Micah Johnson didn’t hesitate when an opportunity presented itself to collaborate with the Chicago White Sox.
“It was a no-brainer,” said Johnson, who played parts of three seasons in the big leagues as an infielder/outfielder — including 2015 with the Sox.
“I know I can’t get back on the field and play, but to still be able to have a touchpoint with the game through art and creativity — because I still feel like I have a responsibility to, and desire to onboard the next generation of baseball players and fans to the game.”
Johnson connected with members of the White Sox Amateur City Elite (ACE) program to create commemorative artwork in honor of Juneteenth. Johnson said he took the young players’ ideas and morphed them into a body of work.
The design — which features an iteration of Johnson’s digital character, Aku — is on T-shirts and uniform patches that will be worn by ACE and Team Teflon players this weekend. Several Sox players and members of the coaching staff wore the T-shirt during batting practice before Wednesday’s game against the Houston Astros at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“Playing in the major leagues is very hard, very few people have done it,” Johnson said. “And if my character can be an emblem for kids to say, ‘That’s Micah’s character, Micah played in the major leagues and he’s also doing this,’ then my job’s done.”
The Sox selected Johnson in the ninth round of the 2012 draft out of Indiana. He played in 36 games with the team in 2015, making 32 starts at second base. Johnson hit .230 with four doubles, four RBIs and three stolen bases.
“It’s special, this place,” Johnson said Tuesday at Guaranteed Rate Field. “I haven’t been back since I left in 2015, but being back on the field and walking into the stadium was really special. Brought back a lot of memories of my dreams coming true in 2015.”
Such a powerful project
https://t.co/LFQ8eT92II pic.twitter.com/jXZpNaubvt
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 19, 2024
He landed with the Los Angeles Dodgers that December as part of a three-team trade that brought Todd Frazier to the Sox from the Cincinnati Reds.
Johnson spent 2016 with the Dodgers and 2017 with the Atlanta Braves. He said he discovered art during his time with the Dodgers.
“They gave me a show at Dodger Stadium,” Johnson said. “And I went to Atlanta and did another show at the Woodruff Arts Center, which was connected to the High Museum, two places I probably had no business having art in at that time. But I just rode with it.”
When he retired from playing, he knew art was what he wanted to do full-time.
“I found that creativity was very much like baseball, it was very process-oriented,” he said.
Johnson said his “creative output is across the board.”
He also has a connection with Thursday’s MLB at Rickwood Field game in Birmingham, Ala.
“While working on this (with the Sox and ACE), I was working on a project with Topps and I painted the first Negro League baseball card set,” Johnson said. “It was six cards (Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Larry Doby, Monte Irvin and Josh Gibson), Topps has released that set of individual cards over the past couple of weeks and this week at the Rickwood Classic, those cards will be unveiled and for sale.”
He hopes that projects like the work with the ACE program resonate in multiple ways.
“All I’m trying to do is inspire kids to say, ‘If he did it, I can do it,’” Johnson said.
