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<\/p>\nWhen the New York Yankees drafted University of Utah shortstop Core Jackson in the fifth round in July, they were aware that he had drawn a swastika on the dorm room door of a Jewish student in 2021, when he was a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Nebraska.<\/p>\n
Jackson voluntarily called teams to tell them about his actions before the 2024 draft. In a phone interview with The Athletic, Jackson said that he was \u201cblackout drunk\u201d when he drew the swastika, and that he had no recollection of the incident or why he did it. He said he knows that he made a \u201creally stupid mistake,\u201d and that he has learned and grown since that time and is no longer \u201cthe person he was when it all happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
The University of Nebraska declined to discuss any specifics of the incident, and the university police did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Yankees amateur scouting director Damon Oppenheimer said the team\u2019s decision followed the most thorough \u201cdue diligence\u201d look into a player in his 23 years on the job, and that it was cleared directly with owner Hal Steinbrenner. The draft pick came after multiple members of the organization had conversations with Jackson and those close to him, and after discussing the situation with multiple high-ranking Jewish members of the club, including team president Randy Levine, who supported the decision to draft Jackson. The club, however, did not speak with anyone at Nebraska about the incident, according to Oppenheimer.<\/p>\n
Jackson also was charged with driving under the influence on Utah\u2019s campus in September 2024. According to his agent, Blake Corosky of True Gravity Baseball, the charge was later reduced to impaired driving, a misdemeanor. Corosky said Jackson had performed community service, received substance abuse training and paid fines. Jackson said he hasn\u2019t \u201ctouched a drop of alcohol\u201d in the months since.<\/p>\n
Oppenheimer said he thought the swastika incident \u201caffected (Jackson\u2019s) draft status\u201d and was likely part of teams\u2019 calculus when he went undrafted in 2024. (Jackson transferred to a junior college for the 2023 season and played for Utah the past two seasons).<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that his tool set, his athleticism, his performance was definitely something that would have gone a lot higher in the draft,\u201d the scouting director added.<\/p>\n
The Yankees drafted Jackson at No. 164 overall this July, signing him to a bonus of $147,500, well under the pick\u2019s $411,1000 slot value.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important that it is part of my story,\u201d said Jackson, now 21. \u201cI have this platform now that God has given me, and I can share my story about his forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The greater New York area was home to about 1.4 million people who identified as Jewish as of 2023, according to a study by the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York, making it the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel.<\/p>\n
The Yankees were \u201clooking to find the good in this,\u201d Oppenheimer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s shown his accountability here,\u201d Oppenheimer said. \u201cI think his actions have shown his remorse. He\u2019s acknowledged it. I think he\u2019s taken the right steps to continue to learn, to understand what he\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson said he was so drunk the night he drew the swastika, in October 2021, that he blacked out and doesn\u2019t remember any of the incident. He claims that he didn\u2019t know who lived in the dorm room, and said that he \u201cbroke down in tears\u201d the next day when someone told him what he had done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like the worst person in the world,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t want there to be any excuses for my actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he wanted to apologize to the student, but that campus police told him to not contact them. He said the University of Nebraska fined him, had him undergo basic sensitivity training online and made him perform community service after the incident, but that there were \u201cno other repercussions.\u201d He was not arrested, and he played on the university\u2019s baseball team the following spring.<\/p>\n
A Nebraska spokesperson declined to comment on the situation, but said that it \u201ctakes discrimination and similar allegations very seriously and has policies and procedures in place to rapidly respond to student concerns.\u201d The Athletic was not able to identify or speak with the victim, or to independently verify Jackson\u2019s version of events. A Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the University of Nebraska asking for documents pertaining to the incident had not received a response at the time of publication.<\/p>\n
Jackson played for the Nebraska baseball team in 2022, hitting .210 in 44 games, but left the school that summer. He described his freshman year as \u201cbeing in a dark place,\u201d and said that he departed because he was not \u201cgrowing in my faith or getting better at baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jackson makes a throw while playing for Nebraska in 2022. (John S. Peterson \/ AP Photo)<\/p>\n
Jackson said he didn\u2019t have any Division I offers upon leaving Nebraska, so he played his sophomore year at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, hitting .321 with four homers, 33 RBIs and a .907 OPS.<\/p>\n
He was eligible for the draft in 2023 but wasn\u2019t selected, and then enrolled at the University of Utah, where in 2024 he hit .363 with four home runs, 41 RBIs and a .979 OPS as a junior. That spring, he began attracting the attention of MLB teams intrigued by his arm strength, right-handed power and athleticism.<\/p>\n
At the end of his first interview with a Boston Red Sox scout, Jackson was asked if there was anything else he wanted to talk about.<\/p>\n
Jackson told him about the swastika incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody found out about it (then),\u201d said Corosky, Jackson\u2019s agent. \u201cIncluding us.\u201d<\/p>\n
After hearing the story from Jackson, Corosky said he considered no longer advising the shortstop.<\/p>\n
Corosky also represented Jacob Steinmetz, an Arizona Diamondbacks pitching prospect and the first practicing Orthodox Jewish player ever drafted. As a courtesy, Corosky said that he called Jacob\u2019s father, Elliot, who is the head men\u2019s basketball coach at Yeshiva University, a Division III Orthodox Jewish school in New York City. He wanted Elliot to be aware of what had happened.<\/p>\n
Corosky told Elliot Steinmetz that Jackson appeared \u201cextremely remorseful,\u201d but also \u201cdoesn\u2019t (understand) exactly what he did.\u201d After Steinmetz\u2019s initial anger faded, he suggested that Corosky consider trying to educate Jackson about antisemitism.<\/p>\n
A few hours later, Steinmetz called Jackson.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight away,\u201d he said, \u201cyou could tell (Jackson) was the nicest, sweetest kid in the world, (but) dumb as rocks when it came to these kinds of issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Steinmetz, Jackson hadn\u2019t seemed to fully grasp the dark history behind the swastika \u2014 the symbol that represented the German Nazi Party in the 20th century and is still being used by neo-Nazis worldwide. Jackson told Steinmetz that his education on the symbol was limited. Jackson grew up in a Christian household in Wyoming, Ontario, a rural town about 30 minutes from the Michigan border, and told The Athletic that he had hardly encountered Jewish people or learned about Jewish history in school.<\/p>\n
Steinmetz had a point he wanted to impress upon Jackson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I walked into a hall and saw a swastika, I\u2019d be pissed off,\u201d Steinmetz said. \u201cMy grandparents would be freaked out and terrified by it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corosky ultimately told Jackson he would continue advising him, but under two conditions.<\/p>\n
First, Jackson would have to call a representative from each of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball and describe what he did. He told Jackson \u201cnot to pull any punches\u201d no matter how difficult it was to talk about.<\/p>\n
Second, Jackson would have to work with Steinmetz on \u201csome intense, gut-wrenching understanding of why what he did was so hurtful and awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously,\u201d he said of calling teams to inform them, \u201cit wasn\u2019t easy, but it was part of growing up and understanding to take ownership of my actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most scouts told Jackson they appreciated his candidness.<\/p>\n
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