- Michael Jordan: everything that is known about his father's death
- Michael Jordan: The Shadows of His Career
Michael Jordan exiting a spaceship in the middle of a ballpark while ' I believe I can fly ' sounds . ' Space Jam ' can take credit for having recovered Jordan for the basketball cause before the NBA itself , but it was not entirely so.
The '23' shot the film in the summer of 1995 , in full preparation for his full return to the best basketball league in the world. But he had already decided to return to the competition a few months earlier, in March. I mean, he had already left behind his dream of playing baseball. As ' The Last Dance ', the ESPN and Netflix documentary about his career, tells , his Bulls fell in the Playoffs of 94-95 against the Orlando Magic, something that starved a Jordan who spent that summer filming the famous movie and training with the best players in the world at the end of every work day.
But what would have happened to Jordan with the bat? How far could it have gone? Michael had the opportunity to sign with the Chicago White Sox, whose owner was the same as that of the Chicago Bulls, Jerry Reinsdorf , who kept the salary stipulated by his basketball contract: three million euros. To begin his training in the sport he had practiced until he was 17, the team's owners assigned him to the Double-A minor league affiliate team , the Birmingham Barons .
There, Jordan suffered. And this is reflected in 'The Last Dance'. Despite a good series of matches in which he linked good performances, he began to have problems and 'Sports Illustrated', a reference publication, 'gave him' a cover with the title " Leave it, Michael. Jordan, a shame ". "I felt insulted. They did not understand my passion at that time and I am not going to do what they want," Jordan summarizes in one chapter of the documentary. That "passion" of which he speaks has a faithful reflection in his father, who died in the summer of '93, whose dream was also that little Mike dedicated himself professionally to baseball. "After my last game with the Bulls, we were both in the gym, and I said I wanted to try baseball. 'Do it.' He didn't say anything else."
Fulfill his father's dream, escape from the press and NBA fame, pass the time until he fulfilled that alleged secret sanction of David Stern for his gambling problems ... Sign the theory that you like the most, but Jordan he didn't do so badly with the bat .
"Don't just look at his batting stats. Look at his 51 runs, his 30 stolen bases. He could fly. He hadn't played since high school and was defending himself in a league like Double-A , which is full of promising youngsters. Two seasons more and he would have been part of the White Sox first team and could even have started. " This was summed up by Mike Barnett , the Barons' hitting coach when Jordan was present, currently with an extensive resume in the big leagues. In that same 'ESPN' report, Curt Bloom, a member of the Barons for decades, speaks. " Not a day goes by that I don't think about that season . I spent 150 days with Michael. I saw him have a hard time for a few months, but I also saw how well he did afterward. He was going to the big leagues, I swear." .
When Jordan, who had turned 31, was beginning to have some regularity in the league, the players' union called a strike that completely stopped the season and fueled his desire to return to the NBA. In his biography published in 2005, the former player acknowledged that if the strike had not happened, he would not have returned to basketball. "I was having fun. I had a chance to demonstrate something and I was getting better ."
"Michael was telling me baseball was his first love, " historic baseball player Kenny Lofton , a former University of Arizona basketball team player and Jordan's partner during his first preseason training , tells 'The Undefeated' . The stadium was falling, just as it would later in Birmingham. It was a mass phenomenon. "I was thinking, to see how this guy does to change his mind, to go in a private jet to travel on the minor league buses." And playing with classmates who earned $ 850 a month and those who gave them $ 16 for travel meals.
In 127 minor league games , Jordan averaged .202 in batting, 51 runs, 88 strokes and three home runs. "He didn't have impressive numbers, but the guy hadn't played baseball in thirteen years and went to Double-A," said Jim Callis, a journalist at MLB.com. "He seemed to have reasonable talent given the context." And he admits: "Without a strike, I think we would have seen him in the big leagues."
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