Jordan Leading His Team With .304 Batting Average

Michael Jordan has reached that magic baseball number--.300.

The former NBA star extended his hitting streak to five games Sunday night, going 2-for-4 to raise his average to .304 in his return to his home state as a professional baseball player.

Jordan has gone 7-for-23 after seven games and is now the leading hitter for the Double AA Birmingham Barons. He also picked up his fourth stolen base during a 4-3 loss to the Carolina Mudcats.

After taking the day off Saturday night, Jordan was back in the lineup batting seventh and playing right field, drawing an overflow crowd of 8,045 to Five County Stadium.

After falling behind 0-2 and bouncing weakly to second base his first time at bat, Jordan smacked a sharp single to left field in the fourth, and his lazy fly to right fell in three innings later.

Jordan was picked off after his second single, but showed his athletic ability during the rundown as Carolina had to make six throws before getting him between first and second.

Jordan popped up to second base to lead off the ninth.

It was Jordan’s second multi-hit game. He has all singles.

Jordan had an uneventful day in the field, his only chance a one-hop single, which he fielded cleanly.

Jordan last played organized baseball at Laney High in Wilmington, about two hours from Zebulon.

The crowd cheered each time Jordan walked to the plate. Carolina’s mascot, Muddy the Mudcat, had some fun by carrying around a cardboard figure of Orlando Magic center Shaquille O’Neil wearing a home uniform.

Before the game, Jordan took some extra hitting for about 20 minutes in a cage behind the stands, shaking off some rust from an all-night, 10-hour bus trip from Chattanooga, Tenn.

He was surrounded by about 100 children seeking autographs on basketballs as well as baseballs. Many of the youngsters wore No. 23 Chicago Bulls jerseys.

However, Jordan didn’t sign any autographs except for a few Mudcat players while he shagged fly balls during batting practice.

Jordan seemed annoyed at times by the attention before the game, walking to the other side of the batting cage to avoid about 40 reporters and photographers.

He also danced away from a cameraman and gave him several dirty looks while walking to the locker room and kept his distance from the crowd.

Fans five deep lined the right-field line behind a short fence, taking photos and clapping every time Jordan walked to and from the locker room. But they went away disappointed when he didn’t sign any autographs and re-emerged to run a few sprints and get loose just before the 6:05 p.m. start.

There was another pregame snag--no Gatorade. A Mudcat batboy was summoned to get the thirst quencher and returned with seven different flavors for Jordan.

Jordan received a citation from Secretary of State Rufus Edmisten before the game, and a plane with a streamer welcoming Jordan later flew over the stadium.