So, after all the contests and limited edition Gatorade and special wings surrounding Michael Jordan’s induction to the Hall of Fame, the day is finally coming Friday. Jordan will be locked into the Hall of Fame, a place the man was pretty much born to reside.

So who’s presenting him? Maybe one of his legendary coaches? Phil Jackson? Dean Smith? Maybe his mother? Maybe one of his teammates? Maybe one of his colleagues?

No to all. He’s actually pegged David Thompson, a former NC State standout and NBA star, to introduce him. And here’s why, via Yahoo!:

“I got a call from the Hall of Fame and they asked me if I was willing to be a presenter for someone,” Thompson recently told Yahoo! Sports. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t know who it was. … They said Michael Jordan. I was like, ‘Wow.’ He told them that he was a big fan of mine and I was the one that really inspired him. Being that there was so many North Carolina people he could’ve chose, I was honored.

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To Jordan, Thompson’s college ties didn’t matter as much as his game. Before Jordan became Air Jordan, David Thompson owned the skies.

Thompson grew up in Shelby, N.C. Jordan was just 11 when Thompson led the Wolfpack to their first NCAA championship in 1974. Nicknamed “Skywalker,” he captured Jordan’s imagination – and that of the rest of the nation – with his 48-inch vertical leap and acrobatic dunks.

For nostalgia purposes, this moves makes plenty of sense for Jordan. Sure Dean Smith crafted his game, and Phil Jackson was there during his title runs, but this is apparently the guy that made Michael Jordan want to become Michael Jordan. The guy that Jordan saw while growing up in North Carolina, and idolized. The guy Jordan wanted to be, before everyone wanted to be like him.

There’s a lot to be said for this person in your life. Jordan is simply paying tribute to his.

Dave Parker was a cornerstone of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ “We Are Family” dynasty of the 1970s. He said some stuff last weekend:

“You can go into the Hall of Fame and pull out half of them and I think their numbers aren’t as good as mine,’” said Parker, who attended a reunion of the 1979 Pirates championship team last weekend. “There are very few who went in recently who were as important to the team as I was. I was always The Guy or one of The Guys - I became one of The Guys at the latter part of my career, at 39 or 40. I was probably one of the most instrumental guys as far as my team having success.”

“The Guy,” huh? I’ve always wanted to be able to capitalize while speaking audibly. Anyway, let’s give his claims a fair shake. First, by determining “the guys who went in recently,” then narrowing the list down to the position players inducted over the last decade, we get: Jim Rice, Cal Ripken Jr., Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs, Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield, Kirby Puckett and Carlton Fisk.

Dave Parker posted some terrific career numbers: 2,712 hits, .290 batting average and 339 home runs. He’s good for a career OPS+ of 121. As it turns out, none of the above players posted a career OPS+ of more than 132.

Parker’s historical significance is arguably as great as most of these players. His claim has some validity to it, which brings me to the kicker:

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Gatorade (or, “G,” if you prefer) is releasing a new Michael Jordan Gatorade in preparation for his Hall of Fame induction. I have received  a sample of it, and it is awesome. It is, in fact, better than real Gatorade. (Proof you say? How about this: I exercised after drinking it. And I’m a blogger who’s scared of the sun. What more do you need, kind sir/madam?)

Anyway, the G peeps are doing a big push on it, and it makes sense: while Gatorade is symbolically embraced within sports culture, no one athlete is more recognizable with the brand than Jordan himself. And part of that push is the new commercial for this G product that you see below.

Double bonus? Everybody’s favorite pop-culture-meets-sports blogger Chris Littmann (of FirstCuts fame) was able to find, via HypeBeast, a video of the artsy people assembling the commercial. Naturally, it’s quite awesome.

See it after the jump. Keep reading →

I’ve long contended that Pete Rose should be in Cooperstown. Yes, he gambled on baseball and that’s bad. But all signs point to the fact that he was stubborn (some would say “stupid”) enough to simply bet on his own team, the Cincinnati Reds, to win. If that’s the case — and it appears to be — well, hell, doesn’t that make him want to win more?

Answer: yes, yes it does. And because of that, Pete Rose didn’t cheat. He violated some “baseball laws” or whatever the hell the late Bart Giamatti wanted to call them and he was banned from baseball forever, ending any chance that one of the greatest players in baseball history would ever be enshrined in Cooperstown.

Then all of a sudden, we found out that baseball was FULL of cheaters. Surprising, I know, but steroids became a way of life in the big leagues and a total PR disaster for everyone involved, particularly one Bud Selig, Commissioner of FAIL MLB.

Now, some folks have thought that Selig might relent and let Rose into the Hall of Fame (he’ll do it on his way out of office, of course) and so Hank Aaron’s words this weekend tell us two things. (First the words, then the things.)

“I would like to see Pete in. He belongs there.”

Simple words, yes, from a simple man, but they mean a lot. For instance, Selig and Aaron are good friends: Aaron’s support of Rose is a clear indication that Bud may also be inclined to see baseball’s all-time hits leader enshrined in Cooperstown.

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Scoop Jackson proposed that very idea yesterday, shortly before Jordan and the 2009 class were elected to the HOF:

That would be the fairest thing to do, for all involved. The distraction of MJ and the overall pageantry surrounding Jordan will be too great for any of the other inductees to enjoy themselves. For the others to get the attention and respect they deserve, Jordan must not be around on their day. Not in the crowd, not in the state, not even passing through. If he is (and he will be), for the others, it’ll be like a bride getting upstaged on her wedding day … by her own mother.

This makes a lot of sense. If I’m John Stockton, I don’t want to be upstaged by Jordan. Again. And certainly when I’m not even in the damn league anymore. Hasn’t he suffered enough? It’s like opening for the Beatles in 1964 … just get to the main act already. Jordan transcends all.

Scoop doesn’t think the NBA will do this, and he’s probably right. So what does the league do then? Have Jordan go first, quelling the crowd’s restlessness, and then move on to the lesser names? Nah, it shouldn’t do that.

The best always go last. We all know this.

Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent is scheduled to announce his retirement this afternoon. To me, he’s a significant figure for two reasons.

The first, of course, is his career performance. Believe it or not, when Kent first appears on the Hall of Fame ballot in a few years, he probably merits induction. A record 351 of his 377 home runs were hit as a second baseman, and he managed a career .290 batting average and 123 OPS+. You can argue whether we should inflate the merits of his offensive stats on the basis of his historically weak-hitting fielding position, but the Hall has already issued a mandate. Ryne Sandberg entered the Hall with more Gold Gloves and stolen bases than Kent, but also less home runs and a lower OPS+. Providing substantial offensive production in the four-hole is a substantial feat, and the Hall would be hard pressed to justify not inducting him.

The second reason is that Kent, the personality, is a relic of the early 1990s. His crew cut, mustache, and stupid-ass M-frame Oakleys, which he was still wearing in 2008, were straight out of 1991. Combine these features with a bad-boy attitude and you have a living, breathing, untouched time capsule to an earlier era. That level of maintenance, or perhaps lack of self-awareness, is also a substantial feat.

I don’t really care which hat he wears into the Hall. Just please, for the love of God, let him wear Oakleys on his plaque.

Over at the Fun Hut, Matt Snyder is reporting that Rickey Henderson enthusiast Rickey Henderson is still interested in playing in the majors. The 50-year-old Henderson has hemmed and hawed about his desire to play for the better part of this decade, but this latest development is interesting because, as far as I’m aware, Henderson could be the only Hall of Famer to ever play the game.

Signing and playing Rickey Henderson, of course, would be tantamount to a gimmick, but gimmicks are fun, right? When Minnie Minoso, whose career debuted in 1949, returned for a cup of coffee with the White Sox in 1976 and again in 1980, he wasn’t productive, but the fans loved it.

Stranger things have happened. When the Olympics were in Atlanta, the Braves held a tryout for a Czech Olympic javelin thrower with no baseball experience. Garth Brooks once participated in Spring Training with the Padres. And Felix Pie is a baseball player. Teams are still willing to make ridiculous gambles on guys who almost certainly won’t pan out, so despite the recent lack of interest in Rickey after his “I want to play” overtures, a return of Rickey Henderson to the majors actually makes a marginal amount of sense in an “eh, what the Hell” sort of way. So hey, if there are any cavalier general managers out there: a lot of us would love to see Rickey play at the major league level again, if only out of curiosity. Sure, he’ll probably hit .205, but sometimes you just have to take one for the league.