Before ‘The Last Dance,’ Michael Jordan was a Birmingham Baron

Once upon a time, there were three young brothers in Alabama who wanted to see their hero, Michael Jordan, in person. At the time, this seemed like an impossible task. How in the world would we ever meet “MJ,” the guy dunking the moon backwards on the poster in our room? That’ll never happen.

And then the stars aligned: The day before my 14th birthday, MJ announced he was going to play baseball for the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox have a Double-A baseball team in Hoover, Alabama. At the end of March, Michael Jordan was assigned to play baseball for the Birmingham Barons. The Barons. In Hoover, Alabama.

It was all happening. We had our shot.

Let me pause for a minute. At age 14, I had not seen many global sports stars in person, much less in Alabama. At that time, we didn’t have any professional sports teams in our state. We grew up cheering for Sid Bream, David Justice and the Atlanta Braves next door in Georgia. This was a full decade before Nick Saban started recruiting Julio Jones and Mark Ingram to the best football program in all of collegiate sports.

Michael Jordan coming to Alabama was something new, something different.

And we were going.

So, on Wednesday, July 6, 1994, my family made its way to the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium to catch a glimpse of greatness. We had a plan to go early. We were going to see everything. As we’re getting ready at the hotel, Joel (age 12) got sick and couldn’t make the game. This was Scottie Pippen going down right before Game 7.

Michael Jordan was always in the news. The biggest sports star in the world was a year removed from changing sports, his father had just passed away and there was a recent autograph scandal that led to MJ saying he would only sign autographs for kids.

This was about a year or so before “Space Jam,” and the MJ hype was real. And that hype was everywhere when you’re 14 years old.

We went to the ballpark so early we saw his car parked with the other players. “MJ JJ 23” on his tag in honor of his late father, James Jackson.

My ticket that day was $4.50 and our seats were near third base. My youngest brother, Mark, (age 8) and I walked near the Barons’ dugout after batting practice. We were going to get as close to #45 as possible.

We edged our way to the front of the line. And I stood there – the tallest of all the kids waiting for MJ to come our way. He was signing everything! Working his way from right to left towards the dugout: Baseballs, cards, hats. He was taking his time and not in a hurry. I was next. We were next! I pulled Mark beside me and we waited. This was it! It was time. I had my ticket stub ready and a pen. This was really going to happen. We were next. Here we go.

He skipped me.

He went right by me to the next, much younger, kid. It was fast. Split second. No commentary. That moment was gone. Maybe I was too tall? Was I too old? This was all playing out right in front of me and I just stood there. Silent.

And then, Mark, my 8 year old little brother, said something to Michael Jordan. Through all the commotion, Mark’s words were loud enough for the other kids to hear it. And for Michael Jordan to hear it.

“You don’t look right,” Mark said.

Michael Jordan shifted his stance and now turned to look directly at my brother. He furrowed his brow, baseball cap propped slight to the side and stared at Mark while continuing to sign autographs.

Mark didn’t hesitate.

“You’re too tall.”

MJ chuckled to himself, reached over and signed my ticket stub and then handed it to Mark. He finished signing a few more things and walked into the dugout.

So, it was my tickets stub, but he handed it back to Mark. And what about Joel (Scottie Pippen) back sick in the room?

We’ve been swapping the Michael Jordan autograph back-and-forth the better part of the last 25 years. I’ve had it the past few years. Mark is about to move into a new house, so he gets it next.

I can’t wait for sports to come back.

Amos Snead, an Alabama native, is executive vice president of Adfero, a communications agency based in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Montevallo and author of “Climbing the Hill: How to Build a Career in Politics and Make a Difference.” His brother Joel is a Hoover resident, and his brother Mark currently resides in Annapolis, Maryland.