For Francona, it was an experience that he'll never forget and one that helped shape him into becoming a better leader.
"What I want people to know is how much respect Michael had for the game and the people in the game," Francona said on Inside the Clubhouse on Saturday. "That is why the whole thing worked. There were so many reasons why the whole thing could have gone off the rails. It never did go bad, and I think it was that respect he had had for everything that made it work and easy to be patient with him on the field. The guy hadn't played (baseball for 17 years). He was doing his thing for those years on the basketball court. So that really impressed me, and that's why it worked so out so well.
"When you are a Double-A manager, you are there to learn. I didn't realize it at the time, because I was just trying to survive, but looking back how could you be put into a better learning environment? You are dealing with arguably the highest-profile athlete of any time or any game. Learning to deal with the media, trying to be organized with your time. Everyone is clamoring to get to you or him or anybody around us. Maybe the biggest challenge was to make the other 24 players feel as important as Michael. Nobody was asking about them.
"It could not have been a better learning experience."
Jordan hit .202 with three homers, 51 RBIs and a .556 OPS in 127 games for Birmingham in 1994. He did that at 31 years old, having not played baseball since he was 14.
So how far would Jordan have gone if he'd chosen to pursue baseball as a youngster?
"No. 1, what you quickly find out about him is if you tell him to no, he is going to somehow show you the answer is yes," said Francona, who currently manages the Indians and who previously led the Red Sox to two World Series titles. "So you must say that about his makeup going in. Also, if he had just been a baseball player and put his talents on the baseball field, I have no doubt he would have found a way to get to the big leagues."
To this day, Francona still marvels at Jordan's competitiveness.
"I was asked recently to compare somebody to Michael," Francona said. "The only guy I could come up with was Pete Rose -- the part of being competitive and feeling like you are unbeatable, the determination to be better than anyone else. That was the example I gave. It is a shame of what happened because they now have this one view of (Rose). When I played with him in Montreal, we all thought he walked on water. He was the ultimate teammate, and the game seemed so easy for him. That to me was who Pete was."
Another guest on Inside the Clubhouse on Saturday was White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper, who shared a favorite Jordan story of his as well.
"Michael came to Florida and Tommy Thompson and I got the call to come down and work out Jordan," Cooper recalled. "We did it all for two days. Day three, he wants to try and steal bases from first base on us. We were throwing him out left and right. He was not giving up on it. He wanted that challenge and said, 'I will steal a base on you guys.' The bet was we would bet his Lamborghini for the night, and we did get it. The other thing I remember is lots of ping-pong. I was playing ping-pong with him and talking trash. I kicked his (butt). He came back every day until he was beating me. He was really having fun."