Listed at , , Jackson was born in
Waco, Texas, and attended
Wiley College. He was signed by the
Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent in 1955 but his first regular major league experience came as a member of the inaugural 1962
New York Mets. As a
starting pitcher, he posted an 8–20 record that year. The 40–120 record of those
1962 Mets continues to be the most losses by a Major League team in a single season since the 19th Century. On August 14, 1962, Jackson pitched a
complete game 3–1 loss to the
Philadelphia Phillies in 4 hours 35 minutes – the longest complete game in terms of playing time in Major League history. at
Citi Field in 2010. After three more seasons of sixteen or more losses with the Mets, including a second 8–20 campaign, Jackson was traded to the
St. Louis Cardinals for
Ken Boyer. In 1966, his first year in St. Louis, Jackson had his best season in the majors. He was sixth in the
National League in
earned run average and ninth in
complete games. Unfortunately for Jackson, he also lost fifteen games and, the next year, was used more as a
relief pitcher. Those 15 losses gave him a five-year streak of at least 15 losses—the record since 1900 is six. Despite going 9–4 in 1967, he did not see action in the
1967 World Series. Still, as a member of the world champion Cardinals, he earned a World Series ring. After the 1967 season, Jackson was traded back to the Mets for pitcher
Jack Lamabe and continued pitching out of the
bullpen. He was with the "Miracle" Mets of 1969 but was sold to the
Cincinnati Reds in June after compiling an ERA over ten, and did not play in a postseason. Jackson pitched 33 games for the Reds in relief to finish 1969. Before he played a game in 1970, the Reds released him and his career was over. In addition to his 43 wins as a Met, Jackson's franchise record of 10
shutouts was also broken by Seaver. Two of them (July 27, 1962, and October 2, 1964) were 1–0 wins over
Bob Gibson—the Mets' first two victories over the future
Hall-of-Famer and the only two times the Mets defeated him between 1962 and 1966. He threw a one-hitter on June 22, 1962, against the
Houston Colt .45s (who joined the National League, along with the Mets, during the 1962 season), the first in Mets' history. The lone hit was by
Joey Amalfitano in the first inning. After his playing days, Jackson fashioned a two-decades-plus-long career as a
coach, serving as a pitching mentor at the big-league level with the
Boston Red Sox (1977–79) under former Met teammate
Don Zimmer and the
Baltimore Orioles (1989–91) under
Frank Robinson and
Johnny Oates. However, he spent most of his tenure as a minor league instructor with the Mets, and was a member of
Bobby Valentine's MLB staff in 1999–2000. ==Personal life==