March 10, 1995: Michael Jordan quits baseball – Chicago Tribune
This article was published in the March 11, 1995 edition of the Chicago Tribune.
One piece of the Michael Jordan puzzle was put into place Friday when he announced he was abandoning his quest of playing major-league baseball.
But for Chicagoans anxiously awaiting the insertion of the final puzzle piece-the sight of Jordan wearing his old No. 23 for the Bulls again-the wait will go on.
Unlike his famous goodbye kiss to the Chicago Stadium, Jordan said farewell to baseball without getting down on his knees and kissing home plate.
He simply released a statement saying he was quitting because he couldn’t develop at the rate he wanted due to complications caused by the baseball strike.
“As a result, after considerable thought and with sadness and disappointment, I have decided to end my career,” Jordan said.
While Jordan publicly blamed no one for his decision to retire after only one season of minor-league ball, White Sox General Manager Ron Schueler again found a familiar scapegoat in players union chief Donald Fehr.
“Don Fehr struck again,” Schueler said.
Fehr’s directive, which said that minor-leaguers who played in paid exhibition games would be considered strikebreakers, put Jordan in a no-win situation just after camp opened in mid-February. He could have defied the union and risked being labeled a strikebreaker, or slowed down his development by refusing to play in the exhibitions. Jordan chose the latter, after getting pressure from the White Sox to play.
Jordan hit .202 at Double-A Birmingham in his only season, and was slated for a spot at Triple-A Nashville this April. Would Jordan have earned a trip to the majors?
Sox coach Joe Nossek said Jordan showed “unbelievable progress” from last year to this year’s spring training.
“Knowing him and his work ethic, I would have never counted him out from playing in the big leagues, I’ll tell you that,” Nossek said.
Schueler said Jordan likely would have been called up in September if he progressed at the same rate this season as in ’94.
Nashville Sounds owner Larry Schmittou won’t be able to cash in on Jordan’s presence as the Birmingham Barons did last year, but he said he wasn’t disappointed byJordan’s decision.
“As far as replacing the talent, it’s not that hard,” Schmittou said. “As far as replacing the marketability, you don’t think about it.”
Jordan may not have left a mark on the baseball diamond, but he left an impression on many of the players he met during his baseball sojourn, from his Birmingham buddies to the replacement players who were on hand for the final chapter in Sarasota.
“I miss him already, and I got a chance to know him just a little bit,” said Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd. “He’s a kind of guy like me-he’ll talk to you as long as you get to know him, and it doesn’t take long to get to know him.”
Birmingham outfielder Kerry Valrie, one of Jordan’s closest friends on the team, said it was a shame Jordan couldn’t finish what he had started.
“He’d done a lot of things positive last year and was doing a lot more things positive this year,” Valrie said. “I just wish he could continue to play baseball and get better and finally fulfill one of his goals in life. But things happen. Things change, and he made the decision that he thought was best for himself.”
In Jordan’s statement, he said the labor dispute “has made it increasingly difficult to continue my development at a rate that meets my standards.” He never spoke to Schueler after stalking off the practice field on March 2 and leaving camp for good.
“At that time, he was upset, and probably hadn’t thought things through,” Schueler said. “And it was his first reaction after me asking all those guys to be out of the locker room. If anything, he was hurting and said: `I’m going home.'”
Valrie, who opted to play and is the Sox’s top hitter in exhibition games, said all of the players are feeling pressure.
“But being Michael Jordan, there was probably a little more pressure on him than the rest of us guys.”
Pearson said Jordan “told us the night before he was going to do it.”
A few days after Jordan left camp, minor-league catcher Joe Durso wondered aloud what he’d do next.
“I really wish he’d go back to the NBA,” Durso said. “It’d be great to see him go teach a lesson to all those Generation X punks in the league.”
About Us
Free Shipping
If your order is $35 or more, you may qualify for free shipping. With free shipping, your order will be delivered 5-8 business days.
