he was what I consider to be the last mythical athlete the US produced. Simply put, the early age of the Internet and the progression of cable TV, bringing more and more exposure to all pro athletes nationally, really disallowed all athletes past Bo's early years any sort of privacy, autonomy or reasonable expectation to anything resembling a 'normal' life. Not saying any of that is good or bad, but more pointing out that Bo came to be in an analog world where tall tales like the one mentioned above were allowed to spread bc there wasn't really any way to disprove it, so why not just go with it? Just wanted to add a lot of additional context here, but my singular comment (again, just sort by new) will add even more context.
There is actually a more detailed video of the throw he made to catch Harold Reynolds at the plate that is entertaining. Harold Reynolds was one of the faster players in the game and it seemed so hopeless that he could be caught that the catcher was actually starting to walk off the field when he looked up and saw Bo's throw coming in. Bo picked it up from the base of the outfield wall and fired it all of the way to home plate on the fly. One of the best throws in baseball history.
Those home runs over the right field fence are more impressive than you realize. A right-hand batter tends to hit the ball to the left side, that’s where the strength is (and the opposite for lefties). It’s hard for a righty to knock the ball to the extreme RIGHT corner of the field with any strength, it’s akin to throwing a ball as you’re falling backwards. So those homers were a sign of his strength.
@@DNReacts Bit more to it than that. It's all where a batter makes contact. When a batter gets all of it, means his swing was on time. That's where the strength is applied most. Ball will travel center/left (for RT hander) depending on follow through and strength. The batter who swings a bit early will always pull the ball. As said, the hard is to the opposite field of the batters stance. Those happen when they are swinging late on the pitch and will always push. No strength other than the wrists, it's physics. Bo was able to wrist homeruns even when he swung late, which is incredible. It's why not as many homeruns are hit to the opposite field, Physics.
Every home run the White Sox hit at Guaranteed Field in Chicago, gets the same treatment. The lights go out, the siren comes on and the fireworks come out of the scoreboard. One of the greatest traditions of MLB. I'm a Sox fan my whole life and my favorite Bo moment was the last clip you showed, when he hit one of the highest home runs I've ever seen in person, to win the division for Da Sox. That ball was so high in the air, it looked like a star in the night sky. If you watch the video, you can tell how high it was because the left fielder just kept running along the wall, thinking he had a chance. Bo knows Baseball.
3:49 Harold Reynolds, who got tagged out at home plate from Bo's throw and who was one of the fastest baseball players ever, supposedly kept watching the video of the throw because he couldn't believe that Bo threw that ball 316 feet to home plate.
Also that the catcher after seeing the ball get into the outfield started to walk off the field. He said he just happened to look back and saw the ball coming back in. Even he couldn't believe it.
I met Vincent Bo Jackson when I was 6. At that age I hadn't ever met someone with the same name as me. I remember him coming over to the LF wall after I yelled at him. My mother tells me he patiently listened to me tell him all about how cool it was that we had the same name.
The fireworks were/are part of the Chicago White Sox home run celebration. The first time you saw that in the video you asked if there was some context to it…I believe that was Bo’s first game back after hip replacement surgery. And he homered in his first at-bat.
Bo's strenght comes from training with a bow and arrow. He's an avid bow hunter in Alabama and he can pull back the bow and hold it almost indefinitely until he gets a clean shot. The strenght that takes is unfathomable.
Talking about the sound of Bo Jackson's bat. Famed historian, player and coach Buck O'Niel said he heard THAT sound 3 times in his life, before he died. Once from Babe Ruth, then Josh Gibson and then Bo Jackson. Buck is my favorite baseball personality. He played in the Negro Leagues, and then went on to coach and scout. Later he became the go to person, due to his knowledge and storytelling, for Negro League Baseball history. He's someone that I think anyone with interest in baseball should check out.
Commiskey Park, where the Chicago White Sox play, has fireworks for home runs. It sits right next to interstate 94 and if you aren’t listening to the game on the radio, you can get a big surprise while fighting traffic
My favorite Bo Jackson moment was in the 1989 All Star Game, which is a mid-season exhibition game with the best players from each league. A lot of people were critical of Jackson's being selected for the game, because (despite his talent), his overall stats weren't that good. In his first at-bat he hit a 448-foot home run, and went on to win the MVP award for that game. There are batting cages in London if you want to try your hands at hitting baseballs.
Love this Jeff! Thanks for sharing here. Definitely a moment to silence any doubters. When the weather improves we’ll look into a video session at the batting cages. Let’s see if we can hit one at all 😅
Fireworks were originally a feature only in Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox. Now, many stadiums shoot off fireworks after a home run. (As others have mentioned this was Bo's first game, and first at-bat, after returning from hip surgery. His mother had died in the offseason and he promised her a home run.)
The first homerun with the fireworks was just a regular homerun, except for one small detail. This was his first at bat with his new team the Chicago White Sox. So it might explain why they were so excited with it. Another story I've heard about Bo Jackson was that Buck O'Neil, an ex Negro-League player and a scout for the Kansas City Royals said one time he was at the stadium and in one of the tunnels and he heard the sound of the bat striking the ball in a way he had only heard one other time in his life. He went to the field to see who it was and of course it was Bo taking batting practice. The other player whose bat made that same sound was Babe Ruth.
Some context. Babe Ruth was a major league player from 1914 to 1935, who hit 714 home runs, a record which stood until broken by Henry Aaron in 1974. Ruth still ranks 3rd among all time home run hitter. Many believe that Ruth hit the longest home run ever, but the metrics were not available at the time to accurately measure it.
@@Boots_McScoots You could very well be right. As I was writing I was thinking how it seemed funny Buck would not have mentioned Gibson. Maybe my memory is just fuzzy. 🤣
You guys should be watching Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic. It's their first time qualifying for the tournament, and they are viewed as one of those teams that has a chance to sneak up on some of the bigger teams in the group. Round 1 just started yesterday. The Aussies just had a major upset over Korea last night.
Thanks Peter. Heard about us making our debut in the WBC. We will definitely be catching the highlights and we’ll get a video up asap too. Let’s hope we can have a good tournament!
Love Bo. As a Royals fan, you should react to the 2014 AL Wild Card game between the Royals and A's. First playoff game for us Royals in 30 years. Insane ending.
Bo Jackson is a mythical creature here in Alabama and everything they say about him is true. He's the greatest athlete to ever play any sport...period. And I'm a life long Alabama Crimson Tide fan saying this about an Auburn player. It's not even debatable that he is the goat of athletes. Superhuman.
One thing I'd like to point out on some of his outfield catches, homes teams wear lighter colored uniform, so when he is in a darker uniform it is a road game. This is important since major league ball parks have different outfield dimensions. That means that on the road, when a player is running towards the wall, while looking backwards at the ball, a miss calculation could result in a collision with the wall.
I don’t think anybody else has properly explained. That home run for Bo Jackson on the white Sox you thought was missing context, it was his first AB after missing a ton of time getting a hip replacement surgery. I don’t believe any player has played Major League Baseball other than him with a replaced hip. He was never the same after that, but to hit a homer his first AB back was as impressive as Bo gets.
As a kid, I remember when he got hurt. I cried and when I think about Bo sometimes I still get watery in my eyes. No doubt, best athlete of all time. 1000%.
I'm not going to deny that Bo Jackson was an amazing athlete, and an pretty cool guy, but until recently (shohei) the most well rounded player, for my money, has to have been Ichiro. They guy could hit any ball to any part of the field, and was just as good in the outfield.
Shohei is a great player. Don’t equate him pitching with being the most well rounded. I would put his teammate Trout above him as well as mookie Betts as most well rounded player.
Bo Jackson considered himself a baseball player and played PRO football as a side hobby. He was amazing at both sports until his hip replacement surgery. It is extremely rare for a player to play 2 professional sports at the same time and excel in both equally (made the All-Star team in both sports).
It's always amazing to watch Bo, football and baseball are different skills, there's many studies showing that hitting a 96mph fastball for a hit is one of the hardest feats in sports. There's too many to pick a favorite moment. The sound of the bat on the ball is one of the greatest sounds. I played baseball and soccer all through highschool, it's the sound of the bat or the smell of a new baseball glove that cause the memories to come flooding back.
Yay baseball! You gotta check out best manager ejections, MLB mic’d up fights, worst MLB headshots, and Jomboy’s lip reading compilations are hilarious.
8:14 The White Sox clinched the division title with this win. Everyone was amped out of their mind. Bo later said THAT home run was like being on the highest drug you could imagine.
Great reaction you guys. i live in Fresno, California - and so the time differences between the time you post your videos and the time I'm getting ready for work - works out well for me - because as i sit here drinking my morning coffee i have the pleasure of watching a new video from you each morning. Fun way to start my day. Thanks for posting this one.
This guy was like a superhero ✅❤️loved watching him play both sports.❤️fav moment was in a football game- he concluded his run for a touchdown and kept running down the tunnel.❤️
Bo is the single greatest pure athlete I’ve ever seen. Great video! Now that you guys have gotten some knowledge on the sport of baseball, I think it may be time to review what many (including myself) are considering to be the greatest baseball player….ever. AND, he is still in his prime. Shohei Ohtani, our modern day Babe Ruth, who is now the only player to ever start the All Star game as the pitcher, and leading off the batting lineup. If you think the sound of the baseball sounds great off a wooden bat, wait until you hear Shohei put the lumber on it. He can hit, pitch, field (has played outfield just to stay in the batting order) and fast (steals bases). He’s better than Ruth, given the talent of todays game. Right now, the best we’ve ever seen in almost 150 years of the sport. We are lucky to be alive, just to see Ohtani play, and that’s not an exaggeration. He’s must see tv. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-62Hk1shW2SM.html Or ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J990dM1xppk.html
I'm glad you boys discovered Bo. He would have been the GOAT but for the injury. My favorite Bo moment was his home run in the All-Star game after coming back from his hip replacement. The best part about Bo is that he is a gentleman and a humanitarian.
I really hope you guys are able to make it stateside and see a sporting event in person. Wear whatever home team gear and make it known it's your first game and you'll be making core memories with strangers at every event. October would be the best month to see one of each. It's the baseball playoffs, the start of the basketball season, and football season will be in full swing. Depending on where you go, you might even be able to catch a NASCAR race lol
@@IkeThe9th it depends on a lot of things and what other content they want to make in addition to going to a game. But for NHL, MLB, NFL, and NBA games they'd be limited to places like NY, Boston, DC, SF Bay area, and LA. If it's two or three, they could go to several different places like Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, etc. I could go on lol
It's common for parks to do air raid sirens, fireworks and music when a home team player hits a home run. Players also get to choose music to play when they come to bat or when a closing pitcher comes into the game, again for the home team only of course.
Even something as relatively mundane as a first MLB hit was impressive for Bo. Majority of players would have been out at first base on that play, but Bo’s incredible speed turned what could have been a routine out into his first hit.
My favorite Bo moment has a bit more than a years worth of a story behind it. He was a obviously a 2 spot top prospect out of collage and the Tampa Bay Bucuneers have the first pick in the NFL drop the year Bo is going to graduate so they reached out to him for him to work out with them so they can see if they want to pick him or not. Part of this was flying him out and taking care of his lodging and food. He asked them straight on if this would affect his NCAA (the us collage sports organization) as Baseball was his favorite sport and he wanted to be able to play his senior season they matter of factly said no. Fast forward to Bo walking onto the first baseball practice of the year and his coach had to pull him aside and tell him his trip to Tampa made him ineligable (ya that ncaa sucks but the team showing no care in the matter still bad). He calls them and tells them under no circumstances draft him he will not play for them period, they draftted him with that first pick. He Kept to his word he never signed with them and stayed out of the NFL for the year all the while being drafted with the Royals in the MLB and being a massive success there. This is the part that is my favorite, he holds a press conference and declares for the 2nd time for the NFL draft now that he sat out that year with the statement I will be joining the NFL as hobby ya he said it was a hobby of him playing in the NFL. People assumed he wouldnt accept being drafted so fell several founds to the Raiders as no one wanted to risk what the Bucs did of just losing a draft pick. But it was always the Bucs fault he told them he wouldnt play for them and kept his word.
Great comment, loved reading this! Thank you. We knew of the Tampa situation from the first Bo video but when you put all of this together it’s great. Just seeing the words playing in the NFL as a hobby is crazy!
The HR at the 4:30 mark: That was the 1989 ALL-STAR game. Bo was the lead off batter, and that was the start of the game. The voice you hear saying “Hey!” is that of former President Ronald Reagan, who’d left office 6 months before. He had been a radio sportscaster before getting into acting, so he was invited to be in the broadcast booth for the 1st inning. Pretty special.
Sander and Jackson were both amazing 2 sport athletes, the likes of which we will likely never see again. The biggest difference between the two was how you felt watching them play baseball. When you watched Sanders, you were watching a football player play baseball. When you watched Bo, you were watching a baseball player.
You guys are so intuitive and your learning curve is incredible. It's awesome watching your content. Please do a Joe Montana and or Jerry Rice video. Watch all the 30 for 30 NFL documentaries on player that you can as well. They are sensational
Thank you Mark, we really appreciate the support! Love it that you’re enjoying the channel. Have added these both to our list too. We’ve got the 30 for 30 noted as something we need to check out. Thanks again
@DN Reacts I am happy to support your Channel. Unless I'm just unaware, I have not seen anyone else create the type of content that you guys create. As an American it's a pitfall to walk around with blinders on and be egocentric thinking that all of our athletes are the best. I try and consider other sports in other countries. And I think it's really bizarre that we have several Sports that are only played here in America but we declare ourselves world champion in a national championship. With that said we have a huge population of well over 300 million people and we have some incredible athletes partly because of that. It is feasible to believe a guy like Bo Jackson is absolutely world class and can be compared against all of the other great athletes of an entire century. When it comes to Joe Montana and Jerry Rice you're talking about Maradona and Pele in terms of highest level of players in their sport. Montana was Mr. Perfect, at all levels from high school to the Pro level. And while he was not small gentleman, he kind of look like your accountant so to speak. He was not a big imposing person. He played at approximately 205 lb, and is six-foot-two in height. Today's quarterbacks tend to be much larger. And even during his era he was a moderate-sized quarterback. But he was an absolute killer on the field. He did not throw interceptions and make mistakes in major games. And Jerry Rice is just flat-out the greatest of all-time perhaps in any position in the entire NFL history. Deep dive these guys if you can back to their high school years, don't just shallow dive. Jerry Rice went to a smaller school in Mississippi. Joe Montana went to a major American University, Notre Dame. These two are the best. Please keep creating content regarding particular players because you guys are absolutely the best to watch. I keep saying that your comprehension and learning curve from both of you is super impressive. 👌
The reason that Bo jackson has such a legend in the United States - other than the fact that he was legitimately one of the greatest overall athletes that has ever lived - is because the beginning and early parts of his professional careers still existed in a time (1985-87) that was still largely analog, so to learn about Bo you really had to either have a television and live in the region where he played ball (bc of the lack of national television stations/access to cable TV [$$]) or you had to rely on media like newspaper, sports wrap up shows on local news and, if you had money, highlights on early ESPN shows. My point in explaining this is to say that Bo jackson is, in my mind, the last great "mythical" legendary athlete the United States had simply due to the dawn of the Internet soon after Bo hit his prime. It became increasingly easier and easier for athletes to be more widely-known simply bc cable TV became more of A Thing, whereas Bo came to prominence in an era that relied largely on word-of-mouth type communication, so his already-absurd-in-reality athletic feats were allowed to take on, quite literally, legendary takes that have since been disproved by Bo himself in numerous interviews. Put it this way - Bo's story is not unlike that of mythical characters such as Paul Bunyan in that he Came To Be in a time that allowed for tall tales, and for that he will always be known in American lore because he sort of inherently has a mythical status about him. There is no NFL combine footage of him, no Pro Day workout videos, no in depth looks into how he spent his off days, etc.....all you heard about was his crazy athletic feats through word of mouth. Jim Thorpe is to Bo Jackson what Bo Jackson is to Deion Sanders. They are all evolutions of each other.
I want to add that in the comments on here you will find a lot of these (untrue and no way to be proven) tall tales. You can see the absolute legend status he has within American lore right here in the replies. I won't knock them for putting these tall tales out there, but just wanted to just sort of highlight that the comment section itself is sort of an extension of the point I'm making in my original comment above.
Most teams have moved the walls in closer, so it’s easier to hit home runs now. I guess the thinking is that home runs are more entertaining and make the game more marketable. I’m old skool so I like the bigger parks.
He was a track and field star, then a baseball star, then a football star. Maybe the greatest athlete that we have any sort of statistical measurements and recordings for.
Thank you, appreciate the support! Ohtani very high up on the list and will be coming shortly. Seen the number of comments suggesting Ohtani. Definitely is one that we’re excited for
Born and raised in Kansas City. Bo Jackson is the only Oakland raiders player to get a standing ovation in Kansas City during a chiefs football game when he played for the raiders. Dude play football as a “hobby” could of been a hall of fame baseball player or football player if he just played one sport. It was devastating for us Royals fans when he essentially had his career ended on the football field.
Bo was great. He is 1 of 2 players to play in a World Series and a NFL half back. He also hit. a Home Run and ran back a kickoff in the same year. The other player is Dieon Sanders. He played a baseball game and an NFL game in the same day.
Bo Jackson's throw from the warning track in left field during the All-Star Game to throw out Harold Reynolds at home plate is his best professional baseball moment in my humble opinion. Harold Reynolds was very fast but was in a total State of Shock when he got thrown out at home plate. He could not believe it. Nobody could believe it who watched it either.
@DN Reacts in the over 100-year history of Major League Baseball there might only be a handful or 2 of people who could have made that throw. Especially considering the runner, Harold Reynolds was extremely fast in Major League Baseball. No one threw him out like that. Bo Jackson made it look easy. Ninety-nine percent of baseball players who played The Outfield positions would have to throw the ball to what's called a cutoff man. It would be an infielder waiting to receive a throw from Bo Jackson and then that infielder would throw the ball to home plate to try and make a play on the runner. A very minut collection of players in an over 100-year history can make a throw like that from the warning track in the Outfield. That was part of his coming out party so to speak. It was during the All-Star Game that he did this and also hit a homerun that announced the presence of Bo Jackson in Major League Baseball.
On the last home run from the 3 he had in one game (announcer used hockey term, "hat trick"), Bo is actually fooled by the pitch--it is an off-speed pitch, a breaking ball and Bo looks as though he was looking for a fastball--so he is off balance with is weight/timing of his swing being off, as the pitcher would hope. However, Bo is so freaking strong, that he hits a home run to the opposite field (right field is the "opposite field" in baseball parlance when the batter is right-handed). Another batter pops it up or hits it weakly for an out.
The home run @ 4:22 was in the MLB All-Star game that year. I can't remember what year, but anyway, he was batting lead-off for the American League that year and that first voice you hear is Ronald Reagan. He was invited into the broadcast booth for about an inning I believe.
Bo Jackson was getting popular when I was a little kid. One of the most interesting videos I've seen of him was shot only a few years ago. It's not worth reacting to, but it would be great for you to see. It's Bo explaining to a little kid at a baseball game who he is: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Mb7kMQPdv2I.html
Bo's very first MLB hit shows what a superlative athlete he was. The most natural place for a right-handed batter to hit the ball is into the space between second and third base. That's why the "shortstop" is standing right there. His job is to catch that biomechanically inevitable ball, and throw it to first base before the batter gets there. 99% of the time, a ground ball hit to the shortstop results in an out. Hitters often slam their bats to the ground in disgust after "grounding out to short". Bo is so far past first base (the only base you're allowed to run past) when the ball gets there, it looks like the footage is edited. For you to be able to beat the throw to first, you have to be Olympic team fast, and Bo was
One more thing. Bo is an Immortal to Raider Nation. As spectacular as he was in baseball, Bo was untouchable on a football field. You couldn't tackle him, he used to shed tacklers like an umbrella sheds rain, and you couldn't catch him, either. A nightmare scenario for opposing defenses.
That was Bo's first at bat after the his NFL career ending hip injury so it was significant. Not really cause of the fireworks just the context. Yeah, some stadiums will just do fireworks. But that at bat was significant cause it was like the return of a player people thought might never play again. And he hits a home run on top of it.
Hi guys, great, or as you might say brilliant video as always. I am a Chicago Cubs fan, but the scenes where Bo hit home runs and there were fireworks that was when he was with the Chicago White Sox. If I remember correctly they would fire off fireworks for any homers, so it was not for special games or occasions. Keep up the great work!
So many Bo highlights in my head. Running the wall, impossibly throwing guys out, breaking the bats over his head or across his knee, kip up after sliding into home. None of the above. His first at bat after hip replacement surgery home run. Too bad it was in a white Sox uniform. Fireworks? There have been games with stagnant air, or indoors, and the smoke lingers on the field. Really? Who thought indoor fireworks is a good idea? Glad you guys are enjoying the ride.
Hitting to the opposite field (Bo, hitting to the Right field), with power, is very difficult to do, especially on low, away pitches. It takes incredible timing, body control and core strength. Bo makes it look easy.
Check out Jim Edmonds Defensive Highlights, he was a notorious centerfielder who played shallow, so every fly ball he had to have a perfect jump on. It led to a lot of circus catches. He was also a very good offensive player.
It's impossible not to "really love Bo Jackson." I mean, he's possibly the greatest pure (natural speed, strength, agility, etc.) athlete that we will ever see in our lifetime.
In regard to the fireworks after a home run, the Chicago White Sox always shoot off fireworks after a home run whenever any of the White Sox hitters hit one.
The funny thing about Jackson is, it started with Herschel Walker. Walker comes along with this amazing mix of size and speed and athleticism, 220 pounds, near-world class sprinter speed, wins the Heisman Trophy, seemed like a once in a century athlete, right? Except just a year behind in the next state over comes Bo Jackson - like Herschel except bigger, and faster, and more athletic … wins his own Heisman but is a better Baseball player than football player. Like they were two Superhumans cut from the same template at the same time, and there hasn’t quite been another like them come along in 40 years.
Throws, it's not just the amazing distance and power. It's putting the ball where the catcher (3rd baseman) needs to tag the runner, low on the correct side of the base. Long throws with close plays, safe or out are the single most exciting play in sports.
There are so many impressive moments in Bo's sports career. But his throws from the outfield always leave me a little speechless. It is not an easy throw to make. Let alone to be so accurate that the person catching doesn't need to move too much. And there is no huge arc, it's like he hit a linedrive from the outfield back to the bases.
The Chicago White Sox (Bo’s team after coming back from hip replacement which ended his NFL career) has had an exploding scoreboard for every home run since 1960. The fans sing Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye for every homer since the 1970s.
Different stadiums do differently things. I remember in old Shae Stadium in New York a big Apple would drop. In Houston there’s a train that goes across because it’s on an old train station. In Milwaukee a guy slides into a giant mug of beer
You also need to remember the baseball season lasted through September. Barring playoffs. It would be mid to late October before he started football. The football team had already played 6-7 out of 16 games by the time he played for the raiders football team. Never played a full NFL season.
He even had a Saturday morning cartoon in the early 90's "ProStars" it was Bo Jackson, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky. (Gretzky is one of the greatest if not greatest Hockey players ever)
The Chicago White Sox do in fact always shoot off fireworks for a home run by the home team, so those weren't Bo-specific blasts. However, you might have noticed that Ken Harrelson (the announcer) said it was Bo's first at-bat in the "93 season…in other words, *after* the injury that ended his football career. (It's a little confusing because some of the calls by Harrelson came when he was briefly employed as the New York Yankees' announcer, but for most of his broadcasting career, he was the announcer for Chicago; you have both Yankees and White Sox calls in the video.) Sadly, Bo never got to face Deion Sanders on the football field; the schedule only had the Raiders playing Atlanta every three seasons, and they just missed each other; in 1988 Deion was still in college, and by 1991 Bo's football career was over. But watching Sanders chase Bo's home run does still amuse.
