MJ Hustle 25 Years Later

8 years ago on these humble pages I pointed out that Michael Jordan's baseball career wasn't the joke people tried to say it was:

I never understood everyone's beef with Michael Jordan trying to play baseball. I thought it was pretty awesome that someone considered to be the greatest ever in his field of choice decided to try a completely different field, and with the entire world watching. And of all sports to pick, he picked the one that least depends on pure athleticism, you can't run or jump to first base without hitting the ball, and nothing in sports can be as humiliating as trying to hit a baseball. Sure he was probably gonna fail, but 99% of minor leaguers fail. And of course the purists squealed that he was taking the spot of some noble baseball player who had scrapped away his whole life, but camon. There's a zillion minor league teams; if you're that good they'll find you. And hell, looking at his stats now, I'm pretty shocked he did as well as he did (for a AA team, to boot.)

FINALLY, the rest of the universe has caught up with me:

Nowadays, sports fans look upon his foray into baseball as a whim, and when they look up his numbers and see that he batted .202, they conclude that his baseball career was a bust. Just like that opening night crowd in '94, they walk away from the memory mildly disappointed.

They could not be more wrong.

Don't look at his batting average. Look at his 51 RBIs -- he was never overwhelmed by the moment. He could fly -- look at the 30 stolen bases. He hadn't played since high school, and he was holding his own in Double-A, which is filled with prospects. By August, those routine fly balls in BP were starting to go out. I'm not sure I've ever seen something as beautiful on a baseball field as the time Michael Jordan hit the ball into the gap and raced around to third for a triple. Two more seasons, he would've been a legitimate extra outfielder for the White Sox, maybe even a starter.

Fantastic must-read.