http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1893021144722060873&ei=-DlxSZ6TG4OorwK9zpyyBQ&q=bo+jackson
10 minutes of Bo. My favorite highlights at: 1:00, 1:33, 2:57, 7:02
I will now list a number of facts, quotes about Bo Jackson, myths, and quotes I made up about Bo Jackson. Try to decide if they are true or false. Answers and anecdotes to follow.
- 1985 Heisman Trophy winner
- 1989 MLB All-Star Game MVP
- 1990 NFL Pro Bowl
- World-class sprinter coming out of high-school
- 5.4 yards per carry average in NFL career
- Only player in NFL history with two TD runs of over 90 yards
- Hit a HR in his first MLB at-bat receiving an artificial hip
- Ran the 40-yard dash in 4.12 seconds
- Threw a baseball from the warning track to home plate on a fly to throw out a runner
- Ran up a wall in the outfield instead of crashing into it, standing nearly parallel to the ground at one point
- Holds record for most rushing yards in a Monday Night Football game with 221
- Only person to hit the Superdome scoreboard with a football from the field
- Called up to MLB after just 53 minor league games
- Hit 3 HRs in first three at-bats of a MLB game at Yankee Stadium
- Once broke an aluminum bat over his thigh in college
- Once ran a 99-yard TD in which he actually traveled 300 yards
- Graduated from Auburn University in 1995
- Hit HRs in his first two swings at Kaufman Stadium after signing with the Royals in a batting practice, even though he had not swung a bat in months
- Broke his bat on his first professional HR
- Singled in first MLB at-bat on infield ground-ball to the 2B without drawing a throw
- First MLB HR traveled 475 feet
- In 1988, after failing to be granted a time-out and stepping out of the batter's box, walked back into the batter's box as a pictch was being delivered and hit a home run
- After a strikeout, was known for breaking his bat over his head
- Hit a 450 foot HR in batting practice left-handed
- One of two players to hit HR and steal a base in MLB All-Star game
- Bo Jackson swing a bat so hard, he actually broke it even though he missed the ball
- "Bo says he felt his hip come out of socket, so he popped it back in, but that's just impossible, no one's that strong." Oakland Raiders trainer, 1991, to George Brett
- "He makes every woman that sleeps with him refer to him as Bear Bryant"
- "Bo's just out there in water up to his waist. All of a sudden, he jumps up, does a backflip out of the water, and lands on his feet. I said to my girlfriend, 'Did you see that?' " ~Terry Brasseale, Bo's baseball coach at McAdory High School
- ''Without heroes, we're all plain people and don't know how far we can go.'' Bernard Malamud
- "Bo Jackson is incredible. Paul Bunyan does exist! Davey Crockett is alive!'' David Housel, the sports-information director at Auburn
Results:
- True, ran for 1786 yards for Auburn
- True, hit a HR, stole a base, and scored the game-winning run
- True, only athlete to be named to the All-Star games in two separate professional sports
- True, ran a 10.39 100m dash despite playing both baseball and football while attending Auburn
- True, would be a RB record if he had reached the minimum 750 career attempts. He ended his career with 515 attempts. Jim Brown hold the RB record with 5.22 yards per carry. QB Randall Cunningham averaged 7.7 yards per rush in his career.
- True, in only 38 games no less
- True, as a pinch-hitter for the Chicago White Sox. Did I mention he was the first (only) MLB player with an artificial hip?
- True, Bo was 6-1 and 220 pounds. "Oh man, nothing that big should move that fast," Royals former hitting coach John Mayberry
- True, ''And the throw was right on a line and he threw it flat-footed,'' Royals manager John Wathan said with a sigh
- True, he was 7-feet off the ground at one point
- True, 29 days after his first NFL carry
- Anectdotal, enough witnesses amongst writers and team staff and players to make probable. He threw it, in case you were curious.
- True, which is ridiculous. Scouts claim if he had stayed healthy and focused on baseball he would have been a Hall of Famer
- True, got injured in the field before his next at-bat. When he healed a month later, he hit a HR in his next at-bat. All were measured over 400 feet.
- False, he just told this to writers as a joke and they were not sure if he was joking or not.
- False, this was actually Tecmo Bo who did this sort of thing on a qarterly basis. As in, every quarter of a game. The 300 yards being goalline to goalline to goalline. Does not include sideline to sideline distances and various zig-zags.
- True, as a promise to his mother who died of cancer.
- True, hit the scoreboard both times. Negro League legend Buck O'Neil, who was one the many who witnessed this feat, said only three people had ever made that noise when hitting a baseball. Babe Ruth, Josh Gibson, and Bo Jackson.
- True, in a minor league game. Absurd power.
- Truish. I added the part about not drawing a throw, but the play is describd as saying Bo was past first by the time the ball was fielded. It was a routine ground ball.
- True, he hit it with a bat he had never used before. He had "borrowed" it from a teammate before the game.
- True, "Most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life," says Bob Schaeffer, Kansas City's first base coach at the time.
- False, he rarely used his head. He routinely used his thigh.
- True, just hopped over and took one swing
- True, the other is Willie Mays
- Anecdotal, uncofirmed. From a former coach. Coach is unnamed, so leaning to myth.
- True, and he did. Bo's hip was yanked out of its socket. His doctors told him if it were anyone else, his leg would have snapped like a dry twig -- the irony being that a broken leg would have healed within months. Even after surgery, the hip would never be the same and would eventually be replaced.
- False, a) this is about Bill Brasky, b) Bo went to Auburn and Bear Bryant is famous for coaching at Alabama, and c) Bo is married to his high-school sweethear
- True, this is just absurd
- Not about Bo, later used to talk about Jackson by a sportswriter. Actually an excerpt from "The Natural". Easily fits Bo.
- True.
