What baseball team did michael jordan play for ? On Oct. 6, 1993, Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan shocked the world when he retired from basketball to pursue his childhood dream of playing baseball. Considering the Bulls were coming off a three-peat, winning three NBA titles from 1991-93, the move was extremely risky.
Jordan later explained his decision, saying he did it for his father, who was a Major League Baseball fan and was murdered three months earlier. Jordan also mentioned that he needed a break from the NBA.
Jordan first signed a Minor League Baseball contract with the Chicago White Sox on Feb 7, 1994. The owner of the White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf, is also the owner of the Bulls, easing Jordan’s route into baseball.
However, Jordan wasn’t very confident about his ability to make the team given his lack of experience.
Jordan later played 127 games for the Birmingham Barons, a Double-A minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. Jordan struggled as a baseball player as he struck out 114 times in 497 plate appearances for the Barons. That’s a 22.9% rate, compared to the Southern League average of 16.4% that year.
Did Michael Jordan have any shot at making the MLB?
Michael Jordan reportedly received an offer to join the Oakland Athletics during his time as a baseball player. During an appearance on the “Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney” podcast, former Athletics executive Sandy Alderson spoke about how he made Jordan an offer. However, the offer appeared to be more of a publicity stunt.
The real story of MJ’s baseball career
The catcher called for a slider. Kevin Rychel shook him off.
Rychel still asks himself, all these years later, why he did this. He rarely shook off the catcher back then, in the midst of a seven-year Minor League career in the Pirates’ organization. But on this muggy July night in Birmingham, Ala., in a Double-A ballgame that would remain memorable only for this moment, Rychel’s mind was in a haze, his shoulder was already ailing with what would turn out to be a torn labrum and his faith in his fastball was, only in retrospect, overly ambitious.
And so he left it over the middle for the lanky outfielder with the Mendoza-level batting average, and the bat connected with the weight of its 33 ounces and the anticipation of the thousands of eyes upon it. The ball sailed over the left-field fence, the crowd erupted and Rychel hung his head.
Back in the visiting clubhouse, now pulled from the game, Rychel faced the same question from the manager of his Carolina Mudcats squad. Bob Meacham had been ejected from the game, and so the roar of the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium audience was his only clue to what had just transpired. Rychel wasn’t prone to giving up the long ball. In fact, he allowed them at an entirely reasonable rate of 0.5 per nine innings in the course of his career. So Meacham never would have suspected that Rychel would be the one on the wrong end of this meaningful moment, that his image would be the one plastered on “SportsCenter,” that his hotel phone would be the one ringing off the hook the next day.
What Teams Did MJ Play for in Baseball?
Before we delve deeper into Michael Jordan’s career in baseball, let’s first talk about how and why he found himself in this sport, amongst all others. Granted, it’s not every day that we hear of legends switching sports in the midst of buzz and fame during a stage of his career, but MJ shocked the world with this move.
In 1993, just when MJ’s NBA Team Club Chicago Bulls won three consecutive and astonishing championships under their belt, he decided to retire from basketball. This sudden move undoubtedly shocked everyone, players and fans alike.
There were two main reasons for his retirement during that time which were: he didn’t have the desire to continue playing basketball, and his father had died months prior.
His father’s untimely passaway urged him to step away from the limelight, and mourn peacefully — away from the public.
This was a rather easy decision for him to make because he had experience playing baseball when he was in high school and it was the sport that his father wanted him to take on. This adds to the fact Michael Jordan’s father was a huge fan of the sport, in fact, a semi-pro in baseball himself. To MJ, playing baseball was a way to honor his dad.
On the 7th of February, 1994, Jordan marked a new era in his life when he signed his first contract with the Chicago White Sox organization, to play for Minor League Baseball. This transition was relatively smooth for him because White Sox’s owner was also the Chicago Bulls’ (his club team in the NBA) owner during that time.
While he signed a contract to play for the White Sox organization, he actually specifically played for the Birmingham Barons, which was a Minor League Affiliate of the Chicago White Sox Organization. This is considered to be one of Michael Jordan’s baseball teams, aside from the team he was on in high school.
For How Long Was Michael Jordan on a Professional Baseball Team?
It can be remembered that after he retired from basketball on October 6, 1993, he pursued a childhood sport months after — which was baseball. Michael Jordan’s stay in baseball was short-lived as he only stayed with the Birmingham Barons for roughly a year.
After his stint in baseball, he announced in March 1995 that via the much-remembered Michael Jordan two-liner, “I’m back”. And before everyone knew it, the legend was back in basketball, with support from players, coaches, and even spectators overflowing.
During the Major League Baseball strike, he was concerned that he may be used as a substitute player. This event triggered the end of his brief affair with baseball.
After Michael Jordan announced to the world that he was back, he then proceeded to help his NBA Team, the Chicago White Sox, to another great outing despite his months of absence from the group.
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