Michael Jordan Signed With The White Sox 22 Years Ago Today
Wanted to give a quick shout out to the GOAT here.
There are a lot of theories on why MJ quit basketball in the prime of his career and in the midst of a dynasty, namely rumors that he was forced out of the league for gambling issues. This happened when I was really young, and I hardly remember him playing in the Sox system at all, but until I see concrete evidence, then all of those rumors are just hearsay, in my opinion.
Michael Jordan’s stat line in his one year playing for Terry Francona and the Sox AA affiliate is what proves to me that he is the greatest athlete of all time. I don’t know hockey for dick, but the only athlete you might be able to compare to MJ is Wayne Gretzky.
Here’s MJ’s stat line in 1994:
– .202/.289
– 3 HRs
– 51 RBIs
– 30 SBs
– 114 strike outs in 124 games
Of course these numbers are far from good, but the fact that he stepped into a batters box for the first time since HIGH SCHOOL against professional pitching and hit .202/.289 is nothing short of incredible. Jared Mitchell could hardly do that for the White Sox as a first round pick. There’s not another athlete on the planet at this moment — not Lebron, Kobe, Cam Newton, nobody — who could step into AA baseball and hit as well as MJ did. They’d probably put up stat lines similar to Shaq Thompson.
Everyone knows MJ was/is the ultra competitor. There might not be an athlete in history as competitive as him. His baseball career was documented in the 30 for 30 “Jordan Rides the Bus”, and it did a great job detailing his competitiveness and appetite to succeed. First one taking hacks off the tee in the morning, last shagging fly balls at night. Shit like that is what made him the greatest athlete of all time, bar none.