Viking_Yearbook_95

Courtesy ofAssociated Press Michael Jordan, Outfielder C ould the world's greatest basketball player make it on the diamond? That was the question in 1994 when Michael Jordan, in his first year of retirement from the Chicago Bulls, signed a contract to play minor league baseball for the Chicago White Sox. By the time the season ended, it was clear that the 31-year-old rookie outfielder still had a long way to go before he'd be ready for the big leagues. Jordan was hitless in his last four at-bats, striking out twice to finish the season with a .202 batting average for the Double-A Birmingham Barons. Why had he taken up something so hard so late in life? When he signed in February, Jordan said that he wanted a new challenge and that his father, who was killed the previous year, always wanted him to play baseball. Reporters who waited to talk to Jordan after his last game were disappointed. While the other Barons boarded the team bus— the one Jordan had bought them— he slipped out the other door and drove away in his Mercedes. Courtesy ofAssociated Press 31