"Somtimes you gotta just let a hungry dog eat!"

 This was baseball Hall-of-Famer slugger Reggie Jackson's answer to a young fan's question on what it feels like to get a good pitch.

The first good pitch he remembered earned him his first major league hit: a triple in 1967 while playing for Oakland Athletics.

"I ran like a deer," he said. "It was great."

 Jackson  answered audience questions following a talk he gave inside a packed Carpenter Hall at the Sunset Cultural Center in Carmel on Wednesday night. He spoke about his new book, "Sixty Feet, Six Inches," which he co-wrote with fellow Hall-of-Famer Bob Gibson, who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1960s and 70s. The book is written as a conversation between a pitcher and batter about the dynamics, science and spirit of baseball.

"In the life I lived as a baseball player, I've always had Bob "Gibby" Gibson as a hero," Jackson. "So I was very excited when he asked me to do a book with him. I was like a kid again, looking up to a favorite ballplayer."

About 100 people were originally seated in the tiny room, most adorned in a hat or jersey of one of the teams Jackson played for in his career, from the New York Yankees to the Oakland A's. At Jackson's request of letting more people in who crammed the doorways and windows for a glimpse at the baseball great, the room quickly filled with wide-eyed fans of all ages. Mixed conversations spoke of seeing Jackson hit a home run during the post-season in the 1970s or watching his unique, almost-kneeling, swing on television.

Recalling his many stories from playing professional ball at the age of 20 in 1967, Jackson spoke of growing up in a broken home in Philadelphia, spending his hard-earned paper route money to spend 25 cents to sit as a "colored kid in the left field bleachers" when the Los Angeles Dodgers came to town when he could see the inspiring Jackie Robinson and his favorite childhood hero, Duke Snider.

Jackson talked about playing sports as a young boy helped his learned the dedication to baseball later in his life.

"According to my dad, we were not allowed to play sports unless you were on the starting team, " he said. Jackson talked about how he played sports to avoid working at his dad's tailoring business, which he ran to supports six children.

Playing sports as a minority in the 1960s and 70s affected Jackson from his early years in the minor leagues in Birmingham, Alabama.

"I was lucky to have a manager who supported me on team," he said, recalling away games traveling around the South when a white player on the team had to check at a restaurant or hotel if they served colored.

"I'm from that era, so those things are still with me," he says. "A lot of people are suprised to know that Bob Gibson wasn't allowed to play baseball in high school, because each team only allowed one black player."

Bringing back the topic of his book, Jackson commented about why the game meant so much to him as a player.

"I had so much fun playing, because I was a fan of these great players. Guys like George Brett, Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan," he said laughing. "I enjoyed everyday, even the bad ones, knowing that as I put on my uniform, it was one less game I would play."

Jackson commented on how the advent of steriods in the last decade had changed the view of baseball players as heros to young fans.

"For all of us that truly played the game, we were hurt by steroid use, because the people who used them, were people we as fans admired and were let down by,' he said. "I'm rooting for the good players, the great athelets with real work ethic."

One of these "real" players, highly admired by Jackson, is the New York Yankees closing pitcher Mariano Rivera.

"He is the most dominating player in his position in the history of the game," commented Jackson. "He's got a great wife and family too."

 Even though he retired in 1987, Jackson says every so often he will get the itch to look down the barrel of some of the game's best comtemporary pitchers, just to see what they have to serve up.

Through all of his achievements of being a Hall-of-Fame ballplayer, hitting three homeruns in the 1977 World Series to mention one of the most famous post-seasons feats that earned him his nickanme "Mr. October", Jackson wants to be a neighbor and seen as a down-to-Earth friend.

"I just want to be Reggie, that guy who lives up the street and owns all those cars."

Jackson's talk and book signing was put on as a literary fundraiser for the Harrison Memorial Library in Carmel.