An hour before game’s start, the seats along the right-field line were filled. At game’s start, traffic still jammed the road leading to Huntsville’s Joe W. Davis Stadium.
Shortly after game’s start, a record crowd of 12,819 nearly filled that place in honor of Birmingham’s right-fielder.
That, of course, is Michael Jordan, who was busy with the Barons Friday night during those same hours the Bulls were facing Cleveland in their playoff opener.
His old team had a better evening than both Jordan, who went 0 for 4, and his new team, which lost to the Stars 2-1.
Jordan entered this night hitting an even .300, third best on the Barons, and with at least one hit in 13 of his last 14 games. But by its end, his average had dipped to .281.
In the second inning, batting with two out and the bases empty, he struck out looking. That gave him 21 strikeouts in 18 games.
In the fourth, batting with one out and the bases again empty, he looked at two off-speed strikes, ignored a fast ball wide, then hit a chopper to short.
In the sixth, as he came to bat with two outs, a runner on third and the score tied at one, the crowd stirred. Again, the first pitch he saw was off-speed, and he watched it go by for a called strike. Another off-speed followed, and this one he fouled back. Then came a fastball in tight. This one he rolled to second.
Finally, in the ninth, he came to the plate with two out, the bases empty and the score still tied at one. This time he worked the count to 2-2 and then struck out.
None of this, of course, much bothered those people who had come out to watch Jordan. In the 10 road games the Barons played before hitting Huntsville Thursday night, they drew an average crowd of 11,950, and here his effect was even more dramatic, as Friday’s crowd showed.
