"Every night he was there, it was crazy," Doherty boy's basketball coach Eric Steinert said.
It was an image almost as shocking as his "all-world" play. Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player ever, suiting up to play baseball for the Birmingham Barons (White Sox (AA) Affiliate) in 1994. Steinert is one of the few to get a front row seat for the rare sight.
"My house was literally five minutes away from the park," Steinert said. "Being 7 years old, you knew who he was, this giant superstar of an athlete."
Twenty-six years later, a great deal has changed for both but those memories still burn bright. A Hoover, Alabama, native, Steinert had the chance to take the baseball diamond with Jordan as part of a Little League contest.
"We did the 'Field of Dreams' thing when I was 7, I remember meeting him, running on the field and yeah I got some memories from it," Steinert said. "It was pretty cool."
While most of his players don't know much about the greatness of No. 23, this series has brought the legendary Chicago Bulls of the 1990s back into the spotlight and has given the Spartans coach a chance to reflect on a few snapshots from his past.
"They're all about Lebron James and everybody," Steinert said. "It's a cool thing, a lot of my adult friends, especially the ones back home, can talk about it and we can kind of tell our stories about it."
One of the few to catch a glimpse of "MJ" during his break from basketball. It's a welcome flashback that will forever warm, like the sun, on these Boys of Summer and a rare moment they shared with Jordan.
"That five-second interaction I had with him is still impactful," Steinert said. "He had that thousands of times a day, and incredible how many people he impacted in his career."
