His Inner Williams

There have been a lot of stories generated by the latest two installments of “The Last Dance” that detail Michael Jordan the baseball player.  For example, The Athletic did a piece yesterday on how Jordan helped a Birmingham Barons’ teammate from the Dominican Republic learn English.

 

The stories are all of a piece, about how good a teammate the ex-Bull was.  He was humble—as much as a super-gifted and successful athlete can be—and pleasant in the clubhouse, and generous with his money as well as his time.  The Athletic story notes that Jordan handed out nearly $2500 in cash incentives to motivate his Barons’ teammate to learn English.

 

The question, then, becomes where’s the Michael Jordan who punched teammates Will Perdue and Steve Kerr during practice?  If Jordan invented slights when necessary to motivate himself to an extraordinary performance, where were the slights in Birmingham?  Or, put another way, where was Jordan’s inner Ted Williams?

 

If anyone in baseball ever shared Jordan’s basketball mentality, it was Williams.  Jim Bouton includes an example of motivation, Ted Williams’ style in Ball Four:  “Jesus H. Christ Himself couldn’t get me out,” Williams might say, along with “Here comes Jim Bunning, Jim f*****g Bunning and that little s**t slider of his.”  Bunning couldn’t “really think he’s gonna get me out with that s**t.”  Why?  Because “I’m Ted f*****g Williams.”       

 

Change a name and switch from a pitcher to a defender and you have classic Michael Jordan.  Maybe I’m wrong about Jordan failing on account of Walt Hriniak’s top-hand-fly influence.  Maybe Jordan needed to bring his Teddy Ballgame persona from basketball and apply it to baseball, punches and all.