Reggie Jackson: "Mr. October" on making baseball history

(CBS News) Reggie Jackson signed with the New York Yankees in 1977. He had already won three World Series and a major league MVP award with the Oakland Athletics, but it wasn't until game six of the 1977 World Series that Jackson entered baseball immortality.

Reggie Jackson back in uniform with Yankees after being banned from team

October 17th, 1977 will be remembered as the day Reggie Jackson became "Mr. October." The Yankees were up three games to two against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jackson literally took over game six. He hit a home run on the first pitch in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings.

Jackson told the "CBS This Morning" co-hosts that at that time, they didn't have the technology that they have today to predict what the other team would do or understand the pitcher's sequences. However, they did have excellent scouting that helped him predict the pitches. He knew he was looking for the "ball in."

"I knew what they were going to do. I knew the ball was coming inside and that really helped me for the evening," he said on "CBS This Morning. "The rest is history and god-given talent and things like that. I was blessed for the evening but I had real good scouting reports.

He led the Yankees to their first championship in 15 years, yet the team was known as much for their turmoil as for their success.

With volatile owner George Steinbrenner and fiery manager Billy Martin, the team was always back-page news. The Bronx Bombers had become the Bronx Zoo and Jackson was right in the middle of it.

Jackson constantly feuded with Martin, almost coming to blows during one game in Boston after the manager doubted the star player's effort.

Reggie Jackson: Billy Martin made racial, anti-Semitic remarks

But in the playoffs, no one questioned Jackson's ability in the clutch, and the Yankees won the World Series again in 1978.

Jackson's new book, "Becoming Mr. October," is about his early years with the Yankees and contradicts a mini-series by ESPN called "The Bronx is Burning" in which he feels he was unfairly portrayed.

"I felt I was vilified in the book and kind of embarrassed the way it was portrayed. I really felt bad for several months about it. I had a really good relationship with ESPN at the time and never really got past it," he said. "I had a chance to write my view of what happened and that's what this is."

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993 after hitting 563 career homeruns.

For Reggie Jackson's full interview, watch the video in the player above.