It’s worth remembering what MJ did for baseball, writes Tom Verducci. One of the most famous persons on the planet chose baseball—minor league baseball
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00:00What sort of a player was Michael Jordan in baseball?
00:07Well, he was on his way to the major leagues, and that may surprise you given the fact that
00:11Jordan hit only .202 in 1994 for the AA Birmingham Barons.
00:18But Jordan was 31 years old and he had not played baseball since high school.
00:23Jordan was getting better as the year went on.
00:26He hit .276 in August, and after the season he went to play in the Arizona Fall League
00:32where teams send many of their top prospects, and Jordan hit .252.
00:37During the season in Birmingham, Jordan showed a knack for driving in runs, understanding
00:42the strike zone, and stealing bases.
00:45All good barometers of future success.
00:48Jordan had 51 RBIs, 51 walks, and 30 steals.
00:53How impressive is that combination?
00:56Go back over the last four years in the entire Chicago White Sox organization, that includes
01:02majors and minors, and that includes more than 1,200 player years.
01:08How many of those seasons included at least 51 RBIs, 51 walks, and 30 steals?
01:15Exactly zero.
01:17Last year in the major leagues, only three players reached those milestones.
01:23Those were Jonathan Villar, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Christian Yelich.
01:29Now I asked Terry Francona if he thought that Jordan was on his way to being a major leaguer.
01:35Francona is now the Indians manager, and at the time was the manager for Jordan at Birmingham.
01:41And Francona said yes.
01:43He said, I thought it would take three years for Jordan to get the 1,500 at-bats he needed
01:48to be a major leaguer.
01:50Now Jordan could have gone directly to the major leagues.
01:54At the time, Sandy Alderson was the general manager of the Oakland A's, and he offered
01:59Jordan a major league contract.
02:02He'd be on the opening day roster as part of the 25-man team.
02:08Jordan wasn't interested.
02:09He wanted to play for the White Sox, but he also wanted to earn his major league spot,
02:15not be handed one.
02:17So Michael Jordan went about trying to become a major leaguer the way all minor leaguers
02:23do, unglamorously, by grinding at the game, by making adjustments, by learning from mistakes,
02:32by gaining the wisdom of failure, and from 10-hour bus rides.
02:38Michael Jordan was on his way.