Page 14 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, MARCH 1, 2024 FATEFUL DECISION: Michael Jordan’s 1994 foray into pro baseball – 30 years ago this month – had a ripple effect on Carmine Cappuccio’s career Cappuccio had longest pro baseball career for any Malden resident ever, but his career path was irretrievably altered by Jordan’s dalliance in the sport Following is part one of a twopart series telling the story of how a decision by the greatest player in NBA history, Michael Jordan, had an irretrievably adverse effect on the professional baseball fate of Malden High School’s greatest baseball player, Carmine Cappuccio By Steve Freker here has been plenty of discussion and reminiscing about the time the NBA’s greatest player left three world title rings behind – 30 years ago this month – to embark on a career in a second professional sport. Those of us who know local sports history are acutely aware of an unspoken “what might have been” connected to that choice. The greatest-ever NBAer’s choice undoubtedly had a direct, ripple effect on the professional career of another “greatest ever,” Malden High School legend Carmine Cappuccio. A baseball star on three difT NBA legend Michael Jordan shocked the world when in October, 1993, above, he announced he was retiring from basketball, just months after leading the Chicago Bulls to their third straight World Championship. Four months and a day later, in February, 1994, he did it again when he announced he would be pursuing a career in professional baseball. (Courtesy Photo) ferent stages – in high school, college and at times, on the pro level – Cappuccio played professional baseball longer than anyone from Malden ever: · Nine seasons · Over 800 games · More than 3,400 plate appearances and 77 homers · A career .291 batting average and 499 career RBIs Cappuccio, a 1988 Malden High School graduate and a former three-time First Team NCAA All-America selectee, played 249 games over three years at MLB’s Triple-AAA level – one step from the big leagues. But that was a big step that was never taken. Jordan shocked the world in 1994 When Michael Jordan shocked the world for the second time in four months on February 7, 1994, and announced he was coming out of retirement to take a swing at a professional baseball career, it was seismic. It made LeBron James’ “The Decision,” when he dumped Cleveland for the first time to run off to Miami in 2010, look like a runof-the-mill TMZ snippet. Jordan’s foray into the world Carmine Cappuccio, Malden High Class of 1988, played for the South Bend White Sox in his professional debut for the Chicago White Sox organization in 1992. (Courtesy Photo) of pro baseball was back in the news four years ago in 2020 due to the wildly popular, 10-part ESPN introspective on his life and career, The Last Dance. One of the installments delved into Jordan’s choice to leave basketball behind and move on to another sport. This month, February 2024, marks the 30th anniversary of that fateful decision. NBA fans, particularly those in Chicago, were already still shellshocked from Jordan’s previous news missile, which he launched one day shy of four months earlier. On October 6, 1993, he told the world he was retiring from the Chicago Bulls at the age of 31, after winning the previous three consecutive NBA World Championships. Baseball announcement came out of deep left field The baseball announcement “came out of left field,” but the stature of Jordan in the sports world – there was no one even close at the time – gave his choice instant credibility. It’s Michael Jordan, he can do anything! It certainly did not hurt that two other larger-than-life sports celebrities, Bo Jackson, of “Bo Knows everything” fame, was in the midst of a highly successful two-sport (football, until 1990; baseball, until 1994) career, as was Deion “Prime Time” Sanders. In fact, at the very time Jordan made his baseball bombshell, Jackson was a member of the Chicago White Sox organization. They would end up being in spring training together two weeks later. There were plenty of skeptics when this front-page news came out, and lots of sports fans were intrigued by the novelty of this outlandish revelation regarding the handsdown most well-known athlete in the world. Scratch that – the most famous person in the world. Between the Sarasota White Sox and South Bend White Sox, Malden’s Carmine Cappuccio had a big year in 1993. (Courtesy Photo) Then spring training started and Jordan was settling into his new role, and toward the end of the month-long session, it was made known that Jordan, who had been toiling as an outfielder, was going to be assigned to start the season with the Birmingham Barons, the White Sox Double-A affiliate in Alabama. What? Double-A? Unheard of! No player with such a dearth of experience as Jordan, despite his expected appeal for ticket sales and every other dollar that could be squeezed out of his choice, would start their career as high as Double-A. But he did. We talked about seismic occurrences earlier. Well, the tremors from this announcement traveled nearly 2,000 miles north of the White Sox spring training site in Sarasota, Fla. – all the way to Malden, Mass. Cappuccio a threesport star at Malden High A 1988 MHS graduate and the city of Malden’s only threesport All-Scholastic (baseball, basketball, football) ever for Malden High, The Boston Globe named him Massachusetts’ top student-athlete of the year. The lanky, 6-4 Cappuccio is known and considered as the best and most successful athletes in Malden High School history. He is one of only two student-athletes in the annals of Malden HS sports history to have his number (Baseball #17) retired by the Malden School Committee. The other is basketball great Willie Barron. Cappuccio’s football team was considered one of the best ever seen at Pearl Street Stadium in the 1986-1988 seasons, where he established new receiving and scoring records for a season and a career, still holding them to this day. As a 6-4 shooting guard, he bombed away for 40 three-pointers in 1987-88, a school record that still stands. In baseball, he graduated as the top Golden Tornado in pitching wins – CAPPUCCIO | SEE PAGE 15
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