The Chronicle celebrates one of Duke's most successful decades by honoring our top 10 Devils of the Decade. Each Tuesday, The Chronicle will feature one of the selected athletes. Today we profile athlete No. 7, Ryan Jackson.
On May 5, 1998, Florida first baseman Ryan Jackson drilled a 1-2 fastball from then-New York Mets pitcher Dave Mlicki into the seats of Pro Player Stadium for a grand slam, staking the Marlins to a 4-1 lead.
Jackson wasn't ever supposed to play Major League Baseball.
On March 7, 1992, Jackson, then a first baseman for Duke, drove a pitch from North Carolina hurler Jonathan Davidson into the trees behind the right-field fence at historic Jack Coombs Field for a game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the ninth.
Jackson wasn't even supposed to play big-time collegiate baseball.
Every step along Jackson's baseball career, people have told him he wasn't good enough to play at the next level.
Ryan Jackson just doesn't take no for an answer.
Unnoticed after high school, undrafted after his junior year at Duke, not drafted until the seventh round after his senior season, Jackson dispelled all his critics and left an indelible mark on the Duke baseball program.
Not bad for a player no one knew about coming out of high school.
"He's right up there with anybody I've coached," former Duke coach Steve Traylor said. "He just had such a positive attitude, a great work ethic. He had unquestionably strong tools-he could throw and run and hit with power.
"The fact that he was a legitimate pitcher and position player-put all that in a hat, and you've come up with as good a player as there has ever been at Duke."
Had it not been for one sharp-eyed Florida attorney, Duke's career leader in at-bats, hits and home runs would have never found his way to Durham.
Following a tip from a lawyer in Sarasota, Traylor took a trip down south in the spring of 1989 and attended one of Jackson's games.
Traylor almost had to pinch himself.
Jackson looked smooth on the mound, ripped line drives all over the yard and patrolled
"He knocked my eyes out," Traylor said.
What made Traylor even more incredulous is that Jackson failed to attract any attention from the three top collegiate programs in his home state-Florida State, Florida and Miami.
Traylor, however, was more than happy to accept the prize that practically fell into his lap, and quickly accepted the two-way player into his fledgling program.
"He was just a great individual, very humble, a very positive person, and from a real good family," Traylor said. "He handled himself very maturely, with a lot of class-exactly what you're looking for when you're out there recruiting from a personality standpoint."
Jackson lived up to every bit of Traylor's expectations and immediately paid dividends, starting 50 games his freshman season and hitting .296. But it was during his sophomore season that Jackson blossomed into a star.
Although he pitched in high school, Jackson didn't make his Duke mound debut until his second season. But Jackson's team-leading eight wins, including Duke's first victory against UNC in five years, quickly made believers of everyone.
Another stellar season his junior year on the mound and at the plate had everyone believing Jackson would leave Duke the next summer as a pick in the Major League Baseball amateur draft.
Instead, Jackson went through the most crushing moment of his budding baseball career when no club took a chance on him.
The disappointment, however, turned into a blessing when Jackson came back for his senior year in 1994 and delivered a season for the ages.
"I feel real fortunate that I didn't get drafted my junior year, because I wouldn't been able to stick around for the senior year that we had," Jackson said. "It was just a great experience with Scott Pinoni and Sean McNally and those guys we had in the heart of the line-up.
"It was awesome."
Awesome would be one word to describe the season; unreal would be more appropriate. Jackson hit .378, belted 22 homers, drove in 63 RBIs and hit in 34 straight games for good measure.
The Nintendo-like numbers earned Jackson ACC and national player of the year honors, edging then-Georgia Tech shortstop Nomar Garciaparra.
"Maybe I should've held that over [Garciaparra's] head a little bit when we played Boston," said Jackson, who is now playing for the Seattle Mariners. "It seems like he's gotten a little better than me, so I don't feel like I could do that."
While Garciaparra took the fast track to Boston, Jackson rode quite a roller coaster before landing at Seattle. Despite Jackson's outstanding senior season, the Marlins waited until the seventh round before selecting him. Again, Jackson proved the scouts wrong, rising meteorically through the system before a torn ACL nearly ended his career.
After a rigorous rehabilitation period, Jackson finally made his major league debut as a part of the Marlins' massive youth movement in 1998. Although he hit a respectable .250 in 260 at-bats during his rookie season, the Marlins introduced Jackson to the dreaded C-word on the final day of spring training in 1999, cutting him from their roster.
"I figured I didn't do that great the year before, but it's not like I did terribly either," Jackson said. "It caught me off guard. For me, it's just accepting it, moving on and trying to impress the next team I'm playing for."
That next team turned out to be the Tacoma Rainers, Seattle's AAA affiliate. To the surprise of no one who knew Jackson's track record, he proved the Marlins to be a little too quick on the trigger finger, hitting .308 and driving in 62 for Tacoma before earning a late-season call up to Seattle.
"The big thing for me is just being able to establish playing time," Jackson said. "That's the only way you're really going to get better at this level. Without the playing time, you're not going to be able to raise your game to another level.
"For me, it's just enjoying the experiences I'm getting now and making a go with it."
And as long as someone gives Jackson a go at it on a baseball diamond, chances are he will deliver. After all, he's even delivered when no one gave him a go.
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