Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Mike Krukow was shocked.
“When he said, ‘I want to play baseball,’ I went, ‘What?!’”
He also was skeptical.
The latest releases of ESPN’s “The Last Dance” chronicled Michael Jordan’s foray into baseball, the best basketball player on the planet leaving his sport to try to prove he could conquer baseball, too.
His 1994 season with the White Sox’s Double-A team was both underwhelming — a .202 batting average in 127 games — and wildly impressive — a person who hadn’t played the sport in years batted .202 against pitchers who were nearing the majors!
“He didn’t have the body for baseball,” Krukow said on KNBR’s “Murph & Mac” on Monday. “You look at him getting in the batter’s box, and he was tall, he had long arms. You’re pitching against a guy like that, you’re going to pound him in. He is not going to see anything out over the plate where he can hurt you.
“… To leave his sport to come over to baseball, he was obviously confident that he could do it. But I thought the challenge would be insurmountable just because of his body type.”
In the documentary, both White Sox/Bulls team owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Jordan’s Double-A manager, Terry Francona, said they believed he would be able to rise to the majors if he continued playing the sport. Krukow said Reinsdorf “was being nice to him.”
Another factor hurting the potential rise of Air Jordan was his hitting coach, Walt Hriniak, who had an “unorthdox” style, according to Krukow. The coach was known for trying to get players to hit to all fields.
“He just had too many things going against him. When you haven’t played baseball for years. … For him to go into it at the Double-A level, come on. You’re going to get chewed up,” Krukow said. “I respected him for going into the gauntlet, but the reality of it was that he had none chance.”