Air Jordan almost became A’s Jordan
Team’s interest in signing star back in 1994 came as recent news to former skipper La Russa
Tony La Russa, until recently, never knew his days managing the A’s almost included a rookie named Michael Jordan.
You know, the Double-A outfielder for the 1994 Birmingham Barons, better known as the Chicago Bulls’ six-time champion.
Can you imagine a lineup card with legends including Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire, Dennis Eckersley and, ahem, Jordan?
“I wish Michael took advantage of the opportunity,” La Russa said Monday by phone upon reflecting on that 1994 season.
Alas, there would be no going from Air Jordan to the A’s Jordan.
La Russa is among those riveted to every minute of ESPN’s docuseries on Jordan. A few weeks ago, upon the debut of “The Last Dance,” La Russa was surprised to hear former A’s general manger Sandy Alderson confess how he courted Jordan, even promising a major-league roster spot.
“That’s one that got away,” Alderson told ESPN’s Buster Olney. “It would have been fun, but it didn’t come to fruition. It wouldn’t have won us a World Series.”
The A’s won the World Series five years earlier. But they were coming off a 94loss season when Jordan switched sports and opted for the White Sox’s DoubleA farm team.
La Russa, in retrospect, applauds Alderson’s “initiative.”
“When I saw Sandy had made that comment, that was the first I heard of it,” La Russa said. “He never mentioned it to me or the coaches. Maybe he wanted to see if there was a chance before he spread any rumors.”
How would La Russa, baseball’s third-winningest manager, handled Jordan, who hit .202 for Birmingham while producing three home runs, 51 RBI and 30 stolen bases in 127 games?
“You know the athletic
skills and you would have evaluated how they translated into baseball,” La Russa said. “As an outfielder, we wouldn’t have had any question about his ability to play defense, or run the bases. Just, how soon could you get his bat with its barrel to the ball.”
La Russa, 75, is now a senior advisor for the Los Angeles Angels. He was the A’s manager from 198695 and got inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2014.
Over the years, through his contacts in baseball, La Russa heard the White Sox were convinced Jordan could reach the majors had he played a couple more years.
“It’s not just the atheltic talent that is so evident, that a lot of people including myself have watched,” La Russa said. “The intensity and relentlessness … I saw him practice three or four times with the Bulls, to see him work that hard and push teammates.”
La Russa loved how Jordan “nonchalantly” dropped a defining characteristic of success during Sunday’s episodes of “The Last Dance,” when Jordan said: “Winning has a price. And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled.”
La Russa said in response: “The truth of that comment, that’s how you win.”
The A’s won 51 of 114 games in that strike-shortened season of 1994. Before that season began, Alderson made the A’s pitch to Jordan’s agent, David Falk.
“I called four or five teams to get the lay of the land,” Falk told MLB.com. “By far, Sandy had the most interesting and impactful response. He offered Michael a spot on the Major League roster.
“I was excited about (the offer), and Michael was very appreciative,” Falk added. “But he wanted to do the baseball thing from the ground up. He didn’t feel he deserved a spot on the Major League roster and didn’t feel he was ready.”