Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 8, 1994 TAG: 9402080031
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
Michael Jordan made it official Monday. Now it's on to the green grass of spring training.
Jordan was back in a gym, a familiar setting for the world's most famous basketball player. The baskets, however, were raised to the ceiling, and Jordan's tongue-wagging concentration was focused on another sport.
At the end of a baseball workout covered live on local cable television, Jordan signed a minor-league contract with the Chicago White Sox and was invited to spring training as a non-roster player.
Thirty years old and just four months retired from the NBA, Jordan went through a workout at the Illinois Institute of Technology that included batting, fielding and tossing. He said he'll report to spring training next week at Sarasota, Fla.
"I've never been afraid to fail," said Jordan, who led the Chicago Bulls to three straight NBA titles before leaving the game last October. "That's something you have to deal with in reality. You're not always going to be successful. I think I'm strong enough as a person to accept failure. But I can't accept not trying."
Not that Jordan expects to fail at his newest venture.
"I think I've improved tremendously," said Jordan, who's been working out underneath Comiskey Park for the past two months with some White Sox players and personnel. "My motto has been, `It's no gimmick.' "
Jordan said he would consider going to the minor leagues if the White Sox thought he had the potential to make it to the majors.
His contract is with the Nashville Sounds of the Class AAA American Association, and it wasn't immediately known if he signed a letter agreement for a major league contract in the event he makes the majors. He is still being paid by the Bulls this season, a salary reported to be $4 million.
"I chose to try to play baseball just to see if I could," said Jordan, whose father was slain last summer. "I'm not doing it as a distraction and I'm not doing it as a media hog or looking for the media exposure from it. It's one of the wishes my father had and I had as a kid."
White Sox general manager Ron Schueler, who decided to invite Jordan to spring training last Saturday during a meeting with manager Gene Lamont, said he likes Jordan's quickness from basketball, his hands and his arm strength.
But Schueler admits Jordan's chances of making the roster are slim.
"As much improvement as he has made, it's still a million-in-one shot," Schueler said. "If I don't give him the opportunity, 27 other general managers would. In a second."
The White Sox know distractions. They had to deal with Bo Jackson's comeback from hip replacement surgery last spring. Jordan, like Jackson, will not be given any special treatment.
"He'll have to earn it, nothing's going to be given to him," Schueler said. "We're going to go north with the best 25."
Jordan expects to be tested by major-league pitchers. He's done most of his hitting off Schueler - a former major-leaguer - some college pitchers, former White Sox third baseman Bill Melton and Mike Maziarka, a computer scouting analyst.
"I expect them to come inside quite a bit around the chin. I'm willing to take a couple of hits before I approach the mound," Jordan said, drawing laughter from reporters and photographers.
by CNB