Hi folks, this is Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, but of course you all know me better as Mr. October. The World Series is about to start, so let’s take a look at what the Astros and White Sox need to do in order to win.

I’ve been hearing a lot of silly phrases like “smallball”, “Ozzieball”, “playing by the book”, “fundamentals”, “defense”, and “speed on the basepaths”. People seem to think that stuff matters! Well let me tell you something: home run hitters drive Cadillacs, singles hitters drive Fords. Twenty years from now, when everyone reminisces about the 2005 playoffs, nobody will remember Pablo Ozuna stealing a base or Roger Clemens laying down a bunt. They’ll remember the home runs. What do you remember about the 1977 Series? That’s right, you remember my three home runs in three consecutive at-bats, with each one travelling further than the one before it. When Joe Morgan was asked to name the greatest individual accomplishment in the history of postseason baseball, do you know what his answer was? No, it wasn’t some skinny shortstop executing a hit and run, it was my three-homer game.

Home runs pay the bills and attract the most beautiful ladies. Have you ever seen Houston’s Willy Taveras with a beautiful woman? I rest my case. The Cardinals might have lost the NLCS, but people will be talking about Albert Pujols’ Game 5 blast for years. It was an impressive shot, but he didn’t get all of it. If I had been hitting in that situation I would have dinged that ball off the light tower and given the people something to truly remember. Still, Pujols was impressive. Also, there has been a lot of talk about the 18-inning marathon between Atlanta and Houston, but mark my words, a year from now, nobody will remember anything about it other than the two grand slams, Brad Ausmus’ tying blast in the 9th, and Chris Burke’s shot to win it. Do you remember who singled ahead of Lance Berkman before he hit that slam? You don’t, do you? Come on, it was only a couple of weeks ago! That’s further proof that this small ball stuff isn’t going to matter in the upcoming World Series.

A lot of people forget that the White Sox are a great team when it comes to hitting the long ball. They play in a homer-friendly park and it paid dividends for them this year, as they were fourth in the AL in home runs despite finishing only ninth in runs scored. In the playoffs, they’ve been even better. They’ve outhomered their opponents 12-6 and have lost only one game. That’s no coincidence, folks. That’s how you outmash your rivals on the big stage. Now don’t get me wrong — I don’t have a problem with all that bunt-and-steal stuff. Hey, you have to keep the entire team happy and give guys like Scott Podsednik something to do while you wait for the big men like Paul Konerko to come to the plate. That Konerko is a guy who really understands how the game works. He strikes out over 100 times a season and might not hit for a particularly high average, but as long as he’s hitting the long flies then he’s happy and knows he’s done his job. And that’s definitely been the case so far in the playoffs. He’s got four homers, which clearly makes him the most feared hitter in the White Sox lineup. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand why I like the guy so much — he reminds me of … me!

The Astros aren’t known for being a slugging team, but they’ve been able to rely on the long ball when they’ve needed it most. Guys like Berkman and Lamb have followed my example and come up with huge jacks when the game was on the line. Even Brad Ausmus, who hit only three homers during the regular season, went deep in the ALDS when it mattered most. Ausmus is a stud. If I looked like Ausmus, I’d own the world.

Of course, it helps that the Astros play in Minute Maid Park, which might be the most homer-friendly park in baseball. Despite this, their pitchers gave up only 78 long bombs at home, which is an amazingly low number that doesn’t bode well for the White Sox sluggers. It won’t be easy for them to tee off on Astros pitching when the series shifts to Houston for Game 3.

So it’s really quite simple. The winning team will have to hit home runs in order to win, and whichever team jacks more balls out of the park will be the World Champions. All right, I know you’ve all been waiting for my pick, so here it is: Astros in 6. Their pitching is a little better than Chicago’s, and most importantly, they don’t surrender the long ball too often. And their hitters have shown during the postseason that they can match round-trippers with anyone.

Reginald Martinez Jackson won five World Series Championships with two different clubs. He hit 18 postseason home runs, 10 of which came in the World Series. He is one of only two players in baseball history to hit three home runs in a single World Series game (the other is the legendary Babe Ruth), that being the Series-clinching sixth game of the 1977 World Series against the hapless Dodgers, which earned him the classic nickname “Mr. October”. He retired in 1987 with 563 career home runs, outlived Billy Martin, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993.