Michael Jordan’s basketball career is held in very high regard, but the same cannot be said about his brief baseball career. Jordan’s critics have labeled his stint with the Birmingham Barons in Minor League Baseball a failure, but the great Derek Jeter explained why he was a lot better at baseball than people think.
“A lot of people laugh, ‘Oh, Michael was this, Michael was that,'” Jeter said, via the New York Post. “Michael Jordan played basketball, I mean played baseball in Little League. And then the next time he played, he’s playing in Double-A baseball. Now, when you played in the minor leagues, you have rookie ball, you have low-A, you have high-A, you have double-A, you have triple-A. Then you get to the major leagues.
“Once you get to double-A, the biggest jump is from A to double-A,” Jeter continued. “If you can play in double-A baseball, you can play in the major leagues. At some point, you can play in the major leagues. He went from Little League to Double-A and hit .200, right? Which everyone’s like, ‘Oh, he hit .200.’ And that’s not easy to do. My first year… [I was] The High School Player of the Year.
“I went to rookie ball, I hit .202,” Jeter added, “.202. And had a great two weeks. I was hot the last two weeks to get just over .200, man. So it’s tough to do. And people just think you watch something on television and because you’re great at one sport, it should translate into another. Doesn’t happen like that. So Michael was a lot better than people give him credit for. And if he played longer, I think he would have just continued to improve.”
Jordan did play baseball at Emsley A. Laney High School. He quit two games into his senior year, though, and dedicated his time to basketball. It proved to be a great decision as he has gone down as arguably the greatest player of all time.
Jordan was at the peak of his powers in 1993, having just led the Chicago Bulls to a three-peat. He was on top of the basketball world, but then stunningly chose to retire on Oct. 6. Jordan’s father, James Jordan Sr., being murdered on July 23 was a factor, and he was also exhausted mentally and physically at that point.
Now, Jordan’s father had dreamed of his son playing in Major League Baseball, and so, he decided to give it a try. He signed a MiLB contract with the Chicago White Sox on Feb, 7, 1994, and reported to Spring Training. Jordan would eventually be assigned to the Barons, the White Sox’s Double-A affiliate.
In the 1994 season, Jordan played 127 games for the Barons, hitting .202 with three home runs, 51 RBIs, 30 stolen bases, 51 walks, and 114 strikeouts. That strikeout total led the team.
Jordan would fare better for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League, batting .252. That was that, though, for his baseball career. On March 18, 1995, Jordan announced he was coming out of retirement to play for the Bulls. He’d go on to lead them to another three-peat from 1996 to 1998 to solidify his status as the GOAT.
Years later, Jordan revealed he wouldn’t have returned to basketball if the 1994-95 MLB strike hadn’t taken place. He also added that he considers his stint with the Barons a success and said the media just focused on the stats.
Jordan believes he improved in the second half of the season, and Jeter reckons he might have made it to the MLB eventually if he kept at it. We’ll never know for sure, though.
It’s clear that Jeter has a lot of respect for Jordan, and the feeling is mutual. The latter was notably in attendance for the former’s Hall of Fame ceremony in 2021. Jordan has also expressed admiration for Jeter as a competitor and called him a champion.
