The exact original photograph used to produce Michael Jordan's celebrated 1991 Upper Deck SP1 baseball card has never surfaced, making photographs from this July 25, 1990 Comiskey Park batting practice session the earliest known, most desirable, and most historically significant Jordan baseball images available to collectors. Clean solo images from the shoot are exceptionally rare, and this striking composition is arguably the finest baseball photographs of him ever to reach the public market.

Taken nearly four years before Jordan reported to the Birmingham Barons, the image captures basketball's greatest icon during a batting practice appearance at Comiskey Park, long before his professional baseball career became reality. Wearing a red batting-practice jersey, Jordan is frozen at the completion of his swing while spectators crowd behind the batting cage, creating an instantly recognizable scene that has become one of the defining visual records of his earliest connection to America's pastime. The photograph bears the photographer's ink signature on the reverse, confirming its status as an original first-generation print rather than a later reproduction. PSA/DNA has authenticated the piece as a Type I photograph.

Perhaps most notably, this 8” by 10” image was captured a fraction of a second before the pose ultimately selected for Jordan's iconic 1991 Upper Deck SP1 baseball card. While the card image itself has never been located in original photographic form, this neighboring frame from the same sequence offers collectors the closest known connection to one of the hobby's most famous crossover cards. (Upper Deck SP1 card shown for reference only.) An exceptional artifact documenting the earliest chapter of Michael Jordan's baseball story, this museum-quality Type I photograph represents a rare opportunity to acquire one of the most important and visually compelling Jordan baseball images ever offered.