WEBVTT - FB 104: The Jordan Effect: How a Baseball Strike Saved Basketball 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.120 We all need a break from the constant cycle to 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:08.520 learn something new, to gain new perspectives. The Great Courses 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:11.399 Plus streaming service is an excellent resource to expand our 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.240 knowledge on a variety of subjects or pick up a 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.239 new hobby. I've been enjoying the Great Courses Plus while 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.360 researching this season of Flashback. Lectures like Playball, the rise 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.720 of Baseball is America's pastime, History of the Supreme Court, 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:27.920 and Battlefield Europe have helped me connect the dots on 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.680 several stories from history. Right now, they're giving our listeners 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.240 a special limited time offer a free month of unlimited 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.519 access to their entire library. Sign up now through our 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.760 special U r L go to the Great Courses Plus 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.920 dot Com slash aussy, that's the Great Courses Plus dot 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.640 Com slash o z y the Great Courses Plus dot 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:56.920 Com slash As. Before we start today's episode, please be 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.720 sure to support Flashback by rating and leaving a review 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.680 for us right here in your podcast app. A special 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.200 shout out this week to our listener Ruby two Shoes, 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.440 who got last week's pop quiz correct. The question was 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.440 what event helped lead to billions and extra revenue for 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.280 the NBA and you're all about to find that out. 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:18.000 In the meantime, do you think you're getting the hang 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:21.640 of history's unintended consequences? And if so, answer this question 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.160 about next week's episode for a chance to win a 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:29.400 shout out of your own Ready fingers on buzzers. What 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.800 chronic physical ailment did Adolph Hitler suffer from that led 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:37.319 him to seek some rather unorthodox and highly consequential medical treatment. 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.520 Think you know the answer, Take your best guests and 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.199 leave it as a comment in your podcast app along 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:53.160 with your five star review. It's the best of times, 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:55.960 it's the worst of times. As I record this, both 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.840 the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball are sidelined 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.440 because of the coronavirus, but the two professional sports leagues 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.480 are hardly in the same position. On the one hand, 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.600 you've got basketball. NBA salaries have skyrocketed in the past 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.080 five years. The average player makes above seven million dollars 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.120 per season, which makes the NBA the highest paid sports 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.000 league in the world, and basketball is also now the 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.960 most popular sport in the largest country in the world. 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:27.320 At one point, for a billion basketball crazed people in 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.200 a country and economy that's growing. It's unbelievable passion that 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.000 people have for the sport and for the NBA in China, 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.040 And on the other hand, you've got baseball. People just 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.280 don't seem to be as interested in the sport as 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.160 they used to be. Last year's World Series was the 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.040 least watched in history. So is this a wake up 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.120 call for Major League Baseball? Kind of? The World Series 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:52.880 continue to compete effectively last year. According to Forbes magazine, 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.400 for the first time ever, the average value of an 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.200 NBA team is worth more than the average value of 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:01.040 a Major League Baseball team. There are lots of reasons 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.000 for this reversal of fortune, from marketing to a lack 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.000 of star power to the mastery of social media. But 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.200 if you had to pick one fateful moment when everything changed, 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.560 when baseball and basketball started to go in different directions, 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.400 will might well be something that happened twenty five springs ago. 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.480 That's the moment when one of baseball's worst players decided 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.480 to give up on his dream rather than to be 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.720 a scab during the game's worst labor strike. Minor league 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:30.560 ball players have to give up on their dreams all 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.000 the time, but this minor league ball player was not 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.800 your ordinary athlete. He was also the greatest brand ambassador 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:40.240 that the sport of basketball has ever known, and Baseball's 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.840 loss proved to be Basketball's destiny making game. I'm Shawn 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.880 Braswell today on Flashback, a tale of one windy city 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.600 and one remarkable player whose fateful decision helped alter the 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.160 fate of two sports. And a very special thanks to 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.800 our guests today who joined us via phone or provided 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.520 their own local recording. Is during the global health crisis 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:13.480 in the shelter in Place order, Let's go back in 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:18.640 time twenty nine years for a moment. It's June. If 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.080 you've watched The Last Dance, ESPN's documentary film on Michael 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.599 Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, then you've probably already seen 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:30.120 this footage the celebration house, Peagne and the Chicago Locker 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.440 roll and they are celebrating in the Chicago. That's the 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:39.440 Fulls the Lakers. In five, Michael Jordan and the Chicago 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:43.760 Bulls won their first NBA championship. Five months later, just 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.160 north of Chicago, in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Twins won their 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:52.960 second World Series Baseball championship in dramatic fashion. That's Twins 0:04:52.960 --> 0:05:01.400 are gonna wins. That's twins and it's a it's a one. 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.480 Game seven of that World Series between the Twins and 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.679 the Atlanta Braves was watched by fifty million viewers, double 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.760 the number that watched Game seven of last year's World Series, 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.800 and thirty million more than watched Michael Jordan's and the 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.560 Bulls beat the Lakers that year. So Jordan's first championship 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:23.960 might have made for a good story, but it was 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:30.159 baseball that truly had America's attention in But behind the scenes, 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:40.159 trouble was brewing in baseball. Fay Vincent, a Yale educated 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.000 lawyer and the former head of Columbia Pictures, was an 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:47.280 unusual choice to be the commissioner of Baseball. He was short, balding, 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.400 and wore large, oversized glasses. He looked like he should 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.520 be the league's accountant, and in his first year's commissioner 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:57.800 in Vincent was tested as few commissioners have ever been. 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.360 For the first time in twenty seven years, a World 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:04.359 Series game will be played in Candle Stick Park. The 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.080 Battle of the Bay continues Game three of the Night 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.520 nine A World Series, the Oakland Athletics against the San 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.960 Francisco Giants, I'm al Michael's less than two minutes later 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.880 this happening, he fails to get Dave Parker at second phase, 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:32.720 so the Oakland A's take take happening. A six point 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:36.159 nine magnitude earthquake hit the Bay Area right before Game 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:42.000 three of the World Series in October. I'm a little 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.680 run or nine and I'm not your right here, but 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:49.520 we are. Well. That's the greatest open in the history 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:54.040 of television, far none. The following day, Fay Vincent addressed 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.599 reporters amid the tragedy, We've made the decision not to 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.719 play tonight. That'd be a decision we made. It's a 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.719 difficult time for San Francisco and indeed for the whole 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:10.840 Bay Area. The great tragedy is that could coincides with 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:16.720 our modest little sporting event here. Vincent handled the disaster beautifully. 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:21.880 He was reasonable, cautious, humble smart. The following season, in 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.400 Vincent was again tested when baseball owners started a lockout 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:30.160 during spring training in an effort to limit rising player salaries. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.760 This is Ryan Eckert, historian at Monmouth University and author 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:40.040 of A Game of Failure. Major League Baseball strike The 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:44.000 idea of a salary cap started to ender the conversation, 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:48.200 and Vincent supported the players and being completely against the 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:52.640 salary cap, and so very quickly he really did not 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.600 ingratiate himself to his employers that his bosses his employers. 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.000 You see, in Major League Baseball, the commissioner is handpicked 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:04.280 by a very select hiring committee, the owners. They thought 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.560 that Stave Vincent would kind of be on their side, 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:12.640 having selected him themselves, the owners, And when Vincent came in, 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:16.800 he really acted much more in the best interests of 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:22.160 baseball than in the interests of his employers, really, who 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.320 were no one but the owners. The owners can't actually 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.240 fire Vincent, but they started to put enormous pressure on 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.040 him to resign. After months of controversy and speculation, baseball 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.440 commission with faith, Vincent has bowed to management wishes that 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.320 he resigned. Although the owners have not announced their plans 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.480 for reorganization, it seems likely that baseball may never be 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.120 the same. Charlie Rose was right. After Vincent's resignation in 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.320 the owners made a more naked power grab. They installed 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.319 one of their own, Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig, as 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:57.040 acting commissioner. But the owners were only getting warmed up. 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.520 One of the men behind in fave Vincen's departure was 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.079 one of Bud Sewalk's best friends and a fellow owner, 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.240 Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Ryan Storff. And if you 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.560 recognize that name, it's probably because Ryan Storff is also 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.480 the owner of the Chicago Bulls had a salary caps 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.240 in nine four. Ryan Storff wanted to apply this name 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:22.079 principal to baseball because that was working out really pretty 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:23.959 well for him as the owners of As the owner 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.880 of the ball thanks to the salary cap in basketball, 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.800 Ryan Storff paid Michael Jordan's, an all time great player 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.199 at the peak of his powers, less than he paid 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.720 White Sox outfielder George Bell in baseball. So at the 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.120 same time Ryan Storff was helping Leeda Coup to get 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:40.920 a salary cap in baseball, he was getting a bargain 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.720 on the best player in basketball, a star who would 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:56.080 in deliver the Bulls their third championship in three years. 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.600 The Bulls three pete was an amazing accomplishment for Jordan's, 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:01.920 but he was starting to show signs of wear and 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.160 tear from the immense pressure. This is Roland las and By, 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.880 a basketball writer and author of Michael Jordan's The Life. 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:15.079 The process of winning a three pet was absolutely completely, 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:21.760 thoroughly exhausting, mentally, emotionally physical in every way, and by 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.880 the summer of Michael Jordan was starting to contemplate a 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:31.839 career change. You know, his father had long hope that 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:37.079 Michael might consider switching over and playing some baseball, just 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.679 change up things. His father would tell him, you know, 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:46.160 you've accomplished everything you can in basketball. So there was 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.400 a lot up in the air. And then something happened 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.480 that summer that would turn Michael Jordan's world upside down, 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.520 and that would put Chicago owner Jerry Ryansdorff in the 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.840 bizarre position of watching his most valuable basketball asset turned 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:10.920 to one of his lowest performing baseball ones. Do you 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.800 have an interesting tale about unintended consequences from history or 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.480 your own life, Please share it with us by emailing 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:21.160 flashback at Aussie dot com. That's Flashback at o z 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:38.280 y dot com. Enjoying this episode, check out the Great 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.840 Courses Plus streaming service. It's an excellent resource to expand 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.839 our knowledge on a variety of subjects like Michael Jordan. 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.600 For instance, in researching this episode of Flashback, I dove 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.760 deep into the lectures Playball, the rise of Baseball as 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.240 America's pastime, the psychology of performance, how to be your 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.920 best in life, and basketball's long shot the three pointer. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.160 We the Great Courses plus app We can keep our 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:06.720 minds active, escape into this vast world of information. Watch 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.960 or listen at any time anywhere. Right now, They're giving 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.480 our listeners a special, limited time offer, a free month 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.120 of unlimited access to their entire library. Sign up now 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.760 through our special U r L go to the Great 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.760 Courses Plus dot Com slash as. That's the Great Courses 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.720 Plus dot Com slash o z y the Great Courses 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:43.200 Plus dot Com slash AUSI on July, less than a 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.400 month after watching his son when his third NBA championship, 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.320 fifty year old James Jordan's Michael's father, was driving down 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:55.960 US Highway seventy four in North Carolina. In Lomberton, North Carolina. 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:02.280 Mr Jordan's uh had pulled off the side UH two, 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:07.319 obviously to rest for a while, and he was shot 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:12.400 to death while in his car and was taken to 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.319 the state of South Carolina and placed into the swamp 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:21.280 where he was found. James Jordan's murder devastated Michael. He 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.199 was obsessed with it, you know, paying attention to every 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:27.480 little bit of news that came along, and it made 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.400 a lot of news at the time. Jordan had long 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.320 had a rocky relationship with his father, going back to 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.800 when he was a boy in North Carolina. He was 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.400 the fourth of five children, and his older brother, Larry, 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.600 was a better athlete pack then. It was obvious to 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:48.400 everyone in the family that the James Jordan's greatly favored 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.720 Larry over Michael, and Michael did not take that particularly well. 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.400 He had great love for his father, but he was 0:13:55.640 --> 0:14:01.640 always angrily trying to prove himself elf to his father 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.680 after that childhood rejection, and that anger pushed Jordan to 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:10.079 work insanely hard. It really, in a lot of ways, 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:16.280 was the motivation for much of his achievement in sports, 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.600 and Jordan's desire to please his late father would also 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:24.480 be behind what happened next. In October, Michael Jordan took 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.200 to the baseball field to throw out the first pitch 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.680 at a White Sox playoff game. But Jordan was not 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.080 done making news that night. Let's go quickly to penal. 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.760 Brian Alright, Gregor, breaking story here. The Chicago Bulls have 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:40.600 called the press conference to tomorrow morning, and there's high 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:45.320 speculation and report that Michael Jordan will retire from basketball forever. 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.920 The news shock the city of Chicago and the sports world, 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.880 but it made sense to Jordan's He was grieving mightily 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:57.240 over his father, and the idea that his father had 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.720 wanted him to play baseball, the idea that he had 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:09.600 unfinished business there. All of those things played into his decision. Meanwhile, 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:15.280 that fall of baseball enjoyed another epic World Series finish. 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:17.720 Here's a pitch on the way, a swinging a belt 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:23.040 field pay back Blue Jays, the Blue Jays, the World 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.560 Series champion. Touch a ball, Joe, You'll never hit a 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:32.080 bigger hole let in your life. That December, the previous 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:36.000 collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players expired, and 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.440 with Fay Vincent out of the way, Ryan Storff and 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.960 the owners decided to take another crack at getting a 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:44.240 salary cap for baseball. The owners argued that the lack 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.120 of a salary cap was hurting competition in the game. 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:51.040 Ryan Eckert, the status quo of no salary cap was 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.400 seen as unfair because the big market teams could just 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.200 outspend the small market teams and dominate the game on 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.520 the field. Even with a salary cap, however, big market 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.600 teams would still have an advantage, so their solution was 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.640 not only a salary cap, but also revenue sharing, so 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.479 that the revenues among all the teams could be distributed 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.920 equally or at least shared to have a sort of 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.520 redistribution of wealth. But the players themselves were dead set 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.160 against a salary cap. They as free agents, wanted to 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:29.400 command whatever salary open and free market would allow them to. Meanwhile, 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:34.040 on February seven, Michael Jordan's signed perhaps the smallest contract 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.840 of his life, a minor league deal with the Chicago 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:39.680 White Sox. He was going to pursue his dream of 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.920 being a baseball player. Jordan had once been quite a 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:47.840 promising ballplayer in Little League Roland las B. Michael was 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.680 just an incredible pitcher. He would often come in and 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:55.320 just strike out everybody he faced in that short amount 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.000 of time. Jordan threw two no hitters on the way 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:00.240 to leading his team just shy at the Little League 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.280 World Series. He was also a pretty good hitter. In 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:07.680 a crucial moment on the march to the Little League 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:12.520 World Series down in Georgia later that summer, Michael hit 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.880 a booming home run over center field in a very 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:21.240 big park that allowed his team to tie the score. 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.120 Jordan's team eventually lost that game, but that home run 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.840 was huge for him personally. His father spent years bragging 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:34.200 about it. Finally Michael had his father's attention. The next year, 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:38.160 when Jordan was baseball did not go as well. Michael 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.080 maybe played in three or four games, but he spent 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:45.840 most time on the bench. And again, from what we 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:52.359 know in retrospect of Michael's personality, that kind of drop off, 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:57.800 that kind of come down, was devastating stuff. Jordan eventually 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.840 quit baseball during his senior year. By then it was 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:06.359 clear his game was basketball. But the thirty one year 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:09.600 old Jordan arrived in Sarasota, Florida, ready to try to 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.280 compete with professionals in a game he had given up 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.320 on in high school. This is Jordan in an interview 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:17.760 from that spring. These are the two dreams that I've 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.240 always had when I was a kid, from baseball and basketball, 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.080 and I achieved basketball so I wanted to tie my 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.240 hand in baseball, and thousands of fans and hundreds of 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.600 reporters to send it on Florida to see if he 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.119 could do it. Many of the other players were not 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.879 so enthusiastic about the newcomer. The success in baseball is 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:42.000 hard one. It is a game of repetition. And so 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.080 you have all these people with their hard one experience 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:54.040 in baseball, and here comes Jordan's who quit in the 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.520 middle of his senior season in high school. Still, Jordan 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.240 brought within the same determine, nation and work ethic that 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.480 made him a champion in basketball, and he he had 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:11.880 to turn his basketball body back to a leaner baseball body, 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.120 which he did. Jordan arrived at training camp early each 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.960 morning and left late each night. As the White Sox 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:22.840 hitting coach Walt Rehniac observed, quote, he's one hard working mother. Well, 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:24.919 you get the point. At the end of the spring, 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.840 the White Sox played across town exhibition game with the 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:32.600 Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The atmosphere in Chicago was electric. 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:35.320 There's gonna be a capacity crowd today or close to it, 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.240 and everybody who came to the ballpark today, came to 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.280 see that man you're looking at right there and see 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.560 if he can indeed hit some major league pitching. Marry. 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:44.400 This is his first time in front of more than 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.359 thirty five thousand fans. Jordan went two for five with 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.040 two runs batted in. He received a standing ovation. You know, 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.680 he just played well. He had a He had the 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:59.920 kind of day that had Harry Carey singing his prey 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.760 aces and all of Chicago will glow. It was perhaps 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.560 to be the high water mark of his brief baseball career. 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:10.680 Soon after, the White Sox assigned Jordan to their Double 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.200 A minor league team, the Birmingham Barons back up and 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:18.919 Matt just lesson for a moment. You know who's up, Birmingham, Alabama. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:23.800 Here he is, right fielder Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Let's lesson 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:30.760 for a moment. Jordan went over three in his professional debut, 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.080 but the fans in Birmingham loved every minute. The team 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:38.120 started setting attendance records, selling out souvenirs. The fans would 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.640 break into spontaneous chance of Jordan's gatorade anthem. I want 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.760 to be like Mike Jordan's play on the field, however, 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.840 did not always match the hype, but through it all 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:56.800 he persisted. And yet here he was going from an 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:02.119 average blow average showing in in spring training over to 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:07.639 the humiliation of being a Birmingham baron and not being 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.800 a very good one, of having to play this out 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:19.119 in front of all these adoring fans, and really being 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:23.760 willing to humiliate himself. Soon the media started to turn 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.280 on him. Sports Illustrated, which at once lionized air Jordan's, 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.320 came out with a cover that read, bagg at Michael 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:34.480 Jordan and the White Sox are embarrassing Baseball. Jordan often 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:37.159 kept to himself on the long bus rides across the 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:41.320 South and in Birmingham. He had a rented house in Birmingham. 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:43.600 But Jordan would sit up there on the deck alone 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.359 and I looking up at the stars, thinking about his father. 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:54.760 And this was really about his father, about mourning him, 0:21:54.800 --> 0:22:01.720 about reconnecting with him, about finding what they never found 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:09.159 in baseball. Meanwhile, back in the major leagues, the owners 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:12.760 and players were having their own existential crisis. In June, 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.280 the owners unveiled their proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement, 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.240 one that included a salary cap. Ryan Eckert, the small 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:26.120 market owners, we're really pushing hard for a strike and 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:29.280 pushing hard for a salary cap. But it wasn't just 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:31.639 small market owners. They were also at the time a 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:33.560 lot of new owners in the league who had their 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:36.800 own firm views about labor disputes. A lot of them 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.360 had bought into these teams in recent times, and we're 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:46.880 coming from the business world and had experience in negotiating 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:51.760 against and like busting up labor unions. The owner of 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:55.159 the Royals was the CEO of Walmart. The owner of 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:58.480 the Giants was the owner of Safely A grocery stores 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:01.760 who famously lay it off, you know, thousands of employees 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:04.720 to prevent them from unionizing. So a lot of these 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:08.560 owners had been successful in negotiating against unions outside of baseball, 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:12.000 but those heavy handed tactics just didn't work out quite 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:16.080 the same against baseball players as they did with you know, 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:20.399 like unskilled Walmart workers. Four days after the owners released 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.440 their proposal, the head of the players Association, Donald Fear, 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:27.400 announced the union's rejection of the proposal. In August, when 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:31.159 negotiations going nowhere, the owners withheld a scheduled payment for 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:34.120 the player's pension fund. It was an act of war. 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:36.760 The owners might have had most of the power then 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:39.760 controlled the purse strings, but the players had one mighty 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:43.159 piece of leverage, a strike that could cancel the season 0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:46.800 and the postseason. Dandy Alderson and this is a quote 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:50.480 that I love, was the GM of Oakland at the time, 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:53.520 and he compared the strike lead up to the strike 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:58.040 two the number one movie of the summer at the time, 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:03.280 which is Speed, right and um, the playoffs in the 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:06.199 World Series are the hostages. The players are driving the 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:10.000 bus and the owners of the cops chasing them, trying 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:13.879 to stop it. In the end, they couldn't stop the bus. 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:19.080 On August twelve, the Major League Baseball Players Association directed 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:22.720 its members to go on strike. Then a month later 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:26.800 and the other shoe has finally dropped in the ongoing 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:29.960 baseball wars. The acting Commissioner, Bud Sea Leake, the owner 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:32.719 of the Milwaukee Brewers, has just made it official the 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:36.240 remainder of the regular season and the entire postseason, playoffs 0:24:36.240 --> 0:24:39.480 and World Series have officially been canceled. This one of 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:42.919 the great casualties of the strike was that the season 0:24:43.160 --> 0:24:46.159 was setting up to be a historic one. Tony Gwynn 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:48.919 was in the middle of attempting to hit four hundred 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:52.280 for the first time since Ted Williams did in one 0:24:52.840 --> 0:24:57.880 Now Tony Gwynn was getting when the strikes started eighteen 0:24:57.880 --> 0:25:01.760 games left, playing against the Hardinals, Cubs, and Marlins and Rockies, 0:25:01.800 --> 0:25:05.120 all of whom had really mediocre pitching staff. Gwinn wasn't 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:08.760 alone in chasing history. Matt Williams had forty three home 0:25:08.840 --> 0:25:13.359 runs when the strikes started and was on pace exactly. 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:16.440 They hit sixty one home runs by the end of 0:25:16.440 --> 0:25:19.520 the season to tie Roger Morris. Baseball fans didn't care 0:25:19.560 --> 0:25:23.520 whose fault it was. They didn't take kindly to strike. 0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:27.040 I mean, the fan reaction was overwhelmingly negative and fans 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:30.080 were heartbroken. They were crushed disappointed. The World Series was 0:25:30.119 --> 0:25:33.720 canceled for the first time since nineteen o four, and 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:38.680 uh it was very sad, and when baseball eventually did 0:25:38.760 --> 0:25:42.360 come back, a lot of fans were still traumatized and 0:25:43.040 --> 0:25:46.920 very reluctant to go back to the game. They really 0:25:46.920 --> 0:25:50.440 held a grudge. At the same time, his major league 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:53.440 colleagues were refusing to take the field, Jordan was getting 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:56.480 better at it, slowly improving his game. He finished his 0:25:56.520 --> 0:25:58.960 first minor league season with a two oh two average 0:25:59.040 --> 0:26:01.760 with thirty stolen races and fifty one r b i s. 0:26:02.200 --> 0:26:05.560 It was good enough to keep playing Roland Lasonby. He 0:26:05.760 --> 0:26:09.639 later after Birmingham, he went to the Arizona Fall League, 0:26:09.960 --> 0:26:12.639 which was another victory. I think he hit two sixty 0:26:12.680 --> 0:26:15.880 in the Fall League. Michael Jordan was getting better at baseball. 0:26:16.200 --> 0:26:18.320 All of his hard work was starting to pay off. 0:26:18.760 --> 0:26:22.640 At the start of Jordan was not returning to basketball. 0:26:22.880 --> 0:26:25.959 He was getting ready for his second, hopefully better season 0:26:26.000 --> 0:26:30.360 in professional baseball. Then fate and a still ongoing baseball 0:26:30.400 --> 0:26:36.360 strike intervened. When spring training started, the owners attempted to 0:26:36.400 --> 0:26:39.800 bring in replacement players Ryan Eckert again, and they were 0:26:39.840 --> 0:26:44.560