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Firstly, let us make this crystal
clear, 'Flintoff & Dunn' do not in any way decry the baseball talents of
Kevin Jordan and we are proud to claim him as a new Australian citizen,
especially given his long-standing contributions to big league baseball both
here and in the United States of America.
Kevin
Jordan originally came to Australia as a US import player to play
with our ABL Brisbane Bandits in 1993 after having been drafted by
the famous New York Yankees. He was the first (and only) ABL player
to "hit for the cycle" and he was a popular winner of the
league MVP award at the end of the 1993 season. Kevin returned to
the USA and made his major league debut with the Philadelphia
Phillies in 1995 where he played "off and on" until 2001.
A
knee injury saw Jordan return to the ABL, basically for
rehabilitation, and he played another season with the Brisbane
Bandits in 1997. During this visit to Australia he cemented a
relationship with a Brisbane woman who he was to marry shortly
after. This led to him subsequently obtaining Australian
citizenship. Kevin then went on to resume his major league career
with the Phillies until the end of the 2001 season. He later played
Independent League baseball in the States.
Technically,
there was a time when Kevin Jordan was an Australian citizen while
playing with the Phillies in the US major leagues, so Baseball
Australia are not WRONG! Where we differ is in our efforts to count
players who developed their baseball careers in Australia and who
took their talents to the pinnacle of baseball, by making their
major league debut as "an Australian who REACHED the US major
leagues"! Kevin Jordan did not play his formative years of
baseball in Australia and he was not an Australian when he first
reached the majors, it's as simple as that... |
