Was MJ Good at Baseball?
Contents
Many people know that Michael Jordan was a great basketball player, but did you know that he also played baseball? Was he any good? Let’s take a look at the facts.
MJ’s Baseball Background
Michael Jordan is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. But, did you know that he also played professional baseball? MJ’s baseball career didn’t last very long, but it’s still interesting to look at. Let’s take a quick look at MJ’s background in baseball.
Drafted by the White Sox
In 1981, MJ was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft. He played for the White Sox for two seasons before being traded to the Birmingham Barons, a farm team for the Chicago Cubs. MJ played for the Barons for one season before returning to basketball.
Played in the Minor Leagues
Michael Jordan played minor league baseball for the Birmingham Barons, a farm team of the Chicago White Sox, in 1994. Although he was a successful athlete, Jordan was not a particularly good baseball player. He batted .202 with three home runs, 51 RBIs, and 30 stolen bases in 127 games. In March 1995, Jordan announced his retirement from baseball to return to the NBA.
MJ’s Stats
Michael Jordan is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. But what many people don’t know is that he also played baseball. In fact, he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 1984. However, he only played one season of minor league baseball before returning to the NBA. So, was MJ any good at baseball? Let’s take a look at his stats.
Batting Average
When looking at MJ’s batting average, he was a career .250 hitter. In his last 10 years, his batting average dipped to .228. However, he did have 2, Gathering 2 hits in his final at-bat against the Cubs in 2003.
Home Runs
In his8 seasons with the White Sox, MJ hit 452 home runs. That’s an average of 56 home runs per season!
Stolen Bases
Stolen bases are a measure of a player’s Just how good is MJ at baseball?
In order to compare MJ’s stats to the average player, we need to look at some more advanced stats. One important stat is stolen bases. Stolen bases are a measure of a player’s ability to take extra bases by running quickly. The average player has a stolen base percentage (SB%) of .2. This means that, on average, a player will steal a base 20% of the time they attempt to steal one.
MJ’s SB% was .3. This means that he was successful in stealing a base 30% of the time he attempted to do so. This is 10% higher than the average player, which indicates that MJ was above average in this particular stat.
MJ’s Legacy
Michael Jordan is one of the most celebrated athletes in history. He was an incredible basketball player and is considered by many to be the greatest of all time. But what about his other talent? Did you know that MJ was also a pretty good baseball player?
Did MJ’s baseball career help or hurt his legacy?
It’s been 25 years since Michael Jordan last played in a Major League Baseball game, and the question of whether his foray into the sport helped or hurt his legacy still lingers.
There’s no denying that MJ was one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, was named MVP five times, and is widely considered to be the greatest player of his generation. So when he decided to retire from the NBA in 1993 to pursue a career in baseball, many people were skeptical.
Critics argued that MJ was making a mistake by leaving basketball at the peak of his career. They said that he would never be as successful in baseball as he was in basketball, and that his legacy would suffer as a result.
But MJ proved the doubters wrong. He worked hard to make it to the Major Leagues, and while he may not have been the best player on the field, he was good enough to play for two seasons with the Chicago White Sox.
In fact, some argue that MJ’s baseball career actually helped his legacy. It showed that he was willing to take risks and step outside his comfort zone, and it showed that he was capable of succeeding in other fields besides basketball.
So while there is no clear answer to whether MJ’s baseball career helped or hurt his legacy, it’s safe to say that it had both positive and negative impacts.
What would MJ’s baseball career have been like if he had stuck with it?
If Michael Jordan had not pursued a career in basketball, what would his baseball career have been like?
This is a difficult question to answer. While Jordan was an incredibly gifted athlete, there is no guarantee that he would have been successful in baseball. Jordan would have likely been a competent player, but it is unlikely that he would have reached the level of success that he did in basketball.