BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- It is playoff time in the NBA, where Michael Jordan once ruled both earth and sky, but that seems a world away as he lopes across the outfield at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Is this a second chance or a second childhood? The Birmingham Barons don't really care. Air Jordan has inflated home attendance and pumped up interest in the Double-A Southern League as he pursues his unlikely quest to reach the major leagues.
Everybody likes Mike, though it is unclear whether they have come for a sideshow or a serious assault on the seemingly impossible. He is certainly a curiosity -- a 31-year-old rookie who could buy the team with his pocket change -- but there no longer seems to be any doubt that he is in earnest.
Not when he is the first to arrive at the ballpark, five hours beforegame time for a one-on-one coaching session. Not when he is willing to spend 12 hours on a bus with his youthful teammates. This has become as much a test of character as of his long-dormant baseball skills.
"There are different ways to look at it," Jordan said. "This is the game I started out to play, and this is the game I'm going to end my career with. I started out in a humbling situation, and this is a humbling situation. I'm not afraid to show that humble side. I'm not afraid to fail. Maybe people can learn something from that."
Maybe Jordan can learn the nuances of a complex game before he is too old to play it in the major leagues. Opinions vary, but he has made remarkable progress during the four weeks he has spent with the Barons. It is only Double-A, but he recently ran off a 13-game hitting streak and is tied for second in the league with 10 stolen bases.
There is a downside, too. Jordan has made more than his share of mental and physical errors, and he has yet to hit a ball out of the ballpark -- which would appear to be a prerequisite for a 6-foot-6 outfield prospect. He remains a long shot to develop into a quality major-league player, but there is no indication that he'll be going home any time soon.
"There has been so much written about Michael trying to do this," Barons manager Terry Francona said. "He's handled it as well as anyonecould. He knows that he's playing catch-up. He's got things figured out pretty good. Maybe he makes it and maybe not. I'm not going to be the one to write him off."
Away from the hoopla
If not for his stunning decision last fall to retire from basketball, Jordan would be playing in the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals right now. Instead, he is in Orlando, Fla., where the Barons are playing a three-game series.
Another town. Another news conference. Another full house. If he retired from the NBA to escape the media crush and the overwhelming responsibilities of superstardom, he did not make a clean getaway.
The autograph hounds still find him. The press still awaits in every city. The nature of the questions has changed, but the subject always comes back to basketball. The Chicago Bulls are trying to win their fourth straight title, but that will be difficult to do without the greatest player on the planet. Doesn't Jordan sometimes wish he were back there? Back on the road to the NBA Finals instead of the blue highways of the Southern League?
"No, I'm real comfortable here right now," Jordan said. "There's no time to miss it. I still enjoy the game. I still watch. But I don't miss it at all. I don't regret my decision at all."
There are reminders. Bulls T-shirts have become common in the stands. There are the questions that come like clockwork even on an afternoon when someone else clearly had a greater impact on the game.
"This is really out of context," Jordan said. "Mike Robertson should be getting more of [the attention]. He had a great day, and all you want to talk about is basketball."
Robertson, who had three hits to lead the Barons to a 6-1 victory on Wednesday, gets interviewed by the two beat reporters for the Birmingham papers, while a dozen or so members of the national and international media position themselves around Jordan's locker. It is the same the next night, when shortstop Glenn DiSarcina delivers the goods in another Barons victory.
"It's a little embarrassing," Jordan said. "It was different in basketball, because I earned that [attention]. Here, I'm just doing what I want to do."
Nobody seems to mind. They may be a bunch of kids, but they know that Jordan brought the media with him . . . and will take them with him when he goes.
"It's fine with me," DiSarcina said. "They [the media] aren't here for the game. If I had gone 4-for-4 with four grand slams, they would still be standing over there. That's OK, because nobody in this room except him is used to that."
Tangible benefits
There have been no complaints. The young players are getting a lesson in media relations, and the team couldn't buy this kind of exposure.
"This is doing for us what 'Bull Durham' did for the Durham Bulls," Barons media director Chris Pika said. "We might be the most popular minor-league club this year, and who knows what effect it will have for the future?"
General manager Bill Hardekopf could see it coming the moment he got word that the Chicago White Sox would send Jordan to Birmingham. The local response was immediate.
"The thing I remember most is what happened when I called the staff together to tell them," Hardekopf said. "The news had come out the night before in Chicago and it was starting to get around, but I wanted to call everyone together to discuss what we were going to do. It was about 8:15 in the morning, but as we were talking, you could look out the window and see a line of cars coming into the parking lot to buy tickets. It was like the final scene in 'Field of Dreams.' "
The Barons are on pace to draw 1.2 million in combined home and road attendance. Obviously, if you have Michael Jordan, they will come.
Back on the field
Jordan is learning about hitting. He has been working at it for several months, and he has gotten some surprising results.
The hitting streak in April raised his average as high as .333 -- he is down to .253 -- and he has shown up on the league leader sheet in a couple of places. He has yet to clear a Double-A fence, but no one seems particularly concerned.
"You've got to crawl before you can walk," Francona says. "What he has done so far is phenomenal."
Jordan is learning about not hitting. He entered last Tuesday's game in a 1-for-20, 10-strikeout slump, but broke out of it with a game-winning, three-run double.
"I'm trying to keep things consistent," he said. "I haven't hit the ball well the last couple of days, but every baseball player goes into a slump once in a while.
"I've had [basketball shooting] slumps," he said, "but that gets covered up, because you're shooting the ball 30 times. If you go 13-for-30, it's not that noticeable. Here, it's harder to cover up. You're out there by yourself, and the pitcher is throwing the ball to you. You're on the spot. . . . There's no one to help you."
And yet, everyone is trying to help. Jordan got hours of personal instruction from White Sox hitting coach Walt Hriniak last winter and plenty of advice from major-league players in spring training. He is getting the same kind of attention here from Francona.
"If you are an outfielder, you've got to hit the ball out of the ballpark or steal bases," Francona said.
"He's pretty good on the bases already, and I don't think it would shock me if he starts hitting home runs. You've got to keep in mind that he's played in just 23 games. We've got guys here with 500 games who aren't hitting the ball out of the ballpark."
Jordan also is getting a crash course in defense and base running.
On Thursday, Jordan got thrown out at third base when he tried to tag up on a one-out fly ball. It is a rookie mistake, because there is little to be gained from the extra base in that situation, something Francona explained gently after the game.
"I'm going to make a lot of mistakes," Jordan said, "but I think I'm intelligent enough that once I make a mistake, I can learn from it."
Everybody wants to know about the bus. There has been the popularmisconception that one of the first things that Jordan did when he joined the Barons was buy them a fancy new bus. He certainly could afford it, but the story has been slightly exaggerated.
Jordan has gone out of his way to make his young teammates comfortable, and he did go into his own pocket to make sure they would be more comfortable on the road. But he didn't buy a new bus. He simply arranged for the club to lease a more comfortable one for the duration of the season.
"I think Michael had the impression that we rode in a broken-down old school bus," Hardekopf said with a laugh. "The bus we [lease] was equipped with a VCR and three TV monitors, but Michael made a financial arrangement to upgrade it. The new one has six monitors, 35 seats that recline and a lounge in the back. Somebody reported that there was a wet bar in there, but that's not true. It's still a bus."
Nevertheless, it was a nice overture to a group of kids who had to wonder just what it would be like to play in the shadow of a megastar.
Jordan can't help but stand out, but he has gone out of his way to fit in.
"It's very normal," Francona said. "We're a Double-A club, and we act like a Double-A club. He fits right in. You can't be on a 12-hour bus ride and be a prima donna."
There doesn't appear to be an ounce of resentment in the Barons clubhouse, where Jordan's Thursday news conference was interrupted by a shaving cream pie in the sports world's most recognized face.
"He's a great guy," DiSarcina said. "He's just like anybody else. He just makes a lot more money."