The Air Down There : Michael Jordan Keeps Swinging Away as Improvement Shows in Fall League

Michael Jordan tries to suppress a smile as he swings a bat in the on-deck circle at Scottsdale Stadium while an elderly woman in a nearby box seat reads aloud from his autobiography.

In the intimate environment of the Arizona Fall League, fans can reach out and touch Jordan as he continues an attempt to write an improbable new chapter to his life story.

At 31, a senior citizen to his double-A and triple-A teammates on the Scottsdale Scorpions, Jordan is challenging baseball from the bottom up after retiring from basketball still in his prime as perhaps the best player ever.

“I saw this hill and chose to climb it,” Jordan said in the Scorpions’ clubhouse. “People laughed and said I was crazy, that I didn’t have a chance, that it was strictly a publicity stunt. But who needs publicity with everything I’ve been through?

“I’m just taking this minute by minute. It’s been a humbling experience but I’ll keep going as long as I’m making progress.

“I mean, it would be a major accomplishment if I reached the major leagues at my age after not playing for 13 or 14 years, but there’s no pressure. I don’t have any expectations. I’m probably the last player on this team in terms of skill level, but I’m moving up and getting better along with the competition, and I’m having a good time, a lot more fun than if I was still playing basketball.

“There were so many expectations in basketball, it was a shame.”

There also were no more hills to climb, so here he is, about a year into his professional baseball career, having survived the media circus that was spring training and his debut at the tough double-A level. He considered bowing out but was talked into staying by Birmingham Manager Terry Francona, who is also Jordan’s manager in this league, which started Oct. 6 and runs to Dec. 1.

Next year, Jordan is ticketed for Nashville, the triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, on an obviously accelerated timetable.

It’s a unique situation. A great athlete at 31 who knows, as Francona said, that it isn’t going to happen overnight for him in baseball but isn’t thinking of spending the rest of his career in the minors.

“I don’t like to speak for Michael, but I don’t think this is a four- or five-year proposition,” Francona said. “Michael wants to know (how far he can go) and the White Sox want to know.

“Right now he’s enjoying himself and holding his own against kids who have been playing (baseball) all of their life. For him to be able to compete in this league, against some of the top prospects in the game, I wouldn’t have thought it would happen six months ago. I mean, it’s pretty amazing that he’s come this fast and a tribute to his dedication, determination and athletic ability.”

Said shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, a Scorpion teammate who was the No. 1 draft choice of the Boston Red Sox in June, “I’m impressed. He’s not just a guy trying to play. He is a player. And he’s been packing ‘em in, which has given all of us the opportunity to be seen by a lot of people. It’s been exciting.”

The Arizona Fall League has been an artistic success from the start. Of the 326 players who played in the first two seasons, 107 already have reached the majors. However, until Jordan’s arrival, most of the games drew only a couple dozen scouts. The league sold 21 season tickets last year. This year’s sale was cut off at 2,200. Jordan’s debut at Tempe drew 6,116 spectators, 311 more than the Tempe team drew for its entire home season last year.

All of this after Birmingham’s 1994 attendance set a franchise record and was the sixth best in double-A history as their rookie right fielder batted .202 in 127 games. He drove in 51 runs, stole 30 bases, hit three home runs and batted .380 in August, after asking Francona if he was doing the right thing.

“If he had suggested I was in over my head, I would have been out of there,” Jordan said.

Said Francona, “His big concern was that he was taking the place of someone more deserving. He was at a point all athletes reach at different times. He needed some reassurance and reinforcement. I told him he had come a lot further and faster than anyone would have believed, and he has. I mean, he jumped from high school to double-A with 13 years in between.”

Jordan is batting .255 in 30 Arizona games, playing both left and right field. He has no home runs, seven RBIs, two stolen bases and has struck out 27 times in 106 at-bats.

He is a lean 6 feet 6 and many scouts see Jordan’s swing as too long and too slow. The absence of power in his short pro career is a significant drawback for a corner outfielder. Still, scouts are impressed by his quick adaptability and patience at the plate.

“For someone who has basically never played, he has a lot of good at-bats, and the more he sees of breaking pitches the better he’ll get,” a National League scout said. “We’re talking about a guy who dominated a very physical sport, and the fact that he comes in and struggles in baseball only shows how tough baseball is, beyond the athletic aspect.”

Said Francona, “Michael knows he has to hit or he can’t play. He knows he has to hit home runs or steal some bases or he can’t play left field or right field. He can definitely steal bases, and I think there’s some power potential there, but I just don’t know how fast it will come.

“He’s made a lot of adjustments and is at a point where he has a good stance and a . . . good idea of what he wants to do up there. I think his major adjustments are out of the way now. He just has to play more now and see how good he gets.”

Jordan calls it a crash course in fine tuning--at bat, in the field and on the bases. The clock might be against him, but his maturity and athletic experience are advantages. He struck out three consecutive times in a recent game but refrained from any emotional display, hung in, and rapped a single in his fourth time up.

“I can’t step outside myself and evaluate how much I’ve improved, but I know I have,” he said. “I feel it in my comfort level and my overall feel for the game. I’m better able to anticipate now and adjust.

“I also think I have a lot going for me in the way of maturity. I see the younger players throwing helmets and kicking the water cooler and I know that only clutters your mind and adds to a sense of uncertainty. I know that only gets in the way of your ability.

“I know from basketball that some nights it’s just not there. Nothing clicks. You have to absorb it, smile, move on, look forward to tomorrow.”

The cynics and purists hammered Jordan and the White Sox initially. Many saw it only as repayment by White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf for Jordan’s championship contributions to Reinsdorf’s Chicago Bulls. Sports Illustrated, in a cover story, called it an embarrassment to baseball: Err Jordan.

For now, it remains a question, although the statistics would seem more than circumstantial. Jordan will probably get his shot at triple-A, then make a decision.

Meanwhile, he said, the cynics fuel his motivation.

“This is what I want to do,” he said. “There’s nothing more involved. I started with baseball in high school, and now, ironically, it’s where I’ll finish. I just never thought I’d get the opportunity. Once I saw Deion (Sanders) and Bo (Jackson) playing two sports, I got the itch, but I knew I couldn’t go back and forth between the sports. I had achieved everything I could in basketball. It was the perfect time to walk away.”

In the Scorpions’ clubhouse, where Jordan makes it a point to be one of the guys, sharing cartons of shoes and golf balls and other commercial products that arrive regularly, he keeps an eye on the television as the Phoenix Suns play their NBA season opener. Has he left some of his heart on the hardwood? Does he still feel a tug?

“No,” he said. “No regrets. I had my run. My only interest is that of an informed fan.”

Ron Schueler is more than a fan. At some point, the White Sox’s general manager will have to help make a critical decision.

He says that Jordan has come a long way in a short time, but is there more?

“I’ll stick with what I said when Michael went to spring training,” Schueler said. “It’s a million to one (against his reaching the majors).

“First of all, I can’t believe he’d leave the one sport on top. Michael knows he’ll never achieve the level in baseball that he did in basketball, but that’s not to question his dedication and work ethic. How serious is he about this? Would you be riding buses if you were guaranteed $30 million a year for the next seven years?”

Schueler referred to endorsement contracts that bring Jordan about $85,000 a day. The income helps pay his almost daily green fees here, the bodyguards, the limos he turns over to teammates. It helps dilute the already minimal stress. Jordan might itch to reach the majors, but he will not take a shortcut, he said. He would not cross a picket line if the players’ union is still on strike and he would not go strictly as a ticket attraction.

“No way,” he said. “All I’m trying to do is maintain my progress. The last thing I want to do is interfere in a labor situation and get my peers angry at me.”

In the meantime, his appearances in the on-deck circle represent photo opportunities that camera-toting fans can’t ignore. They stream toward the dugout, yelling for him to turn this way, that way. The elderly lady reads from his book. A security guard moves to the top step of the dugout, ordering the fans to retreat.

Jordan shakes his head later and says the fan involvement in baseball has been far more than he was used to in basketball, a virtual nightmare, he said, that can create undue pressure.

“They think I’m there to pose for pictures or sign autographs instead of doing my job,” he said. “I hear a lot, but I’ve trained myself to ignore it so that it doesn’t become a distraction. So far I’ve been able to deal with it. Sometimes you just have to say no. I hope people understand.”

If the White Sox ultimately have to say no, Michael Jordan said he will understand. For now, however, he thinks he is still inching up the hill.