Jordan Enjoys Big League Day in Wrigley’s Friendly Confines : Baseball: Before going to the minors, he gets two hits (and makes an error) against the Cubs.

It was a weak hit, softly patted down the third-base line in an exhibition game. But for Michael Jordan, it was the sweetest of moments--a single in a major league stadium that brought a capacity crowd to its feet, erupting in a roar that no arena full of basketball fans can duplicate.

When he rounded first base, his grin was visible all the way to Wrigley Field’s upper deck. There, truant school kids grunted in dog chants and salaamed in tribute to a basketball legend chasing down a new dream.

The season-long bus ride with the Birmingham Barons lies ahead, but for a few hours Thursday, the former Chicago Bull star lived out his major league baseball fantasy. Nine times, in nine innings, Jordan trotted out to the sunswept oasis of right field and hunkered down as shadows from jets passing overhead flickered past. Except for his columnar basketball player’s legs, he perched there like a natural.

Jordan’s play during the “Cross-town Classic” exhibition between the White Sox and Cubs would satisfy most veterans. He added a run-scoring double to his first hit and fielded nimbly enough after misplaying a ball for an error in the third inning.

After the game, which ended in a 4-4 tie after 10 innings, Jordan acknowledged that he had walked onto the field unsure of himself and, after a long spring training, desperate for a hit.

“Standing up at the plate is a very lonely feeling, you know,” Jordan said. “I had to prove something to myself and everyone else.”

In the bleachers, Cub fans brook no dissent. But Thursday, half-filled with rival White Sox boosters, the bleachers were perhaps the only stretch of Wrigley where Jordan’s worthiness was in dispute.

When several Cub fanatics launched into an obscenity-laced tribute to Jordan’s undistinguished spring, the White Sox die-hards responded in kind. Keeping his back to the bleacher bums, Jordan said after the game that their point-counterpoint suited him fine.

“Hey, there were calls going with me and calls against me,” he said. “I heard a lot of rookie talk, but I was able to block that out.”

The first pitch he took from Cub left-hander Lance Dickson was another matter, a welcome-to-the-majors brushback that sent him reeling off home plate. Two pitches later, Jordan lofted an infield spiral, the sort of easy out he has been hitting into all spring.

In the third, Jordan let in a run by overrunning a hit by Tuffy Rhodes. The error grew less ghastly in a loosely played game marred by five errors, four wild pitches and two passed balls.

“Hey, it’s an exhibition game, who cares?” shouted Frank Nava, 15, a Cub fan who was so eager to score tickets to see Jordan that he ended up in a car accident. Craning his neck to watch Jordan from the first-base line, his left eye swollen purple, Nava cheered every time Jordan sauntered by.

“He’s a magic man!” Nava whooped.

Nava, like many among the crowd of 37,825, said he had come partly because he realized that Jordan’s dream might never bring him back to the majors. For them, the chance to see Jordan in a big league park, playing to a full house, was a moment to treasure.

“Hey, I’m keeping my ticket stub,” Nava said. “This may be the last time.”

“I’m bronzing mine,” a fan next to him said.

Jordan seemed to calm his major league jitters in the sixth when, batting against left-hander Dave Otto, he sent a soft single off the glove of third baseman Craig Worthington. Cub and White Sox fans gave Jordan a standing ovation.

They leaped again an inning later when Jordan doubled down the left-field line, knocking in a run. He was erased two plays later, caught in a rundown between third base and home.

It was hardly sterling basepath maneuvering. But then, even experienced big leaguers get caught in rundowns.

“I responded well today,” Jordan said, emerging from the dugout after the game. “I got my confidence built up enough to get me down to Birmingham.”