“Fans don’t boo nobodies”
Oakland A’s baseball player Reggie Jackson said in April 1974:
“Now, when we go into a park on the road people start booing. You don’t know how good that makes me feel. To me it means the fans recognize who I am and what I mean to my ball club. Fans don’t boo nobodies.”
“Fans don’t boo nobodies” became a line that applied to other baseball players and also in other sports, whenever a person was being booed. It’s often (incorrectly) assumed that Reggie Jackson said this when he played for the New York Yankees, but Jackson had first said it when he played for the Oakland A’s.
Wikipedia: Reggie Jackson
Reginald Martinez “Reggie” Jackson (born May 18, 1946) is a retired American baseball right fielder who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for five different teams (1967–1987). He was nicknamed “Mr. October” for his clutch hitting in the postseason with the Oakland A’s and the New York Yankees. Jackson won five consecutive American League West divisional pennants, three consecutive American League pennants and two consecutive World Series titles as a member of the Oakland Athletics (he did not play in the 1972 World Series due to injury) from 1971 to 1975; four American League East divisional pennants, three American League pennants and two consecutive World Series titles with the Yankees from 1977 to 1981; and two American League West divisional pennants with the California Angels in 1982 and 1986. He is perhaps best remembered for hitting three consecutive home runs in the clinching game of the 1977 World Series.
21 April 1974, The Daily Review (Hayward, CA), “Reggie wants more than just money” (UPI), pg. 45, cols. 5-6:
“Now, when we go into a park on the road people start booing,” he (Reggie Jackson—ed.) said. “You don’t know how good that makes me feel. To me it means the fans recognize who I am and what I mean to my ball club. Fans don’t boo nobodies.”
Jackson claims the more people boo him on the road the better he plays. And it’s the other way around at home. He loves all those cheers in the Oakland Coliseum.
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16 May 1974, Jet magazine, “Words of the Week,” pg. 40:
Reggie Jackson, Oakland A’s Most Valuable Player award winner, on getting recognition away from his home park: “When we go into a park on the road, people start booing me. You don’t know how good that makes me feel. To me it means the fans recognize who I am and what I mean to my ball club. Fans don’t boo nobodies.”
22 February 1986, Greensboro (NC) News & Record, “Fans’ Forum,” pg. C2, col. 1:
But it’s like Reggie Jackson said, “Fans don’t boo nobodies.”
(...)
Edward L. Council
Greensboro
Bloomberg.com
Sports Analytics
How NBA Fans Cost Their Teams at the Free-Throw Line
By Ira Boudway March 01, 2012
(...)
Basketball fans, it appears, need to learn what psychologists have long known about performing under pressure. “When you do things that distract a person, that can actually alleviate stress,” Rao says, pointing to studies on golf-putters and test-takers. Surgeons routinely use music to help ease stress in the operating room. And Hall of Fame baseball slugger Reggie Jackson famously found validation in boos. “When we go into a park on the road, people start booing me,” he told a reporter in 1974. “You don’t know how good that makes me feel. To me it means the fans recognize who I am and what I mean to my ball club. Fans don’t boo nobodies.”
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“Fans don’t boo nobodies.” – Reggie Jackson
1:10 PM - 8 Oct 2013
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Fans don’t boo nobodies. -Reggie Jackson
9:53 AM - 8 Feb 2015