On the latest episode of “Listen In With KNN” on FOX Sports 1340AM/96.9 FM, host Kelsey Nicole Nelson was joined by former Minor League Baseball player and author Jeff Jackson. 

Jackson was born and raised in the south side of Chicago and now resides in sunny Los Angeles. When asked the question, how did he get into baseball, he replied: “To be honest, I think baseball chose me.” He began playing baseball after moving into a new neighborhood in the city and was approached to join in on the fun. 

Jackson has always felt gravitation towards the game of baseball. From the look of the uniforms to seeing others enjoying playing the sport, he would watch baseball for hours without even knowing his future with the sport.  

Nelson asked Jackson about the narratives on Chicago and how he thinks they can be changed for the better. “We need to start with the kids…they’re the future. Those are the ones who we’ll be depending on in the next 10 or 20 years to take care of us…if we can do that, that’ll be the start of change.” A large part of Jackson’s family still resides in Chicago, like his cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews which is why this topic impacted him.

Listener Mike Patton asked Jackson, “Who was a player you patterned your game after growing up?”, Jackson admitted that he did not model his performance based on one particular player, but he was a fan of the Chicago Cubs growing up. “As a kid, I didn’t have one particular player. I guess it was whoever was ‘The Man’ at the time.” When he was in high school, he admitted he modeled himself after the former outfielder Eric Davis, who is most known for his time in the Cincinnati Reds.

Jackson went on to play baseball in high school and had an overall good season his junior year. After his junior season, he expected his name to appear on Chicago’s top 100 baseball prospect list because of the success he had amassed up to that point as he began his senior year. But, things didn’t go as planned. As he was looking for his name in the paper, he noticed he couldn’t find it because he was not a part of the list. “That lit a fire under me right there…I wanted to make sure I was outworking everybody…and three to four months later, I go from not being on the top 100 prospect list in Chicago, to being the number one player in the country.” 

“That specific award was nothing but a gift from God.” The 1989 Gatorade National Player of The Year Award for Baseball would be awarded to Jackson after the top 100 prospect list snag. After this, he would become the NO. 4 pick in the 1st round selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1989 Major League Baseball Draft. 

On his draft day, Jackson talked about how his mom went into work as if it were just any other day and he decided to stay home from school awaiting the call. He was out back in his pool when he heard the phone ring. The phone call was to let him know he would be drafted by the Phillies. When his mom came home, he let her know and she was definitely proud of him. Jackson says that his family would be proud but would not make a large deal about these kinds of things. “With my family keeping things simple and normal, that helped me become the person I am… I never get too up or too down, I stay in the middle.”

At 17 years and 6 months old, Jackson would fly by himself to start training and getting acclimated to a new lifestyle. Jackson admits that it was “definitely a culture shock” and his world turned upside down. He felt as if he was carrying two cities (Chicago and Philadelphia) on his back since what most expected was for him to be the “franchise player.”

Jackson discussed his feelings on what he called “learning the hard way” and about the “things no one tells you about,” Jackson said, “When you are a first-round draft pick, you are a target… I had to find that out the hard way.”

Listener Mike Patton asked Jackson another great question during the show asking, “At what point did you realize it was time to call it a career in baseball?” Jackson’s very honest answer was, “From the first day I got there, like the very first day I ever showed up, I was done…” Jackson stayed in baseball despite these feelings. “I was raised not to quit, I’m not a quitter. So what you saw those 10 years, nine seasons was me basically going through the motions.” 

Most know the end of Jackson’s career as a result of a jet ski injury that fractured his back in two places, but “that [his injury] wasn’t what ended my career, it was the excuse I used to end my career.” Jackson had been trying to find a reason to leave since “it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be…I lost the love immediately for the game.”

Moving on from his baseball career, Jackson had been trying to find a way to reinvent himself and “run” from the stigma of “Jeff Jackson the baseball player.” When he got to California, he found himself connecting his circle of friends to other people he knew and got the idea to start his own consulting business. In this period of transition, Jackson realized “I’m always going to be Jeff. I just gotta live in it, accept it, and live life.”

Nelson asked Jackson what he would like to be remembered as in the world and he wants people to remember that “I was a good human being”. He added he wants people to remember his character and the way he treated people. These qualities are more important to him than a baseball career. 

Jackson’s story doesn’t end there. In an interview during his playing career, a media member asked him a question he did not want to answer. He gave the reply that he was making a documentary and those answers would be in there. The funny part is, there was no documentary being made at the time, but it gave him an idea as he wanted to stay true to his word. So he called up his friends and started the production. Some time into the project, his friends could no longer do the work for free so he prayed and felt God tell him to reach out to an old friend named Dana who is an author. “Before I could even finish asking her, she said yes.” 

The process of writing the book “The Gift and The Curse” was like therapy for Jackson. It was also a way to make sure that his story was being told his way. “I’ve always wanted to tell my story, I just didn’t know how to do it.”

One of the last things Nelson and Jackson discussed was the major decrease in African American baseball players in the MLB. Jackson believes it is because of the lack of knowledge “as you go up the ranks” and the potential experiences they have to endure. He mentions that there is a large presence of younger boys who are interested but aren’t able to climb to the top. 

You can learn more about Jeff Jackson’s story by watching the episode below and go to his website https://thejeffjacksonstory.com/  to purchase his book “The Gift and The Curse,” and his apparel.