BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJORS / MINORS : 12-Hour Bus Rides Await Jordan

Michael Jordan will begin his career as a pro baseball player at double-A Birmingham of the Southern League, where his longest road trip will be a 12-hour bus ride and his meal money will be just $16 a day. The Chicago White Sox assigned Jordan to the Birmingham Barons on Thursday, and said he will play his first game April 8 at home against the Chattanooga Lookouts.

“I think it’s a level where I’ll either make myself or break myself,” Jordan said.

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Pete Rose Jr., son of baseball’s career hits leader, was released by the Cleveland Indians’ organization. Rose, 24, hit .218 with seven home runs and 30 RBIs for the Indians’ class-A Kinston affiliate last year, his fifth minor league season. He tore a ligament in his left knee July 9 and missed the rest of the year.

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Three-time All-Star catcher Sandy Alomar agreed to a $7.65-million, three-year contract extension that will keep him with the Cleveland Indians at least through 1997. The extension includes a $150,000 signing bonus, annual salaries of $2.5 million for the 1995 through 1997 seasons, plus a club option for 1998 that would pay him $3 million. Alomar, 27, will earn $2.2 million this season. . . . . Gene Larkin, whose 10th-inning, pinch single won the seventh game of the 1991 World Series for Minnesota, was released by the Twins from a minor league contract.He hit .175 with two homers and five RBIs in 40 spring at-bats.