Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The night I almost slapped down Reggie Jackson

Larry Blake's closes, famed Cal hangout

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/08/BUFP1HK013.DTL

When Reggie Jackson came back to the Oakland Coliseum as a member of the hated Angels to play the A's in 1982, I let him have it from the 99th row: "Jackson, you suck!" And I swear he turned up to the stands and looked right at me. After the game our obnoxious group went to Larry Blake's in Berkeley, and who do you think I ran into at the entrance? Yep, No. 44, looking large and fit. I may have soiled myself. A couple years earlier I'd landed a job bartending at Larry Blake's in Davis. That was the scene of my one and only nightclub singing appearance. I harmonized with my roommate Eli on a couple of his original songs, and I swear we did not suck. Reggie Jackson was not in the audience.