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Rookie: When Michael Jordan Came To The Minor Leagues
Chronicling the career of the famous former basketball star who chose to enter minor league baseball, an examination of Michael Jordan's current efforts describes his successful endorsements, the response of his teammates, and the reasons behind his decision.
- GenresBaseballNonfiction
220 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1995
13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 16, 2019
Growing up in the Chicago area I was spoiled as a fan watching Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls stampede to six championships in eight years during the 1990s. The Bulls rivaled the Beatles at the height of their dynasty and could have perhaps won eight titles in a row if only Michael Jordan did not take a year and a half off to play baseball. The story at this point is stuff of legend. In the summer of 1993 after the Bulls won their third straight title, Jordan’s father James was murdered on a country road in North Carolina. The teenaged criminals had no idea who their victim was and claim that had they known that he was the father of the most famous athlete on the planet, they would have left him alone. Jordan, already entrenched in a stardom that voided him of privacy, did not speak out but was left devastated and chose to grieve by walking away from the game of basketball that had made him who he was. As a kid growing up in Wilmington, North Carolina, James Jordan had encouraged his son to play baseball. To cope with his grieving and to fulfill his father’s dream for him, Michael Jordan decided that for the 1994 season he would become a baseball player.
“A baseball player? He looks like a basketball player to me,” says the line from Space Jam, where the Director of Moron Mountain accuses his Monstars of not robbing the talent of Jordan because he is a baseball player. Jim Patton decided to chronicle Jordan’s season with the Double A Birmingham Barons, a farm team of the Chicago White Sox, who are conveniently owned by Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Reinsdorf has mentioned many times over the years that baseball is his real passion so he signed off on the Jordan experiment. On paper, reading about Jordan’s season in the minors would make an excellent premise for a book. The one problem with this project is that Jordan’s agent David Falk, his gate keeper for anything that could earn Jordan cash, did not sign off on the project. Patton already had gotten a contract from a publisher and took time off from his job to research the book; however, his project was labeled unauthorized. Patton had to stay with relatives at each stop in the Southern League and often pay his way into the ball park; access to Jordan was off limits. Not one to quit, Patton decided to go ahead with his project anyway because he felt that Jordan bringing his circus to a minor leagues normally devoid of glitz and glamor would make a unique premise for a book.
Rookie would have been better if the Birmingham Barons and David Falk had granted Patton access to Jordan and the locker room. As a result, this book has no photograph spread and all the opinions are Patton’s own. Any quotations with team employees or ballplayers for the most part Patton heard when they were being interviewed by an authorized television station or reporter. Yet, Patton traveled throughout the Southern League in the summer of 1994. He saw Jordan change from an experiment to an actual ball player. Rather than lunging at every ball thrown at him, by the end of the year he took pitches and was starting to find his stride as a ball player. Yet, at age thirty one, time was against him, and Jordan most undoubtedly realized this. The biggest story in sports that summer would have been a non-story if it was any other minor leaguer batting .200; yet, Jordan was one of the most famous people on the planet. His .200 average and 30 errors along with the luxury bus worth $350,000 that he did or did not purchase for the team merited some press. With the major leagues going on strike in August of 1994, baseball fans craved the game in any way they could get it, and Michael Jordan was it for better or worse.
Being unauthorized, the majority of Patton’s book was based on speculation and fell short. It was fun seeing Jordan humanized by not hitting the curve, yet I choose to remember one day when he went 4 for 5 for the White Sox against the Cubs in their annual Windy City Classic, played each year before the introduction of interleague play. Cubs pitchers grooved Jordan fastballs and he responded for the crowd. It was his best day in a baseball uniform. By 1995 with the strike ended, Jordan’s time playing baseball came to an end, and he would lead the Bulls to three additional titles in 1996-1998. One member of the Birmingham Barons would go on to enjoy a lengthy major league career: their manager Terry Francona, who Jordan lauded as quality baseball leader and would manage the Phillies, Red Sox, and is still at the helm of the Indians. With no nitty gritty on Jordan in this unauthorized book, it is best to remember him for his exploits on the basketball court rather than his dismal baseball career.
2.5 stars
“A baseball player? He looks like a basketball player to me,” says the line from Space Jam, where the Director of Moron Mountain accuses his Monstars of not robbing the talent of Jordan because he is a baseball player. Jim Patton decided to chronicle Jordan’s season with the Double A Birmingham Barons, a farm team of the Chicago White Sox, who are conveniently owned by Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Reinsdorf has mentioned many times over the years that baseball is his real passion so he signed off on the Jordan experiment. On paper, reading about Jordan’s season in the minors would make an excellent premise for a book. The one problem with this project is that Jordan’s agent David Falk, his gate keeper for anything that could earn Jordan cash, did not sign off on the project. Patton already had gotten a contract from a publisher and took time off from his job to research the book; however, his project was labeled unauthorized. Patton had to stay with relatives at each stop in the Southern League and often pay his way into the ball park; access to Jordan was off limits. Not one to quit, Patton decided to go ahead with his project anyway because he felt that Jordan bringing his circus to a minor leagues normally devoid of glitz and glamor would make a unique premise for a book.
Rookie would have been better if the Birmingham Barons and David Falk had granted Patton access to Jordan and the locker room. As a result, this book has no photograph spread and all the opinions are Patton’s own. Any quotations with team employees or ballplayers for the most part Patton heard when they were being interviewed by an authorized television station or reporter. Yet, Patton traveled throughout the Southern League in the summer of 1994. He saw Jordan change from an experiment to an actual ball player. Rather than lunging at every ball thrown at him, by the end of the year he took pitches and was starting to find his stride as a ball player. Yet, at age thirty one, time was against him, and Jordan most undoubtedly realized this. The biggest story in sports that summer would have been a non-story if it was any other minor leaguer batting .200; yet, Jordan was one of the most famous people on the planet. His .200 average and 30 errors along with the luxury bus worth $350,000 that he did or did not purchase for the team merited some press. With the major leagues going on strike in August of 1994, baseball fans craved the game in any way they could get it, and Michael Jordan was it for better or worse.
Being unauthorized, the majority of Patton’s book was based on speculation and fell short. It was fun seeing Jordan humanized by not hitting the curve, yet I choose to remember one day when he went 4 for 5 for the White Sox against the Cubs in their annual Windy City Classic, played each year before the introduction of interleague play. Cubs pitchers grooved Jordan fastballs and he responded for the crowd. It was his best day in a baseball uniform. By 1995 with the strike ended, Jordan’s time playing baseball came to an end, and he would lead the Bulls to three additional titles in 1996-1998. One member of the Birmingham Barons would go on to enjoy a lengthy major league career: their manager Terry Francona, who Jordan lauded as quality baseball leader and would manage the Phillies, Red Sox, and is still at the helm of the Indians. With no nitty gritty on Jordan in this unauthorized book, it is best to remember him for his exploits on the basketball court rather than his dismal baseball career.
2.5 stars
March 20, 2020
This isn’t a book about Michael Jordan’s brief time as a minor league baseball player, as much as it is a book about trying to cover MJ’s MILB experience. There are some interesting details about the mania surrounding Jordan and some recognizable baseball names are interspersed throughout, but overall it’s there’s just not enough action to make it a very interesting read
December 31, 2024
This book has very little to do with Michael Jordan's season in the minors, and a lot to do with the authors bitterness that he couldn't have an all-access pass to one of the greatest athletes of all time because he was writing an unauthorized book. The author also didn't like the fact that MJ got credit for buying the team a tour bus. A lot of author opinion and hearsay.
January 4, 2019
Interesting information, but the author comes across as jaded because Jordan doesn't talk to him.
June 4, 2020
It’s a quick and easy read, but the title is misleading. It’s really an overly long sports illustrated article about one guys efforts to get access to Jordan and the minor league team.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews