Bull Durham, Michael Jordan, and Director Ron Shelton

Possibly the best baseball movie of all time - definitely the best minor league baseball movie - is the 1988 flick "Bull Durham," written and directed by Ron Shelton. Shelton got to revisit parts of that movie this week when he stopped in to see the Birmingham Barons. The reason for his visit? A new documentary on basketball great Michael Jordan's 1994 stint in the minor leagues.

ESPN is celebrating its 30^th anniversary by asking 30 movie directors to do documentaries on the topic of their choice. The only limitation: It has to be something covered by ESPN during its time on the air.

Shelton, not surprisingly, chose Michael Jordan's year in the minor. Jordan spent the 1994 baseball season with the Birmingham Barons, the Chicago White Sox Double-A affliate.

The trip was Shelton's second professional visit to Birmingham. He shot some of his 1994 movie, "Cobb," in Birmingham, but that was at old Rickwood Field - not modern Regions Park.

Thursday night, he was at the opening game for the Barons against the Chattanooga Lookouts, shooting B-footage for the documentary. I ran into him in the stands and found him to be an interesting and engaging person - easy to talk to.

I mentioned that was amazed at how he captured the minor league lifestyle in "Bull Durham." Shelton's secret: He was a minor league ball player himself, playing five seasons (1966-1971) in the Baltimore Orioles minor league system, and he wrote the script.

"I lived it," Shelton said. "I rode the buses. Everything happened like it did in the movie."

Then he added, "Well, not everything. I never did meet anybody like Susan [Sarandon] there."

Sarandon played Annie Savoy, a minor-league groupie who used her "social skills" to help talented players - one a year - make it to the major leagues.

Annie may have been invented, but the sprinkler scene, where the ballplayers turned on the irrigation system during a game - really happened. In fact, Shelton and another teammate were the real-life culprits.

Regardless, "Bull Durham" established Shelton as a major director and writer in the film industry. He went on to direct a number of other sports-related films, including "Tin Cup" (1996), "Cobb" (1994), "Blue Chips" (1994), "The Best of Times" (1986), and "White Men Can't Jump" (1992).

Many of his non-sports films are also memorable, including "Blaze" (1989) and "Under Fire" (1983) and "Bad Boys II." His most recent work, "Game of Shadows," will be released this year.

Sheldon said he got into films simply because he liked movies. "I majored in English and never really planned to become a movie director," he said. "I was a ball player. I became a director because I liked movies."

Shelton was a college baseball player who majored in English and got an MFA in sculpture from the University of Arizona. Both backgrounds serve him well.

He writes many of his own films, including "Bull Durham" and "Blue Chips." His fine arts degree is handy for the visual aspects of his films.

And, while his baseball experience never introduced him to someone like Annie Savoy, he had better luck with his film career. Shelton met his wife through the movies - not baseball. Actress Lolita Davidovich played the lead role in Shelton's 1989 film, "Blaze." She also appeared in "Cobb."

Shelton left Regions Park after the third inning of Thursday night's game. He got his footage, did an interview with Barons broadcaster Curt Bloom, said goodby to the press, and headed to the airport.

He was flying back to Los Angeles - back to the Hollywood and away from the minor league baseball.

But these days, he seems comfortable in both worlds.