The Only Father’s Day Gift Michael Jordan Could Give

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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Alice Irizarry.

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And I’m Andrew Devis. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

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He was the most famous person in the world. He was the best at what he did. He was young with many great years ahead of him. He was rich and powerful. He could have done anything he wanted. But then something terrible happened that forever changed his life. He had to do something to fix what happened. But there was no way to repair the damage. He had to live with it. He did not know how. The only thing he could think of to deal with the pain was to play baseball.

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Today’s Spotlight looks at the year when Michael Jordan decided to stop playing basketball and play baseball instead. Jordan was a basketball player for the Chicago Bulls during the 1980s and 1990s.

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Jordan played basketball in the National Basketball Association, or NBA. Basketball is a team sport played with a ball and a hoop.

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From 1991 to 1993, Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to three straight championships. He was the best player in the NBA. Many believed he was the best player of all time. Larry Bird played for the Boston Celtics against Jordan’s Bulls. Bird was one of the greatest basketball players ever. Bird once said after a game against Jordan:

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“That was not Michael Jordan out there. That was God hiding as Michael Jordan.”

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 After his third championship, Jordan was tired from playing so much basketball. He had nothing left to prove. He had already done everything he wanted to do in the NBA. He was thinking about retiring from basketball.

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On July 23^rd, 1993, Jordan’s father, James, was driving home from Wilmington, North Carolina, in the United States to Charlotte, North Carolina. It was over a three-hour drive. James had been at a friend’s funeral and left late that night. During his drive, he became too tired and pulled over to the side of the road to sleep.

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Two teenagers, Larry Demery and Daniel Green, saw the car. One of the windows was rolled down. They decided to tie James up and steal his car. But James woke up. The two young men shot James in the chest and killed him. They drove away and later dumped James’ body in a small river.

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James’ body was not discovered for a few weeks. Police found the body and identified James by looking at his teeth. Police caught Demery and Green because they had made several calls on James’ car phone. Police connected the two teenagers to the calls and arrested them. Demery and Green were later sent to prison for the rest of their lives.

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Jordan and his father had been very close. His father came to as many of Jordan’s games as possible. He gave Jordan guidance and was always willing to listen to whatever problems Jordan was dealing with.

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Jordan did not know what to do. He did not feel like playing basketball anymore. But he was still young and restless. He missed his father. He needed to do something to fill the emptiness that he felt. Jordan decided that what he did next should be for his father, not for himself.

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Jordan’s father had always loved baseball. He had tried to persuade Jordan to play baseball instead of basketball. His father had hoped that one day Jordan would try to play baseball again. Three months after his father’s death, Jordan announced that he was retiring from basketball. A few months later he agreed to play baseball for the Chicago White Sox organization.

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Baseball is a team sport played with a bat and a ball. It’s played on a large field. The players score by hitting the ball and running around the field.

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Jerry Reinsdorf owned both the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox. He wanted Jordan to succeed in baseball. He liked Jordan. He knew that he could make money if Jordan did well in baseball.

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Before Jordan could play for the Chicago White Sox in Major League Baseball, he had to start with the Birmingham Barons in the Double-A level of the Minor Leagues. Minor League Baseball has 120 teams across the United States and Canada. Major League Baseball teams control these Minor League teams. Players improve their baseball skills in the Minor Leagues in hopes of reaching Major League Baseball. There are several levels in the Minor Leagues that get harder to test a player’s ability.

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Reinsdorf got one of the White Sox managers and one of their players to spend extra time teaching Jordan. The manager, Herm Schneider, said:

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“Jordan was a great basketball player. When it came to baseball, he was in new territory. He loved baseball, but he did not necessarily understand how to move his body. So, we had to teach him.”

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They taught Jordan baseball skills. They showed him the correct way to hold a baseball. They taught him how to move his feet in the outfield when he played defense. Jordan learned how to use a bat. He learned how to run around the field.

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Jordan had to prove to the coaches, fans, and other players that he deserved to be on the Barons team. Some people said that Jordan should not have been given a place on a Minor League team. They believed he only got a chance because his popularity would make more people come to games. They thought Jordan was too old to try to become a Major League Baseball player.

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On average, a player spent three to five years in the Minor Leagues before he reached Major League Baseball. Some players never made it to Major League Baseball. Jordan was already 31 years old when he started playing in the Minor Leagues. Even if he made it to Major League Baseball, he would not be able to play long before his age affected his skills.

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Jordan worked as hard and as fast as he could to improve at baseball. During his only full season in the Minor Leagues, he played 127 games with the Barons. He only had 88 hits in over 400 times he came to bat. But his speed helped him run the bases well. Jordan’s hitting also improved over the season.

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467,000 fans came to see the Barons with Jordan. The team set Minor League attendance records. Jordan got a new bus for the Barons to take to games. Jordan stayed after games to sign his name for fans. David Schaffer, the Chicago White Sox director of park operations, said:

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“It was hard to believe. Jordan would be at the game all day in extreme heat. The sun would be out. He would stand there and just sign and sign and sign things for fans. Everybody else had already cleaned up and gone home. But Jordan would be standing there every day.”

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After his season with the Barons, Jordan played in the Arizona Fall League. His hitting improved. Jordan started trusting that he could play baseball well.

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Then Major League Baseball had a strike from August of 1994 to April of 1995. A strike meant that Major League players refused to play games until their demands were accepted by owners. The strike did not affect Jordan and the other Minor League players.

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But in the spring of 1995, Major League teams began moving Minor League players up to the Major Leagues to fill empty spots on teams left by the strike. Jordan did not want to move up this way. He only wanted to play in the Major Leagues if he earned a place on a team. Not because a better player was on strike. Jordan also wanted to respect the Player’s Union, the organization representing the players on strike.  

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Unsure of how long the strike would last, Jordan decided to play basketball again for the Chicago Bulls. He missed basketball. Somewhere during the year of riding on a bus to play Minor League baseball games, he found the joy and desire to return to basketball. Jordan later said:

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“I was on top for so long in basketball that I forgot about the steps to get to that. That is what Minor League baseball did to me.”

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Jordan never made it to Major League Baseball like his father had hoped. But he tried as hard as he could. He wanted to see if he could do it. But mostly Jordan wanted to say thank you to his father.

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Jordan could not ask his father questions anymore. He could not eat dinner with him after games. Jordan told the world how much his father meant to him by playing his father’s favorite game. Even though some said he should not do it. Others made fun of him for struggling at baseball. But Jordan would not listen. He wanted to give his father one last gift. Jordan understood that it was a gift for each of them.

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Did you know Michael Jordan tried to play baseball? Do you think he could have played Major League Baseball if he had not returned to basketball? What is your favorite memory of your father? You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and X. You can also get Spotlight episodes delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.

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The writer of this episode was Peter Anderson. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this episode and voiced by Spotlight. No AI or artificial intelligence was used in this episode. Spotlight episodes are written, voiced, and produced by real people for real people, no matter where in the world they live. This episode is called, “The Only Father’s Day Gift Michael Jordan Could Give.”

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We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight episode. Goodbye.

Question:

Did you know Michael Jordan tried to play baseball? Do you think he could have played Major League Baseball if he had not returned to basketball? What is your favorite memory of your father?