Terry Francona Says With 1,500 ABs, Michael Jordan Would Have Made It to the Big Leagues

First of all, I had no idea Terry Francona was the manager of the Birmingham Barons' manager in the mid-90s and coached Michael Jordan on the diamond. What a cool tidbit.

And while the lasting legacy of Jordan's foray into baseball isn't exactly all positive, Francona swears MJ had what it took to make it to the Big Leagues. And as someone whose job it was to watch him play every day, I'll take his word for it. I mean, Tim Tebow is probably going to play a few series in the Majors if for no other reason than to sell some September Mets tickets, so I have little doubt Jordan would have been kept out of the Bigs.

Plus, if there's any athlete who ever had the drive to do such a thing, it was Michael Jordan. And the Birmingham hitting coach said on The Last Dance that Jordan would take several extra rounds of BP every day, both before and after games.

We'll never know what MJ could have fully looked like as a baseball player, but a World Series champion manager thinks it could have been a pretty remarkable career.