I live in Birmingham, and I recall his playing days here vividly. He really was improving as a baseball player. In his last 18 games before the player's strike, he batted .376! That is beyond satisfactory. He began hitting with power more and more as he started hitting homeruns and extra base hits too. Look, I lived through this unusual chapter in American sports history. I went to his games. Everyone in this city did- we loved Michael Jordan the baseball player! He was perhaps the most mediocre guy on the entire Barons roster back then, yet he always got the loudest cheers of anyone whenever he walked to the plate no matter what. When we built our new ballpark in downtown Birmingham a few years ago (the Barons played in the suburbs of Hoover in the 90s when MJ was here), the Barons organization made sure Michael had a presence in the new stadium with large murals of him hanging in the concourses, and luxury boxes named after him. You can not walk around Regions Field (name of the new ballpark) without running into something reminding you that Michael Jordan was a Birmingham Baron. However, I must confess that Terry Francona was being generous in his appraisal of MJ as a baseball player in The Last Dance. There's a private speech Francona gave at a high dollar Cleveland Indians banquet in the offseason several years ago that was secretly recorded and leaked to the internet. In it, Francona was much more honest in his assessment of MJ as a baseball player. According to Francona, MJ's swing was too long and drawn out to ever hit major league pitching; he could be clumsy on the base path at times (although I personally remember a few instances where he grounded the ball deep between 3B and SS, where the shortstop would field the ball, yet Jordan still beat the throw over to 1B for a base hit using just his speed alone, in addition to him blossoming into a reliable base stealer); and that he lacked the arm strength to ever be a MLB centerfielder. Now that right there, I absolutely agree with. Not sure if he focused so much on his batting early on in order to get caught up or what, but MJ did seem to overlook the intricacies of defense and the importance of being a quality fielder early on. And, yes, he most certainly had a porous throwing arm for an outfielder that never would've made it in the big leagues. Michael didn't always make good reads on balls in the air as they came off the bat. He could oftentimes be caught out of position by taking poor routes to balls in the air. Naturally, being Michael Jordan, he eventually began improving as a fielder also because he started making some of the most eyepopping robberies in baseball history around this time too. He became great at denying opposing batters homeruns with his height, long arms, and unmatched leaping ability. He would practically jump up out of the ballpark altogether and snag homerun balls; turning sure-fire runs scored into flyball outs with nothing to show for it instead. Which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone as this is exactly what you'd expect Michael Jordan to be able to do. Anyhoo, I recall those days vividly and fondly, and so do lots of other Birmingham residents. MJ was always great with fans and the community at large while he was here, and he genuinely enjoyed his time in Birmingham. He frequently allowed nearby neighborhood kids to come to his house in the afternoons to shoot basketballs in the driveway with him and his two sons. There are dozens of young adults walking around Birmingham right now who can tell you they had the rare privilege of playing basketball with Michael Jordan as children. It is the most surreal thing to ever happen to this town, yet it really did. It's all 100% true. For the brief time he was here, Michael Jordan was just as beloved as Bear Bryant, Bo Jackson, and Nick Saban. Seriously, Michael Jordan became *our guy* from the moment he first stepped foot in Birmingham, Alabama. Anyway, thought I'd drop by and share some of these stories after seeing this video pop up in my UA-cam recommendations since you would've had needed to live here to ever hear any of these stories. Keep up the good work, Matt. Your channel provides tremendous insight into the game of baseball and how it should be played.
Britton Thompson that arm strength probably wouldn’t be a problem now just because back then they really didn’t have 6’7 dudes that were anything but lanky we just much better athletes now because of the advantages they have so for example aaron judge would most definitely not be as effective back then because of his long frame and inability to get big
He just looks so damn athletic even when he's doing it wrong. I'd scout him a 40 for skill, 99 for potential. I mean if I didn't know how old he was of course.
There's no doubt that a guy who hadn't played in a decade and a half, with his work ethic and extreme athleticism and intelligence, that he would have been a major league player if he had played baseball continuously from the time he was a kid. Hitting over .200 at AA is so impressive after he'd been off for so long. People tend to judge him on his baseball career based on his basketball career. That's really not fair. The guy was a talented baseball player. If you take 1,000 above average D2 and D3 college players and plop them in AA, more than 900 of them aren't going to hit .200.
Thanks for posting Matt - this is going to help me create him in Road to the Show! Planning on doing a series where I recreate MJ and play through his career - as it should have been!
Walt Hriniak was the White Sox HC at the time. He ruined many swings with his approach to hitting. I am surprised you didn't mention this in your breakdown.
He doesn’t stride to a strong balanced position so his stride is short as opposed to the distance he covers and his hips get too forward vs centered therefore his hips can’t effectively open forcing his energy to go up and away (watch his hips and body go up). So he compensates by driving his head down and over extending his arms,,,all of this keeps him from being able to turn deep and get the bat to turn up through the zone.
I saw him play once when i happened to be in Orlando. My takeaways were 1- man can he run!, 2- who the hell is his hitting coach? His swing was terrible!...just as you confirmed. lol
MJ always looked awkward at the plate. Somewhat clumsy and tentative often way out in front with a slow swing because he was baffled...and it actually made me feel uncomfortable watching him. You can see he was struggling.
"Out front" means the batter is essentially reaching out to make contact with the ball instead of letting the ball enter the zone and swinging with his/her arms close to the body then extending out after contact. The further your arms get away from your body in the swing the less power you are going to be able to put into the ball at contact.
There's got to be better examples showing his progress through that season, which imo would be a better teaching tool. Would be able to show the slight changes that you are talking about but aren't being demonstrated. MJ started hitting bombs lol
Here are Mike Trouts stats vs Jordan for the AZ fall league. Jordan had better stats i.imgur.com/3YUK7Iq.jpg He likely could have been a backup outfielder in the majors but would have been too old to become a star like Trout as trout had a much higher ceiling, being much younger, he had a lot more time to improve
Jordan's swing shown in these clips is flawed. He's not using his hips/legs to start and power the swing. He is reaching out to make contact with the ball well before it enters the strike zone. His swing is a very upper body dominated swing and he appears to try and carefully guide the bat to the ball instead of swinging the bat through the zone in an explosive motion. He's leaning forward too much and looks a bit off-balance. There is virtually no weight transfer. At this time he had the common recreational player swing which is mostly upper body dominated. You have to learn how to generate the power and drive from the ground up. A proper swing does not work from the top to the ground. He got better than the examples we see here but it takes years of work to train your body to swing a bat in the proper sequence. By the time he would have mastered hitting he would have been too old to play in the major leagues. You can't just pick up a bat, do a couple of drills and expect to be a good hitter. It takes thousands of swings and a lot of determination.
Michael Jordan didn't need to extend his arms like that because they will bust you inside a lot. He was strong enough to use leg power + hips then a shorter quick swing to drive the ball.
mm www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=gonzal004alf. But that’s not what we are talking about. We are not talking about stats, we are talking VISUALS, sir
Please stop with the MJ baseball analysis, he was not a baseball player, invited due to relationships only, fan interest...Chicago would have given him anything to stay there....If he wasn't MJ, he could not play top HS or D III baseball....
I live in Birmingham, and I recall his playing days here vividly. He really was improving as a baseball player. In his last 18 games before the player's strike, he batted .376! That is beyond satisfactory. He began hitting with power more and more as he started hitting homeruns and extra base hits too. Look, I lived through this unusual chapter in American sports history. I went to his games. Everyone in this city did- we loved Michael Jordan the baseball player! He was perhaps the most mediocre guy on the entire Barons roster back then, yet he always got the loudest cheers of anyone whenever he walked to the plate no matter what.
When we built our new ballpark in downtown Birmingham a few years ago (the Barons played in the suburbs of Hoover in the 90s when MJ was here), the Barons organization made sure Michael had a presence in the new stadium with large murals of him hanging in the concourses, and luxury boxes named after him. You can not walk around Regions Field (name of the new ballpark) without running into something reminding you that Michael Jordan was a Birmingham Baron.
However, I must confess that Terry Francona was being generous in his appraisal of MJ as a baseball player in The Last Dance. There's a private speech Francona gave at a high dollar Cleveland Indians banquet in the offseason several years ago that was secretly recorded and leaked to the internet. In it, Francona was much more honest in his assessment of MJ as a baseball player. According to Francona, MJ's swing was too long and drawn out to ever hit major league pitching; he could be clumsy on the base path at times (although I personally remember a few instances where he grounded the ball deep between 3B and SS, where the shortstop would field the ball, yet Jordan still beat the throw over to 1B for a base hit using just his speed alone, in addition to him blossoming into a reliable base stealer); and that he lacked the arm strength to ever be a MLB centerfielder.
Now that right there, I absolutely agree with. Not sure if he focused so much on his batting early on in order to get caught up or what, but MJ did seem to overlook the intricacies of defense and the importance of being a quality fielder early on. And, yes, he most certainly had a porous throwing arm for an outfielder that never would've made it in the big leagues.
Michael didn't always make good reads on balls in the air as they came off the bat. He could oftentimes be caught out of position by taking poor routes to balls in the air. Naturally, being Michael Jordan, he eventually began improving as a fielder also because he started making some of the most eyepopping robberies in baseball history around this time too. He became great at denying opposing batters homeruns with his height, long arms, and unmatched leaping ability. He would practically jump up out of the ballpark altogether and snag homerun balls; turning sure-fire runs scored into flyball outs with nothing to show for it instead. Which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone as this is exactly what you'd expect Michael Jordan to be able to do.
Anyhoo, I recall those days vividly and fondly, and so do lots of other Birmingham residents. MJ was always great with fans and the community at large while he was here, and he genuinely enjoyed his time in Birmingham. He frequently allowed nearby neighborhood kids to come to his house in the afternoons to shoot basketballs in the driveway with him and his two sons. There are dozens of young adults walking around Birmingham right now who can tell you they had the rare privilege of playing basketball with Michael Jordan as children. It is the most surreal thing to ever happen to this town, yet it really did. It's all 100% true. For the brief time he was here, Michael Jordan was just as beloved as Bear Bryant, Bo Jackson, and Nick Saban. Seriously, Michael Jordan became *our guy* from the moment he first stepped foot in Birmingham, Alabama.
Anyway, thought I'd drop by and share some of these stories after seeing this video pop up in my UA-cam recommendations since you would've had needed to live here to ever hear any of these stories. Keep up the good work, Matt. Your channel provides tremendous insight into the game of baseball and how it should be played.
Britton Thompson that arm strength probably wouldn’t be a problem now just because back then they really didn’t have 6’7 dudes that were anything but lanky we just much better athletes now because of the advantages they have so for example aaron judge would most definitely not be as effective back then because of his long frame and inability to get big
I like to see Tim Tebow swing breakdown he has improved with his swing
He just looks so damn athletic even when he's doing it wrong. I'd scout him a 40 for skill, 99 for potential. I mean if I didn't know how old he was of course.
There's no doubt that a guy who hadn't played in a decade and a half, with his work ethic and extreme athleticism and intelligence, that he would have been a major league player if he had played baseball continuously from the time he was a kid. Hitting over .200 at AA is so impressive after he'd been off for so long. People tend to judge him on his baseball career based on his basketball career. That's really not fair. The guy was a talented baseball player. If you take 1,000 above average D2 and D3 college players and plop them in AA, more than 900 of them aren't going to hit .200.
Thanks for posting Matt - this is going to help me create him in Road to the Show! Planning on doing a series where I recreate MJ and play through his career - as it should have been!
ua-cam.com/video/Wtr3lg8I0Z4/v-deo.html
That's a good lookin strike out mike you look good when u strike out when i strike out it looks nasty 😂😂😂
very bottom hand dominant
Walt Hriniak was the White Sox HC at the time. He ruined many swings with his approach to hitting. I am surprised you didn't mention this in your breakdown.
You always have great content
How were his swings when he went 2-3 with a double in the Crosstown vs. the Cubs?
He seems late on the pitch. I always tell my son to be loaded. Doesn't mean you need to swing, but you need to be ready to swing.
He put up solid numbers for someone that started playing as an adult
He played as a kid too
The Rock nah any experience helps it’s the same for every sport
He has essentially no load in his body, so he's starting from being centered. Which means the only place he has to go is out in front.
Hriniak’s “chin goes should to shoulder” and linear philosophy
Great video and awesome breakdown, Micheal Jordan even swings better than you, “ What an embarrassing play!!”😂
He doesn’t stride to a strong balanced position so his stride is short as opposed to the distance he covers and his hips get too forward vs centered therefore his hips can’t effectively open forcing his energy to go up and away (watch his hips and body go up). So he compensates by driving his head down and over extending his arms,,,all of this keeps him from being able to turn deep and get the bat to turn up through the zone.
Really long swing plus a huge strike zone
I remember a scout saying that baseball players in general have strong hands
and forearms and that Jordan did not have that strength .
I saw him play once when i happened to be in Orlando. My takeaways were 1- man can he run!, 2- who the hell is his hitting coach? His swing was terrible!...just as you confirmed.
lol
He's all arms. It's like he's aiming the bat at the ball, too.
MJ always looked awkward at the plate. Somewhat clumsy and tentative often way out in front with a slow swing because he was baffled...and it actually made me feel uncomfortable watching him. You can see he was struggling.
He looks so much skinnier than in his bulls uniform
What is “contact out front”?
"Out front" means the batter is essentially reaching out to make contact with the ball instead of letting the ball enter the zone and swinging with his/her arms close to the body then extending out after contact. The further your arms get away from your body in the swing the less power you are going to be able to put into the ball at contact.
1977TA thank you !
Second and thanks for all the content Matt you should definitely have a million subs!!!
There's got to be better examples showing his progress through that season, which imo would be a better teaching tool. Would be able to show the slight changes that you are talking about but aren't being demonstrated. MJ started hitting bombs lol
Head down obsessively is from all the golf I'd say....
Here are Mike Trouts stats vs Jordan for the AZ fall league. Jordan had better stats i.imgur.com/3YUK7Iq.jpg He likely could have been a backup outfielder in the majors but would have been too old to become a star like Trout as trout had a much higher ceiling, being much younger, he had a lot more time to improve
Jordan's swing shown in these clips is flawed. He's not using his hips/legs to start and power the swing. He is reaching out to make contact with the ball well before it enters the strike zone. His swing is a very upper body dominated swing and he appears to try and carefully guide the bat to the ball instead of swinging the bat through the zone in an explosive motion. He's leaning forward too much and looks a bit off-balance. There is virtually no weight transfer. At this time he had the common recreational player swing which is mostly upper body dominated. You have to learn how to generate the power and drive from the ground up. A proper swing does not work from the top to the ground. He got better than the examples we see here but it takes years of work to train your body to swing a bat in the proper sequence. By the time he would have mastered hitting he would have been too old to play in the major leagues. You can't just pick up a bat, do a couple of drills and expect to be a good hitter. It takes thousands of swings and a lot of determination.
1:04....Of course Francona said his swing was getting better and better he wanted Bulls tickets......lol
Michael Jordan didn't need to extend his arms like that because they will bust you inside a lot. He was strong enough to use leg power + hips then a shorter quick swing to drive the ball.
first
That’s a horrible swing dude :(
better than an average person
Elijah R. Maybe, but not better than the average bigleaguer
mm you haven’t seen me man, that’s not logical
mm www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=gonzal004alf.
But that’s not what we are talking about. We are not talking about stats, we are talking VISUALS, sir
@@elijahr.775 not really, I've kid's with better swings
Hard to explain just how bad the swing is...
Please stop with the MJ baseball analysis, he was not a baseball player, invited due to relationships only, fan interest...Chicago would have given him anything to stay there....If he wasn't MJ, he could not play top HS or D III baseball....
Who in the hell would care about MJ's swing? Matt .... you bored, son?
It's day 60-something of quarantine. We're all bored.
@@zkiiffs9 fuck I guess so. Mj's swing? Wtf was he thinking lol
You know nothing about baseball. Go analyze other sports like football or something