Page 8 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, MArCH 1, 2024 THEY EVEN SAID IT ON SPORTS CENTER! Michael Jordan’s decision to try pro baseball had a direct effect on the career of Malden’s Carmine Cappuccio imagine: Michael Jordan basically stole Cappuccio’s spot on the Double-A Birmingham Barons in 1994 (Following is Part 2 of twopart series telling the story of how a decision by the greatest player in NBA history, Michael Jordan, had a direct effect on the professional baseball fate of Malden High School’s greatest athlete, Carmine Cappuccio.) By Steve Freker I t was February 7, 1994, and big news in Chicago that day was how the Bulls had heated up in a hurry, winning 21 of 24 games, jumping to fourth place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings. The Atlanta Hawks, led by Dominique Wilkins and former Boston College star John Bagley and the Patrick Ewing-fueled New York Knicks were 1-2 in the East at the time. Much was being made of the Bulls’ hot streak as the three-time defending NBA champs were apparently getting on just fine without the services of the legendary Michael Jordan, who had shocked the world three months and a day earlier, when he announced his retirement. Before that day was out, however, it would be the man who many call the greatest player in NBA history that would make the earth move once again. In a press release out of another Chicago professional sports team’s office, it was announced that Jordan had signed a minor league contract with the MLB Chicago White Sox. At the time, both the Bulls and the White Sox were owned by sports conglomerate builder Jerry Reinsdorff. Check that Richter Scale, folks, here was another seismic announcement with the most recognizable athlete in the world, front and center. Though not unheard of, after all, Bo “Knows Everything” Jackson was on the White Sox roster at the time and Deion “Primetime” Sanders was playing for the two Atlanta franchises, football Falcons and baseball Braves, at the time. But this was different. This was Michael Jordan. Plus, he wasn’t talking about playing two sports, just the one: baseball. “BAG IT!” SPORTS ILLUSTRATED COVER: A Sports Illustrated cover bashed NBA great Michael Jordan for deciding to give professional baseball a try. Think LeBron James retiring and going to the NFL Think LeBron James retiring from the NBA and then announcing he would be strapping on a football helmet and playing D-End for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. Or Mike Trout putting away his bat and glove and telling the world he would next be seen skating in the NHL for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Even though these statements today would be mind-boggling and seem outlandish, to say the least, multiply all that times 1000!! It was Michael Jordan saying and doing this! Of course, a common reaction to all this was “This isn’t real... it’s all just a hoax, wait and see.” Everyone waited, and then it was not a hoax. Then they saw Jordan suited up at White Sox spring training in Sarasota, Fla., a couple of weeks later. He dressed in the same locker room with Bo Jackson and the rest of the major leaguers and even played in a game against the Cleveland Indians against a hot Cleveland prospect who simply pounded the ball to gaps with authority, when he wasn’t hitting it over the fence. That guy, also an outfielder, did not even get the big league spring training media attention or instant recognition that Jordan got that spring. The Indian prospect? Manny Ramirez, who would go on to hit 555 homers and help bring the Red Sox two World Series titles in the following decade. Up-and-coming ChiSox prospect from Malden: Carmine Cappuccio There were also a trio of more fine, up-and-coming young outfielders on the other side of the White Sox Sarasota spring training complex toiling away, who also were not illuminated in the spotlight that shone brightly on Michael Jordan that spring. The threesome included two future major leaguers and a Malden, Mass., native who had done what most every professional athlete does on their way up the ladder: rip it up and be one of the best at every level of play. Malden’s Carmine Cappuccio had just come off his best professional baseball season to date, joining his fellow outfield prospects Mike Cameron and Jimmy Hurst in leading the South Bend (Indiana) White Sox to a Midwest League championship. Cappuccio hit .305, his highest average in his pro career, with four homers and 52 RBIs in 101 games in ’93 for South Bend. He was among the team leaders in extra base hits (26 doubles, 6 triples) and led all everyday players in OPS (.813). Cappuccio was a key man in a strong outfield contingent that included the likes of Cameron and Hurst, who hit 20 home runs that season. The 1994 season looked like it could be a big one as to moving up the Chicago TRIPLE-A NASHVILLE SOUNDS: Malden’s Carmine Cappuccio played in 1995, 1996 and 1997 at the Triple-A professional baseball level for the Nashville (Tennessee) Sounds. GOLDEYES STATS CARD: Here is a look at Carmine Cappuccio’s professional baseball stats through the years, on the back of his Winnipeg Goldeyes card. White Sox baseball ladder, for all three prospects. Who knows? maybe one, two or perhaps all of the three might get a shot at a roster spot at the Double-A level, which that year was the Birmingham (Alabama) Barons. Cappuccio was in his third year of professional baseball, Cameron and Hurst in their fourth. All three had legitimate consideration at a Double-A roster spot. Those in the know tell of the value of that Double-A year. “It’s a blink away from the big leagues, for most organizations. Double-A ball is where teams fine-tune and ready their players for the majors,” a seasoned Atlanta Braves scout named John Stewart told me a year after that 1994 season when he was scouting another Malden High-bred future pro, Kevin McGlinchy. McGlinchy later became Malden’s second pro of the 1990s when he was picked in the fifth round by the Braves in the 1995 MLB draft. You know something else? That Braves scout, John Stewart, knew the whole story about Cappuccio and Jordan. Everyone in MLB did, it seemed. Because everyone knows how rare it is to make it to the “bigs.” He commiserated with us Malden folks, agreeing that Carmine got the short end of that Chicago stick. Double-A: A blink away from the big leagues A blink away. So that Double-A spot is pretty valuable real estate when it comes to a professional baseball career, especially if you had just turned 24 years old a week before Jordan’s big news announcement, as Cappuccio had done on February 1, 1994. Still another shoe dropped about a week and a half before spring training broke in March 1994 when it was announced that the most famous minor league baseball player in the world, Michael Jordan, would be starting his professional baseball career with the Birmingham Barons, at the Double-A level. And – you guessed it – he’d be playing outfield. You heard that correctly. Here was a man who had last played baseball 13 years previously, at Laney High in Wilmington, N.C. Two games into his senior year baseball season at Laney, he was dismissed from the team because he had missed time on the baseball diamond due to playing in a basketball tournament. Despite his basically nonexistent baseball resume, the 31-year-old Jordan was getting a coveted and highly valued outfielder roster spot in one of the top Double-A professional baseball leagues in the nation. As for the aforementioned trio of Cappuccio, Cameron and Hurst? No Double-A for them. Not even a sniff in 1994, not with the Michael Jordan Show headed to BirCARMINE CAPPUCCIO | SEE PAGE 9
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