The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Recalling some moments from Jordan’s stint on the diamond
PITTSBURGH — Back when Pirates third-base coach Joey Cora was a player, he was known for his exceptional work ethic, routinely arriving before his teammates for extra batting practice or fielding work. As an undersized infielder with four different MLB clubs, it’s what Cora had to do to survive.
But in 1994, when Cora was with the Chicago White Sox, he lost his title as the team’s hardest-working player.
Cora had to settle for second place when, by his own admission, Michael Jordan — yes, that one — would routinely beat him to the batting cages in the morning, soaking up oneon-one instruction with hitting instructor Walt Hriniak while trying to make a run at professional baseball.
“I usually was the first one there every morning,” Cora told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday in a lengthy phone interview about Jordan’s baseball exploits. “That was until Jordan showed up. He was there way before me. He and Walt worked their (butts) off every single day. It felt like they were there at 5:45 or 6 in the morning. By the time I showed up, they were drenched with sweat because of how hard they were working.”
There are some who insisted Jordan’s abrupt retirement after the 1993-94 NBA season was some sort of publicity stunt. Cora is not among that group.
“You don’t show up every day at 6:30 in the morning and work like he did to be a publicity stunt,” Cora insisted. “And there were no reporters or nothing at that time. He wasn’t doing it to show off. He was doing it because he wanted to do it.”
Cora grew close with Jordan during the latter’s foray into baseball. In fact, Cora and his good friend, Ozzie Guillen, were rehabbing knee injuries that offseason in Chicago when Jordan decided to try baseball, and the three of them took part in some of Jordan’s earliest workouts — before news broke in February 1994 that he would switch sports.
In the spirit of “The Last Dance,” the 10-part Jordan documentary currently airing on ESPN, here are 10 more stories/anecdotes about the former Bulls star that have local ties. Seven involve Cora. The other three feature former Pirates skipper Gene Lamont — the manager of the White Sox that year — as well as New
Brighton, Pa., native Terry Francona, who managed Jordan with the Class AA Birmingham Barons.
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The private workouts with Jordan occurred at a high school near Wrigley Field, Cora said, and they started in early January. He did not remember the name of the place. With less than 10 people in the group, they’d throw, hit, take ground balls and talk a lot about baseball.
They did not, however, talk about why the heck the then-three-time NBA MVP was there.
“At the time, we didn’t know he was going to play (professional baseball),” Cora said. “We were just working out with him. We knew he was trying baseball. I think he wanted to find out if he had a shot, but he didn’t tell us he was going to play. We just knew he retired.”
The workouts left Cora and Guillen in awe. For someone who hadn’t played baseball since high school, Jordan possessed plenty of natural ability, and a desire that was off the charts.
“He was working out so hard,” Cora said. “Sometimes Ozzie and I would be wondering, ‘What the hell is this guy doing? I guess he doesn’t have anything else to do.’ You could tell he wasn’t hurt. You could tell he was in great shape. We were like, ‘Come on, bro. You’re the best basketball player in the world. What the hell are you doing?’ But we never asked him. We never asked him anything about why he retired the first time. We didn’t talk about anything like that.
“All he wanted to do was talk baseball. He was asking questions about baseball. We were dying to ask him about basketball.”
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That didn’t stop Cora and Guillen from routinely challenging Jordan to games of pickup basketball. At first, Jordan abstained. But Cora and Guillen wouldn’t stop.
“We were like, ‘Come on, bro. We’ll kick your (butt).’” Cora said. “That went on for a few days. Then the massacre happened.”
The “massacre” was Jordan finally relenting, agreeing to a game of two-on-one with the 5-foot-6 Cora and Guillen, who’s 5-11. Perhaps he thought he could conserve energy, or maybe Jordan just wanted to give the two antagonizers a false sense of hope, but Cora and Guillen actually jumped out to an early lead.
Then Jordan ... well, started playing like Jordan.
“We scored a couple and started talking (trash),” Cora said. “We were going to beat Michael Jordan. I don’t give a damn if it was 2-on-1. At the end of the day, we were going to beat Michael Jordan.
“I think he just said, ‘OK, guys. That’s enough.’ And he just turned it up . ... It was awesome, though. I don’t care if we lost. It was an unbelievable experience.”
Most amazing for Cora were the subtleties that Jordan taught him and Guillen, the hand-checking on defense, the way to properly defend or bend the rules with a little extra (and undetected) physicality.
“We’d say, ‘How do you do that? That’s (freaking) illegal,’ ” Cora said. “He’d say, ‘Nope. This is what you have to do.’ The way he did it, elbowing you or stepping on you, oh my God, it was awesome.”
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Jordan wanted to be one of the guys, Cora said.
One time, for example, he misjudged a fly ball and had to make an awkward catch while diving/stumbling forward in right field, for which Cora and Guillen harassed him. Jordan loved it.
“That was part of my game. I did a lot of that,” Cora said of talking trash and giving guys a hard time. “He didn’t mind because he was doing it back to us. He wanted to feel like he was part of the team.
“I don’t think he wanted guys to let him get away with stuff just because he was Michael Jordan, and that wasn’t the case. We didn’t let him get away with nothing.”
That included fame, apparently. On one spring training bus trip, Jordan was talking on the phone when Cora and Guillen started messing with him. Cora and Guillen detected that Jordan was talking with someone famous, although he would not divulge this person’s identity.
After the call ended, Cora and Guillen decided to challenge Jordan to see if he could somehow get in touch with random famous people.
“We put some names out there,” Cora said. “I won’t say who, but he just got his phone and started calling those guys. We were like, ‘Holy (crap).’ He’d go, ‘Hey, say hi to Joey. Say hi to Ozzie.’ It was impressive.”
The most enjoyable of those calls was Charles Barkley, Cora said. They “talked a lot,” and the group challenged Barkley to stop by spring training and hang out.
“Sure enough, Charles was there a couple days later, (screwing) around with us,” Cora said. “He was awesome.”
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Having played baseball in Chicago since 1991, Cora had a pretty good sense of the Jordan mystique. He was also well-aware of Jordan’s relationship with shoes, which is why he found it funny that Jordan hated normal baseball spikes.
One day in the clubhouse, Cora remembers watching Jordan fiddle with several pairs before he had finally had enough. Jordan called Nike with a request.
“He told the Nike people that he wanted to the take Air Jordans and put spikes on ‘em. And they did,” Cora said. “From one day to the next, he just made a phone call and said, ‘I don’t feel comfortable. Let’s take my basketball shoes and put spikes on ‘em.’ And they just did it. They were there the next day.
“I’m like, ‘(Screw) this (stuff ). What the hell? We’ve been playing all our lives, and we (freaking) get a pair of (freaking) shoes every (freaking) month.’ And he just made a phone call. That was super impressive.”
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Terry Francona and Birmingham’s other coaches were talking on the back of the bus after a game against Huntsville at some point that season, the conversation centered around who was the best basketball player. That turned into a pickup game at Francona’s apartment complex, where Jordan would make a surprise cameo.
When word of that circulated, more people showed up, and it soon became Jordan and the Barons’ coaching staff running the court.
During one particular game, Francona said there was a bigger guy trying to get physical with Jordan. The 33-year-old Class AA manager grew nervous. Until, of course, Jordan tucked the ball under his arm, told the weekend warrior where he was going and dunked in his face, warning him to never again issue such a challenge.
“I get chills now thinking about that,” Francona said in an interview tweeted by the Cleveland Indians. “I can’t believe he did that. He left his feet and I thought, ‘This is bad.’ The next thing you know, the rim was bent. I was like, ‘My goodness.’ I’m so glad I got to see that.”