Class AA broadcaster has 'zero doubt' Jordan could have made it to the big leagues

On Sunday night "The Last Dance," a 10-part documentary series looking back on Michael Jordan's extraordinary run of six NBA titles with the Bulls, airs on ESPN.

An avid basketball fan, Curt Bloom will be watching down in Birmingham, Ala. He'll also be flashing back to baseball.

Jordan was the greatest player to ever lace them up in the NBA, but he was also a baseball player in 1994 for the Birmingham Barons, the White Sox's Class AA minor league team.

Bloom took over as Birmingham's radio broadcaster two years earlier, and he is still with the Barons.

With 27 years on the job, the '94 season will always stand out for the play-by-play voice.

"He was there for 150 days," Bloom said of Jordan. "They played 140 games in 150 days and we interacted every day, so building that trust was so important. I'm not going to lie and tell anybody, 'We went out to Hooters,' or, 'We were in the manager's office with Tito (Terry Francona) a lot.' No, because you had to build that trust and I gave him a lot of room and a lot of space. When you did that, you realized he'd accept you into his circle."

Bloom will never forget the first time Jordan stepped into the on-deck circle in his one and only season as a professional baseball player.

On the same day Jordan went 2-for-5 for the Sox in the April 7 Windy City Classic exhibition game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Birmingham was opening the 1994 season with a home game against Chattanooga.

"Never in the history of baseball has there ever been a more nonsignificant Opening Day," Bloom recalled. "(Jordan) wasn't there, and everybody knew it."

Jordan was in uniform the next day for the Barons, a game forever etched in Bloom's memory bank.

"Chattanooga again for Game 2, he was batting seventh," Bloom said. "I think the crowd itself, it was something we would discover early and then it lasted all year, and that's this incredible buzz that cannot be replicated. You can't fake that, you can't ever do that again. A buzz by 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock. It was almost like everyone was looking at their clocks going, 'Get to the (darn) game already.'

"For me, personally, I looked around. He was batting seventh, so he led off the bottom of the third (inning). As I took a peak behind me, there was Chicago media and national media, I think it was ESPN, in my booth. That is when the moment hit me, like, 'Woah, this is different.' I can't say I was nervous. I just wanted to be accurate and so much of it, you had to let the moment happen. I knew that and I didn't want to babble over it, I didn't want to talk over it."

Bloom knew he was watching something special during Jordan's first game, and that continued throughout the season. But he stayed professional.

"I happened to have a ticket to this freak show, to this rock concert, every day," he said. "I had a front-row ticket. But I knew I had to treat him, that first at-bat and everything else, as if he was (outfielder) Scott Tedder, (infielder) Kenny Coleman, (outfielder) Kevin Coughlin, (outfielder) Kerry Valrie, treat it like that. You just can't stop and think, 'Oh my God, I'm about to announce his name."

Francona was Birmingham's manager in 1994, and he had the great Kirk Champion on his two-man staff as pitching coach and Mike Barnett as hitting coach.

Francona went on to win two World Series championships with the Red Sox before leading the Indians to three straight trips to the playoffs (2016-18).

"I don't think I've come across a staff that could have pulled it off as well as they did," Bloom said. "Everything they had to offer, it was just magical, with (Francona) at the front of it. He was a second-generation big leaguer. I'm sure his dad (Tito) played with or against some of the greatest players ever. (Terry) wasn't fazed by it. He was the absolute perfect guy."

Francona and his staff treated Jordan like every other player, and the Barons' front office followed suit.

But one day, late in the '94 season, Jordan approached Birmingham president/general manager Bill Hardekopf and thanked the club for giving him so much space. He asked if there was anything he could do as a show of gratitude.

A few days later, team employees and their immediate families were invited to take pictures with Jordan, who also added an autographed baseball.

Jordan was all set to return to baseball in 1995, but with major league players on strike he wanted no part of being a replacement player.

Jordan left the Sox's training camp in Sarasota, Fla., on March 10 and was back playing basketball with the Bulls a week later. The rest is history.

There was a long line of doubters who thought Jordan wound never be able to play major league baseball. After all, he was 31 years old when he put down the basketball and picked up a bat, and Jordan hadn't played baseball for 13 years.

In his one season with Birmingham, the 6-foot-6, 205-pounder hit .202./.289/.266 with 3 home runs, 51 RBI and 30 stolen bases.

Bloom has seen hundreds of prospects come through the Southern League and advance to the majors, and he is convinced Jordan would have been on a similar path.

"I have to be careful because I'm not a scout, but I have zero doubt," Bloom said. "The obvious thing was his speed. And he work ethic, the athleticism, you put those together and there are a lot of players that don't have that. I'm not a hitting coach, but when I look back at how much work he put in constructing his swing and the work Mike Barnett did it with him, I knew he had a chance.

"First of all, if he put the ball in play he had a chance to beat it out. If he reached base, he had a chance to steal. What I predicted, if he would have gotten a regular spring training in 1995, he would have broken camp with (Class AAA) Nashville and at some point, he would have gone up as a fourth or fifth outfielder with the White Sox.

"There was some natural talent. Was it as good as Mike Cameron, who came in a year later? No. But you weren't expecting that. We all understood he was on an accelerated pace, but that's fine. I have no doubt I knew what I was watching, it was, 'This is real.' Again, I'm not a scout, not an expert, but I have seen 3,000, 4,000 games and I know what I saw. I know absolutely the potential was there to be a big leaguer."