The All-Worlds Fair

So I got a new phone today and called my dad to tell him to expect his new phone in the mail... and he told me there was some show on with Michael Jordan in a Birmingham Barons uniform on TV. As I was sitting in front of the TV, I checked and found out Ron Shelton's "Jordan Rides the Bus" was on ESPN, part of their 30 For 30 series of important sports events that happened in the 30 years of ESPN's existence. I had heard about this film but not seen it. (I saw the one about the Fab Five Michigan basketball players and it was really good.)

If you don't know, Michael Jordan was a phenomenal basketball player. Probably the best of all time. After he won his third straight NBA championship, his father was killed and Mike decided to retire. But something he talked about with his dad nagged at him: could he be a professional baseball player, too? The film was about this with old footage of Mike himself as well as new footage of the other players in the story.

A lot of the first half of it was basketball, blah blah blah (I was a big Pistons fan at the time and despised the Bulls). Once the story got to Birmingham - for Mike played for the Barons in 1994 - it was really good. I recognized Bill Hardekopf's voice immediately. And Curt Bloom's. Not so much some other people. There was Joe Drake. I was there - but not in the film. I worked for the team that year, parking cars or sitting at the lower parking entrance just to make sure Mike drove in without being bothered. He waved to me whenever he came by in his Corvette, Porsche or SUV. Ah, thanks Mike, for taking four of your fingers off the steering wheel long enough to acknowledge my existence!

The film even showed Mike's first home run, which was in the late innings on a late July evening. I had worked until the fourth or fifth inning, as was typical, and Donny, a friend of mine who also worked parking for Ralph Comer, went with me into the stadium to watch the game. But, being who we were, it was boring, Mike was 0-2 and we said forget this, let's go to Mata's and get a grinder. So we left and I drove. I had and do still have a love of listening to sports on radio when I can so we listened to the game on the way, with CB belting it out every time. We were on US 31 south, almost to Mata's when Mike connected for his first homer, in the "Unleaveable Yard," so christened earlier in the year by the team's first baseman at the time, either Mike Robertson or Kevin Coughlin (thanks baseballreference.com). The celebrations went well into the night.

Of all the years I worked for the Barons (a total of eight), 1994 was the most satisfying. We had and still have a great stadium, a hard-playing team, and a LOT of fans who came out to see the team. Yet it was also tough. The staff had never seen anything like this before. To operate above capacity for most of the season would try most people's souls and it did for the people we worked with. No kidding, it wasn't easy. And it wasn't fun. Working parking is NEVER fun. But free baseball and getting paid for working for a baseball team smooths over a lot of the hurt.

I have only been back to Birmingham during the baseball season once - in 2008, when my wife and I were moving to New York. The first thing I did after getting a good night's sleep and going to the Golden Corral was head to a baseball game with my wife, my dad and a friend of the family. I don't even remember what happened - don't care. But we loved it, every minute.

Before I wrap this up, I have to mention my second strongest baseball memory. My first was Kirk Gibson's stupid behind hitting the home run in 1988. Hated it so much and still do. But my second strongest memory is of a Barons game against the hated Huntsville Stars, at the time our only instate rival. Barons down 5-0 AND being no-hit into the bottom of the ninth. Impossible, you think? Touche! Barons win 6-5 IN NINE INNINGS! Unbelievable, you say? Nay! I was there and Curt Bloom was there, as were a number of other people who can tell you it really happened. Best. Baseball. Game. Ever.

Best basketball game ever: Duke 101, Kentucky 100.

Second best basketball game ever: Alabama 92, Arkansas 90.

Best recent basketball game: LIU 82, St. Francis 80 in the St. Francis Battle of Brooklyn this year.

Best hockey game: Game 7 of the Tampa/Calgary Stanley Cup final.

Second best: Any clincher for the Pens - and the Tampa/Boston Game 7 last week.

Enough! You get the idea. I probably should have mentioned something about Memorial Day - but I can always work my way back around to it next year.