Posted on 08/22/2012 10:22:40 AM PDT by Hojczyk
Ella is my youngest.
She has my hair and eyes and her mothers smile. The timing is distinctly hers. She was five when she asked, quite publicly, Dad, do you like your little hand?
My what? Do I like it?
I had come to her preschools Career Day bearing baseball cards for her classmates. In the morning rush getting the girls through the front door and into the car, Id packed into a gym bag a couple familiar baseball caps, an Olympic gold medal and a baseball glove.
I had come first as a dad, and then as a former baseball player. Id pitched for the local team, the California Angels, and for the team everybody had heard of, the New York Yankees. I had come because I wasnt pitching anymore, and because Ellas mother, my wife, Dana, wryly pointed out that preschool Career Day wasnt really for fathers who no longer had careers.
At any age, I was the kid with the deformity. At Ellas age, I was the kid with the shiny and clunky metal hook where his right hand should have been.
Thirty-five years later, classrooms remained among the few places where I was conscious of my stunted right hand. I would enter and later find I had slipped it into my front pants pocket, tethered against unconscious gesturing, signaling to the room that the details of its story would come at my choosing, if at all.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
I went to school with Jim Abbott and was always proud of the way he handled himself. Later in life when I seen that he was a professional ball player I thought what a great roll model he is for all.
Good luck, Jim, today and forever.
Great life’s story.
I knew a girl in High School was was a thalidomide Baby. She was born missing her feet and had to wear prosthetic legs from the knees on down.
Great personality, we lost track of each other after school.
I know people from Flint who played high school ball with Abbott. Universally they say he is a solid, stand-up guy. Not the egoist one might expect of a high school kid with Major League talent.
"Hey, I resemble that remark."
A perfect example of overcoming handicaps...
That's the great thing about baseball -- it's a game of statistics where the most interesting things can revolve around a player or team that seemingly defies quantifying through statistics.
The Phillies had a journeyman 1st baseman back in the 70's. Hit Tom Seaver at like a .320 clip when Seaver was in his prime. This guy was a .248 hitter, too. Go figure?
Mike was a real role model. And an incredible soccer player.
What impressed me the most about him was watching him drive with his feet. The only "aid" was a suicide knob on the wheel for him to grasp.
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