"Hitting is better than sex"
About this Quote
Reggie Jackson’s line isn’t really locker-room bravado so much as a translation of elite performance into the only metaphor big enough to carry it. “Hitting” here isn’t casual batting practice; it’s the most difficult act in mainstream American sports, a split-second negotiation with failure where even the best are expected to lose most of the time. By comparing it to sex, Jackson borrows a culturally loaded yardstick for pleasure and intensity, then flips it to assert a different kind of high: the rush of control, timing, and public validation when everything finally clicks.
The intent is part mythmaking, part confession. Jackson played in an era when sports stardom was becoming mass-media theater, and he was one of its sharpest actors. The quote feeds the Reggie persona: swaggering, hyper-competitive, built for big moments. But the subtext is more interesting than the chest-thump. Sex is private, reciprocal, and unpredictable; hitting is public, solitary, and judged instantly. The comparison reveals what fame can do to a person’s reward system: the crowd’s roar, the scoreboard’s certainty, the adrenaline spike of doing the hardest thing under maximum scrutiny. That’s not tenderness; it’s dominance and relief.
There’s also a bleak little truth tucked inside the joke. If hitting really outranks sex, it suggests a life organized around outcomes, where pleasure is inseparable from winning. It’s funny because it’s excessive, and it lands because it’s plausible for someone whose identity was forged in a batter’s box.
The intent is part mythmaking, part confession. Jackson played in an era when sports stardom was becoming mass-media theater, and he was one of its sharpest actors. The quote feeds the Reggie persona: swaggering, hyper-competitive, built for big moments. But the subtext is more interesting than the chest-thump. Sex is private, reciprocal, and unpredictable; hitting is public, solitary, and judged instantly. The comparison reveals what fame can do to a person’s reward system: the crowd’s roar, the scoreboard’s certainty, the adrenaline spike of doing the hardest thing under maximum scrutiny. That’s not tenderness; it’s dominance and relief.
There’s also a bleak little truth tucked inside the joke. If hitting really outranks sex, it suggests a life organized around outcomes, where pleasure is inseparable from winning. It’s funny because it’s excessive, and it lands because it’s plausible for someone whose identity was forged in a batter’s box.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Jackson, Reggie. (2026, January 17). Hitting is better than sex. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/hitting-is-better-than-sex-73295/
Chicago Style
Jackson, Reggie. "Hitting is better than sex." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/hitting-is-better-than-sex-73295/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Hitting is better than sex." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/hitting-is-better-than-sex-73295/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.
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