In retrospect, nearly two decades after he quit the Red Sox, Jackie reflected in the Boston Globe (January 25, 1980) on his decision to leave professional baseball for good:

I was convinced the plane was going to crash. Every time I went up. A stewardess would explain everything to me, all the noises I was going to hear, all the movements the plane would make, take me all the way into the air. Then everyone else would fall asleep and I'd just stare out the window at the engine, as if [if] I took my eyes off it something was going to happen. We'd get wherever we were going and everybody else would be thinking about the pitchers we were going to face, the games we were going to play. I would be thinking about how many days it would be until we had to fly again. It was awful. Just an awful time. I had to quit, had to get away from it.

Five years after the Globe article was printed, Zoe Ann also reflected on Jackie's decision to quit the Red Sox: "He had another six or seven years minimum of good ball left. He had made no plans for the future, which was later proven. The flying was a deciding factor. The club would have arranged to have me fly with him the whole season, but this plan was unrealistic to me. The priorities of '3 children,' of 'home,' came first."

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