The night Reggie launched a rocket

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Today: He wasn't even supposed to be there, but an injury put Reggie Jackson in the game, and the Oakland slugger left a lasting imprint with a home run of mythical proportions at Tiger Stadium.

Sparky Anderson managed in five All-Star Games, and for the most part, the memories have been blurred by the passage of time into just a vague sense of pomp and pageantry.

But one moment still remains vivid for him, as it does for all those who saw it. Reggie Jackson's home run off Pittsburgh's Dock Ellis in the 1971 game at Tiger Stadium has over the years taken on the mythical quality of Robert Redford's blast in "The Natural." Both careened off light tower transformers, Reggie's without the literal fireworks.

Anderson is here to tell you, however, that it was every bit as stunning as legend has made it.

"To this day, I can still see Reggie hit that ball," Anderson said. "It was incredible. I don't know where the ball would have went if the light tower had not been there."

Reggie himself nearly wasn't there, getting named to the squad late as a replacement for elected starter Tony Oliva of the Twins, who had to pull out because of injury.

His Oakland A's teammate, Vida Blue, on the way to becoming the first American League rookie to win the Cy Young Award, was named the AL's starting pitcher. Pittsburgh's Ellis, despite a 14-3 first-half record, publicly predicted he would not be the NL starter because baseball would never allow "two brothers" to start the All-Star Game.

Ellis was wrong, but he might have regretted it.

Staked to a 3-0 lead, Ellis gave up two-run homers to Jackson and Frank Robinson - two of the six future Hall of Famers to homer in the 6-4 American League victory that broke an eight-game AL losing streak (Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Harmon Killebrew and Roberto Clemente were the others).

Jackson's third-inning blast, as a pinch-hitter for Blue, is the one that time hasn't forgotten. Most observers believe it would have sailed out of Tiger Stadium if the light transformer in right-center field hadn't gotten in the way, sending the ball bouncing back onto the field. The official distance estimate was 523 feet - and 60 feet above the roof - but Anderson and others will swear it was headed 600 feet or more.

Jackson hit what was later determined to be a high slider on a full-count pitch by Ellis.

"That's probably the longest ball I've ever hit," he said after the game. "It's a good thing the tower was in the way. I couldn't have hit it any farther if I'd used a fungo bat."

That was the staid Jackson quote. More typically flamboyant, in an interview with Newsday, was this assessment: "I smoked it, didn't I? This game is a show, man, and I gave them a show. It will be awhile before anybody kisses that transformer again."