Chicago Bulls: Could Michael Jordan have played in MLB?
The Chicago Bulls lost Michael Jordan for a year and a half because he went and played baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization.
The Chicago Bulls were so dominant in the 1990s. They were so good that they won six titles in eight years as is well known by the sports world. It was one of the most dominant stretches in the history of team sports that saw them have two three-peats. Well, in between those two three-peats, the Chicago White Sox had the honor of having Michael Jordan play in their organization.
He retired from the National Basketball Association after the first three-peat. It was just following the passing of his father. He claimed at the time that he had just had enough and needed to retire. The plan at the time was for him to not come back. Well, it was baseball time for Michael as he moved on.
He played for the White Sox during the 1994 Spring Training. He was invited to as a non-roster player to Spring Training in February. He practiced with Herm Schneider, a White Sox trainer, in December of 93. He played some exhibition games with the White Sox before being sent down to the minors. He probably would have been in AAA but they couldn’t handle the media there so he went to the Birmingham Barons of AA instead.
He had Terry Francona as his MiLB manager which is really cool to know. Francona is one of the best coaches in all of baseball today so to see him in the White Sox organization coaching Michael Jordan was really something special.
Jordan had himself a 13-game hitting streak with the Barons which is incredibly impressive. He played in 127 games and had 436 at-bats, a .202 batting average, 88 hits, three home runs, 46 runs scored, 51 RBIs, and 30 stolen bases. It was certainly a nice little year for the basketball superstar turned baseball player.
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Francona had some nice things to say about Jordan’s game. He believed that he would have found a way to the MLB if he reached 1500 at-bats in the MiLB. So could he actually have? The answer is probably yes. He went back to the NBA instead while the White Sox had to cancel the 1994 season thanks to the player strike. They were an elite team during those years so they didn’t have all that much space, but you have to assume Jordan would have been given a shot in the MLB.