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After a couple of hours at Del Rio's, Jackson may pick up the younger sister of one of the A's former ball girls and drive her and her mother to a dermatologist to have the girl's acne checked. Jackson pays the bill for the examination and any follow-up care. "When you leave your friends," he says, "they should feel better—whether you gave them a dime or a dollar, ten minutes of your time, looked at them with a smile or just told them they looked great." In carrying out his philosophy of wealth ("If you've got money, spread it around"), Jackson finances a home for delinquent boys in Tempe, Ariz., where he lives in the offseason. He plans to open a ranch for the same purpose near Tucson. Last year he gave the car he won as best player in the World Series to a Chicano and Yaqui Indian community organization in Tempe. Jackson's generosity is an extension of his religious beliefs. He is a Methodist who rarely attends church at home, but he organizes an informal Sunday chapel while on the road. "Religion to me," he says, "is doing things for my friends and neighbors."
By dinnertime, Jackson picks up a second wind at home with a shower and a few minutes in the living room grooving to a pulsating rock number like For the Love of Money recorded by the O'Jays ("Music is a psychiatrist for me. When I turn up the volume, I escape into a peaceful inner world. I split from reality"). This particular evening he heads toward the exclusive Silverado Country Club in Napa to address a group of automobile dealers, one of whom lends Jackson a new Pontiac Grand Prix every year. As Jackson swings his car past the long line of Cadillacs and Mercedeses ringing the driveway at Silverado, he mutters, "The only niggers out here are the ones that cut the grass." Though he mixes easily with the wealthy white crowd, he also twits the audience: "It's nice to see all the nationalities represented here."
Marriage Breakup. If Jackson has some energy left, his typical evening will end with some dancing at the Playboy Club in San Francisco, where several Bunnies appreciate his company after work. For more substantial relationships, Jackson dates several white girls, including a film editor at a Phoenix TV station. Jackson shows no particular concern for the color of his girl friends —or for that matter, of most of his friends. "There are 200 million people in this country," he says, "and 180 million of them are white. It's only natural that most of my friends are white."
Jackson's social life, despite its frenetic pace, hardly satisfies him: "I sometimes get into depressed moods. I get lonely. You know, when I'm going good on the field I want someone to share that with, and when I'm going bad I need someone to help me rebound. Family life is the most important thing on God's earth. When I have a family, I'm going to hit 50 home runs, 49 for them." Jackson was married for four years—his wife was Mexican American—but they were divorced two years ago. He and his wife had no children.