Darrin Jay Jackson (born August 22, 1963) is the current radio color analyst for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

and also a former

center fielder A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

who played 12 years for the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

(1985–1989),

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

(1989–1992),

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

(1993),

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major lea ...

(1993),

(1994, 1999),

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

(1997) and

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

(1997–1998). He also played for the

Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, w ...

in Japan (1995–1996).

Playing career

1981 Selected by the Chicago Cubs in second round of 1981 free agent draft, but would never appear in a game for the team during this stint. 1985 Jackson was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues. Jackson made his major league debut on June 16, 1985. Spent five games with the Cubs before returning to Pittsfield. 1986 Spent the season with the Chicago Cubs AA affiliate Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and was named to the Eastern League's all-star team. 1987 Recalled from Iowa, the Chicago Cubs AAA affiliate, September 4 but underwent surgery September 21 to remove a small tumor from his groin area and missed the rest of the season. Batted .800 (4-for-5) with one double for the Cubs. 1988 Played in 100 games for Chicago but had only 188 at-bats ... Became the third player in Cubs history (joining Dale Long and

Carmen Fanzone Carmen Ronald Fanzone (born August 30, 1941) is a former utility man who played between 1970 and 1974 in Major League Baseball. Listed at , , he batted and threw right-handed. Fanzone was a versatile and effective utility man who was able to play ...

) to homer in consecutive pinch-hit at-bats, going deep against St. Louis'

Ken Dayley Kenneth Grant Dayley (born February 25, 1959) is a former professional baseball player. A left-handed pitcher, Dayley played all or part of eleven seasons in Major League Baseball between 1982 and 1993. Career Braves After pitching at the Un ...

Aug. 14 and Cincinnati's

Tom Browning Thomas Leo Browning (April 28, 1960 – December 19, 2022) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1984 to 1995, spending almost his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds. In his rookie season in 1985, ...

Aug. 16 ... Had first two-homer game of his career September 17 against St. Louis. 1989 Spent time at Iowa (AAA) and with the Cubs before being traded to the San Diego Padres Aug. 31 ... Made 23 starts for the Padres. 1990 Darrin split time between San Diego and Class AAA Las Vegas ... Hit the Padres' first pinch-hit homer of the season April 27 against Pittsburgh ... Had his first career four-hit game Oct. 3 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. 1991 Hit a career-high 21 homers in 122 games after entering the season with a career total of 13. Ranked fourth in the NL with one homer every 17 at-bats. Seven of his 11 hits in 19 games June 9-July 12 were homers ... Hit first career grand slam Aug. 25 off Chicago Cubs' Bob Scanlan ... Made his only career pitching appearance with two innings at Houston May 26. In 1991, in a game that the San Diego Padres, Darrin's team at the time, were down 11-4, DJ was put into the game as a relief pitcher. This would mark his only pitching appearance in the MLB. Darrin pitched the last two innings of the game, allowing 3 hits, walking 2 batters, and allowing two earned runs. Darrin had this to say about his pitching performance "We were losing like 11-4 in Houston (6) and my manager,

Greg Riddoch Gregory Lee Riddoch (born July 17, 1945 in Greeley, Colorado) is a retired American professional baseball player, manager and coach who served as manager of the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball from July 12, 1990 through September 22, ...

, knew I'd been messing around in the bullpen. The pitching part wasn't the most difficult thing. It was after. I could barely move and my butt was killing me from stretching out the glutes and hamstring. It took me five days not to feel sore. I was throwing 86-87 m.p.h. I didn't throw a curveball because I was scared to hit somebody." 1992 Set career highs in games (155), RBI (70), hits (146) and stolen bases (14) ... Tied his career high with four hits in two games, July 7 against St. Louis and July 19 at Montreal ... Had his fourth career two-homer game April 28 against Philadelphia, the second homer leading off the bottom of the ninth and giving the Padres a 7-6 victory ... Had three game-winning homers on the season ... Tied for second among National League outfielders with a .996 fielding percentage, a San Diego club record ... Led the majors with 18 outfield assists. 1993 Was with San Diego for spring training, and was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, where he played until June 11, before once again being traded and played for the New York Mets for the rest of the season ... His solo homer in the eighth inning off Chicago's Alex Fernández April 25 was the difference in a 1-0 Toronto victory ... Had a tough year at the plate, batting .216 for the Blue Jays and .195 for New York ... Did not commit an error in 23 outfield starts with the Mets, handling 55 chances and making four assists ... Spent July 19-September 1 on the disabled list with hyperthyroidism. 1994 Strung together two 8-game hit streaks (May 13–20 and June 18–24). 1995 Signed with Seibu Lions of Japanese Pacific League ... Ranked 7th in league with .289 average ... Collected 20 home runs and 68 RBI. 1996 Played with Seibu Lions of Japanese Pacific League. Hit .266 with 19 home runs and 64 RBI in 126 games. Jackson became the television color analyst for the White Sox in 2000, alongside play-by-play man Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. On Friday, September 12, 2008, he was informed by the White Sox that he would be replaced on television broadcasts in 2009 by Steve Stone. On December 13, 2008, the ''Chicago Tribune'' reported that Jackson had elected to stay with the White Sox and become the radio color analyst position alongside Ed Farmer. "This has been my home", Jackson told the Tribune Saturday. "Farmio (play-by-play announcer Ed Farmer) is a friend of mine, and we're going to have fun." Jackson had interviewed with numerous media outlets including ESPN and the new Major League Baseball channel.

Personal life

He grew up in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

, where he played baseball in Culver City National Little League and Culver City Babe Ruth League, and was in the 1978 Babe Ruth World Series where his team took second place. He attended Culver City High School and played for its baseball team as well.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Darrin 1963 births Living people African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Canada American expatriate baseball players in Japan Baseball players from Chicago Baseball players from Los Angeles Chicago Cubs players Chicago White Sox announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Chicago White Sox players Major League Baseball outfielders Milwaukee Brewers players Minnesota Twins players New York Mets players Nippon Professional Baseball outfielders Sportspeople from Chicago San Diego Padres players Seibu Lions players Toronto Blue Jays players Gulf Coast Cubs players Iowa Cubs players Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players Midland Cubs players Pittsfield Cubs players Quad Cities Cubs players Salinas Spurs players Salt Lake Buzz players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople