| Randy Jackson | |
|---|---|
Jackson in 1953. |
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| Third Baseman | |
| Born: February 10, 1926 Little Rock, Arkansas |
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| Batted: Right | Threw: Right |
| MLB debut | |
| May 2, 1950 for the Chicago Cubs | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 25, 1959 for the Chicago Cubs | |
| Career statistics | |
| Batting average | .261 |
| Home runs | 103 |
| Hits | 415 |
| Teams | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Ransom Joseph Jackson (born 10 February 1926 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is a former American Major League Baseball (MLB) player for the Chicago Cubs (1950–1955), Dodgers (1956–1958; two seasons in Brooklyn, one in Los Angeles), Cleveland Indians (1958–1959), and ended his career back with the Cubs (1959).
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After a year at the University of Arkansas, he transferred two times, and helped lead the football teams of both Texas Christian University (1945) and the University of Texas at Austin (1946) to consecutive Cotton Bowl Classic appearances as a halfback. Playing baseball in college he hit .500, .438 and .400.
The Chicago Cubs drafted Jackson and on 2 May 1950, the 24-year-old made his major-league début. "Handsome Ransom" had four solid seasons at third base for the Cubs from 1951 to 1955.
Jackon followed up a slow rookie season (in which he had 111 at-bats over 34 games) with a solid second season, in which he hit .276 with 76 RBI and 16 home runs. He struggled again in his third major-league season, his average falling to .232, with 34 RBI and 9 home runs.
Jackson rebounded over the next three seasons, posting batting averages of .285 (1953), .273 (1954), and .265 (1955). His RBI (66, 67, and 70) and home run (19, 19, and 21) totals also rebounded. Nor did his defensive play lag behind: in 1955, Jackson led the National League (NL) in double plays.
His hitting and excellent play at third earned him consecutive trips to the All-Star Game in his last two seasons in Chicago. In the 1954 game he came off the bench behind starter Ray Jablonski of the St. Louis Cardinals, in an 11-9 loss to the American League (AL). The next season, 1955, he again came off the bench, in a 6-5 win for the National League, behind the Milwaukee Braves' Eddie Mathews.
On the strength of Jackson's five continuous seasons in Chicago, the Dodgers, looking for a replacement for their aging All-Star third baseman Jackie Robinson, traded Don Hoak, Russ Meyer and Walt Moryn to the Cubs for Jackson and Don Elston.[1]
Jackson played off the bench behind Robinson in 1956. Despite having over 200 fewer plate appearances than in his previous year, he managed a .274 average with 8 home runs and 53 RBI. The Dodgers played in the famed "subway Series" against their hated cross-town rivals, the New York Yankees in the 1956 World Series, but Jackson had only three pinch-hit at-bats, going 0-for-3, with two strike-outs.
The following season (1957), Jackson suffered a major knee injury, ending his chances to become a star for the Dodgers. He played off the bench, not appearing in more than 64 games in a season for the rest of his career. He totaled only 8 more home runs and 43 RBIs combined for the next three seasons.