Core Jackson claimed he was blackout drunk during the incident.
A month after the 2025 MLB Draft, the New York Yankees are defending their selection of a player who drew a swastika on the door of a Jewish student's dorm room during his freshman year at Nebraska.
Core Jackson, a shortstop the Yankees took in the fifth round, was 17 years old when, as he recalls, got blackout drunk and drew the swastika in October 2021, as he told The Athletic. He claims he didn't remember the incident, didn't know who lived in the dorm room and "broke down in tears" when someone told him what he did the next day.
Jackson, who later transferred to Utah, reportedly called the incident a "really stupid mistake" and said he "felt like the worst person in the world." He claims he attempted to apologize to the student but was told by campus police not to contact them. He was not arrested and reportedly faced no repercussions as far as his baseball career was concerned, only undergoing an online sensitivity training class and performing community service.
Notably, all of this is only Jackson's recollection, as Nebraska reportedly declined to comment on the situation beyond saying it “takes discrimination and similar allegations very seriously and has policies and procedures in place to rapidly respond to student concerns.”
There was also reportedly an arrest for driving under the influence on Utah's campus last September, which was later reduced to a misdemeanor impaired driving and resulted in a sentence of community service, substance abuse training and fines. Jackson reportedly hasn't touched alcohol since that incident.
The Yankees were reportedly aware of all this when they drafted Jackson, who told all 30 teams about the incident at the prompting of his agent.
Yankees amateur scouting director Damon Oppenheimer reportedly said the team did more "due diligence" on Jackson than any other player in his 23 years on the job and cleared the selection with controlling owner Hal Steinbrenner. Team president Randy Levine, who is Jewish, also supported the decision, as did multiple high-ranking Jewish members of the club. The team, however, reportedly did not speak to anyone with Nebraska.
From The Athletic:
The Yankees were “looking to find the good in this,” Oppenheimer said.
“He’s shown his accountability here,” Oppenheimer said. “I think his actions have shown his remorse. He’s acknowledged it. I think he’s taken the right steps to continue to learn, to understand what he’s done.”
Jackson reportedly didn't tell his agent Blake Corosky about the incident as he entered the draft process in 2024. Corosky reportedly only learned of it after Jackson told a Boston Red Sox scout in his first interview, which led to Corosky considering dropping him.
Corosky reportedly consulted with Elliot Steinmetz, the head men’s basketball coach at Yeshiva University and the father of one of his clients, on what to do. That led to Steinmetz calling Jackson, who apparently didn't understand the history of the swastika, via The Athletic:
“Right away,” he said, “you could tell (Jackson) was the nicest, sweetest kid in the world, (but) dumb as rocks when it came to these kinds of issues.”
According to Steinmetz, Jackson hadn’t seemed to fully grasp the dark history behind the swastika — 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.
In addition to telling every MLB team what he did, Corosky reportedly pushed for Jackson to undergo a five-week course with Ann Squicciarini, a Yeshiva graduate student. Squicciarini said Jackson was "attentive and engaged" during their hour-long weekly meetings.
Jackson ended up going unselected in the 2024 MLB Draft, then was picked 164th overall in this year's draft. He received a bonus of $147,500, well below the pick's $411,1000 slot value. He was a career .363/.455/.577 hitter at Utah and was named first-team all-conference in both of his years at the school.
Oppenheimer believes the swastika incident affected his draft status:
“I think that his tool set, his athleticism, his performance was definitely something that would have gone a lot higher in the draft,” the scouting director added.
He is currently ranked as the Yankees' No. 18 prospect by MLB Pipeline and entered Wednesday hitting .188/.316/.344 for High-A Hudson Valley. If he reaches the majors with the Yankees, he will be playing for the team representing the city with the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel.
Category: General Sports
