MLB Set Apart: The Jim Abbott Story

four to nothing yankees leading indians have not had a man past first base jim abbott working on a no-hitter open three and abbott the home of the crowd just changes there's sort of a sense of of that day is going to be special the 1-2 and a bouncer over the head of abbott to gallego when the roar starts happening and you know they're behind you you know just it's like you receive their energy habits left center field long run bernie williams he's there you're just electrified one more out to go for a dream [Music] for me baseball became a way to find acceptance [Music] it was how i saw myself [Music] and pitching gave me a chance to fight or gave me a chance to fight i didn't want to be associated with difference i didn't want to be associated with what people describe as a physical disability was it tough to play baseball having one when i got to the big leagues i thought i could move past the label i thought i could [Music] and it was naive [Music] flint michigan was an amazing place to grow up anybody who grew up in flint would tell you sports were a way of life sports were a way of bringing people together i remember the stories my dad would tell of one athlete after another who had done these amazing things in the city of flint my dad won the state class d championship in baseball football basketball track growing up in flint gives me some fond memories it really does we met in drivers training i did not know he played sports i just you know thought he was a fun cool guy my senior year kathy was going to the university of michigan flint and we found out kathy thought that you know she might be pregnant it was a shock i get a phone call late at night that's cassie and she said to me she said come quick [Music] my water broke kathy was taken immediately upstairs we're in this room waiting a very short time very short time the doctor comes out and he says you have a little boy but you know he was born without one hand i heard it i couldn't process it i was at my weakness at that moment but i was afraid was i up to the task what did i know about this how father am i going to be uh and i broke down you know my mother she grabbed me by my shirt she made me look in her eyes and she said listen to me you can do this you have to she said what god takes what he wants he gives back twice [Music] a mother's love just i think kind of takes over you've got a baby he needs to be loved and he needs to be fed and and taken care of during that time there were no resources or self-help groups we couldn't find anybody who could talk to us about it it seemed like we're all alone the doctor recommended the mary free bed hospital here i was surrounded with kids with similar disabilities as mine but also others with much more severe challenges missing you know both arms or or legs struggling to do the things that it would take to get through a day i sort of said all right maybe i'm not quite like the kids at home you know am i more like the kids that are here it was the first time that i encountered the idea that i was different than other kids i came home from that experience with a metal prosthesis it was shaped around the lower part of my forearm and finished off in a metal hook i went all the way around my back strapped over here and and it basically was very primitive you just if you reached out with your hand the hook opened and if you pulled back the hook closed i hated it i didn't like it it didn't help me my first memory of jim is when when he enrolled at pierce elementary i remember the anticipation of him coming we heard that and we have a kid coming that's got one leg or one arm or something like that there was a lot of staring and pointing and you know kids would run away from him i was very sensitive to the awkward glances the the the questions and i felt like that prosthetic drew more attention than ever i remember trying to draw or write on a piece of paper and i would put that clunky heavy thing down on it and it would rip the paper there were incidents where kids were afraid of his prosthesis some of the other parents had expressed that he might hurt the kids the struggle to fit in in a classroom the struggle of recess that manifested itself quietly in my own mind [Music] i started to fight against it against these feelings of of of being different of having a label i didn't want to be like other people with disabilities i thought that i was normal i thought that i could do anything anybody else could do [Music] that's when sports started to call to me sports in flint was huge there was tons of little league teams around everybody had a ball in a bat on a saturday afternoon everyone would meet at the park on a baseball field on a basketball court or on a football field you could express that anger you could express that loneliness you could fight back against it i liked to throw things a baseball in my hand a football in my hand anything that i could throw rocks anything made sense to me we moved into a duplex an end unit that big brick wall on the side of that duplex was a great big target and i could throw things at it pitching became interesting to me to refine that focus hit a target i had this rubber coated baseball it bounced off that wall pretty fast and so when i threw it i had to get that glove on quick he'd throw it and then catch it and do it again and do it again it was cumbersome for a long time you know try to figure out how i could throw and catch with my left hand i remember it being a trial and error dropping the glove twirling the glove towards my body and letting the ball fall out there was always concern with jim fielding the pitching position he won't be able to react quick enough he won't be able to feel the ball with his glove [Music] i couldn't play the game like everybody else played before i even stepped on that mound i had to be a good fielder start off by catching the ball like this and catch the ball kind of rotating around pulling the ball out wipe off the pitching rubber fresh start new beginning look in get my sign i put the glove in front of my body i wanted to hide my grip worried about the third base coach worried about the first base coats the ball was always spinning in my hand until i got over my head i reach back my grip is set eyes still on the target all right back to the mound he goes to second for one out throws to first got it big play by jim adams the switch of that glove how do you do that [Music] when i was younger um probably seven or eight i was having trouble getting my transfer down with my glove so my mom reached out to jim abbott he actually told me to get a tennis ball throw it up against the garage door get my glove you know catch the ball switch it and just repetition like that after a few years of doing that it just became second nature to me you don't need two hands to throw a fastball by somebody i remember high school as being a tough time [Music] the questions were constant what happened to your hand you know where did you how did you lose your hand what happened to you walking down the hallways of flint central i put my hand in my pocket baseball pants don't have that option [Music] baseball became a place where i couldn't hide my hand in my pocket that social awkwardness in the classroom and in the hallways disappeared on the baseball mound at flint central high school he had a big arm there was no question about it he did not have a great curveball he pitched and he had mediocre success [Music] as a freshman at flint central jim was kind of a string being skinny my freshman year i was the only guy on the team who didn't get a hit i remember being embarrassed by it i didn't want to show weakness i didn't want to be used in this narrative of weakness or vulnerability he started lifting weights and he started to fill out a little bit he couldn't be outworked he was religious with it by his sophomore year i think he maybe put on 15 20 pounds of muscle that fastball got a little bit better and i started to throw a little bit harder we had three catcher's mitts one catcher's met that we were using one catcher as a backup and one catcher's method was always at the leather shop getting fixed his junior season he was meaner stronger more focused senior year he was the best hitter on our team just kind of take the end of the bat and put that there and put my hand around it like that he was a starter at first base bat at 327 had seven home runs 36 rbis [Music] i wanted to be out there in front of everybody saying this is who i am and this is what i can do [Music] [Applause] we had a really good football team we had a really good quarterback but we had nobody behind him he said we need a backup quarterback get down here two a days have started and you need to you're playing football i didn't know my way around a football field at all i knew nothing about calling plays about audibles about the formations i didn't know how to put the pads on how do you take a snap for the most part you need two hands to do that at the first practices we've got the center the quarterback and three coaches all kind of looking up under his rear end to see what's going on then in a matter of a day or two it looked like he'd been doing it his whole life last game of the year my senior year i was thrust into the starting role unsure of myself he has a fantastic game he throws four touchdown passes he punts for us you get beat up you get tackled you get up again playing football gave him that edge to become a college and major league baseball player i really believe that jimmy abbott's aerial attack was awesome the media started to take attention jim has good size he's 6'4 180. he's a special athlete in more ways than one it started to become a little bit overwhelming [Music] jim abbott joined the jim uh would you mind holding up your right wing there for just a second i want to show you tape now he is a baseball athlete he got it all right throw him out jimmy this is what we call a winner the focus started to become entirely about playing with one hand there seemed to be an agenda that a lot of reporters came with what limitations do you have that you have to deal with because of having one on and i hope not any that any other picture wouldn't have it ran contrary to what he had always wanted and that was to just be one of the guys and to fit in late at night you start to wonder what's this all about is it is it for how well i play or how i play i was invited down to an awards ceremony in detroit and it was a big deal renaissance center black tie affair jim you're gonna be inspiration to a lot of youngsters uh were born uh with defects like you or or maybe others i broke down you know crying in this in this hotel room i could barely put that tuxedo on and walk down into that room damn abbott [Applause] i didn't want to be called inspirational one more time i didn't want to get the courage award i wanted to get the mvp when we said we were pregnant i remember people saying here's wishing for 10 fingers and 10 toes i remember hearing that and thinking well i guess we don't truly know what's going to happen but you know i i would hope for that too [Music] when we got the word from the ultrasound the first thing we did really was search the internet we read about jim abbott his life story it kind of served to normalize the experience to see a guy out there who was just doing it and was living in a big way it alleviated a lot of our early sense that this was gonna be insurmountable [Music] when i was playing for the university of michigan a letter came from united states baseball i was invited to try out for what would be the pan american team that year we flew to millington tennessee which is outside of memphis it's a navy base the best college players in the united states all assembled to play for your country is just absolutely incredible the highlight of the summer was a trip to cuba it was july of 1987 and the cuban national team they were like the russian hockey team was in the 80s 30 international competitions they hadn't lost clearly guys on that roster that could have played in the big leagues we were going to be the first united states team to take on the cubans on cuban soil in 25 years in the united states my hand and my difference was treated with some softness some political correctness in cuba there was no getting away from it people would stand up and point and whistle they wanted to see the pitcher with one hand our series against cuba started in the largest baseball stadium in the country estadio latino americano [Applause] a huge crowd i don't know 40 50 000 people fidel castro in the stands it was incredibly intimidating we're in the stadium we're an hour from game time and there's no cuban team to be seen anywhere just this huge throng of of people and all of a sudden these huge gates along the right left field line swing open and our whole team kind of turned and here came the cuban team dressed from head to toe in red a lot of them were 30 32 years old we thought they were ancient they introduced both sides they played the national anthem and i was scheduled to pitch game three the first batter of the game victor mesa anybody that knows cuban baseball knows victor mesa he was very animated very loud he had a lot of hand gestures he steps up into the plate and jim throws the first pitch it went down to the third baseman no chance for the third baseman to make the play jim has to come off the mound he has to pick up the ball with one hand put the glove in the other spin take it out and throw the first base umpire calls him out victor mesa goes nuts and so does the crowd and i mean it lets off a roar that the stadium erupted it was like whoa he runs back to the dugout he's kind of slamming his hand against the helmet and i'll never forget the cuban fans were above the cuban dugout like pointing at him and whistling and and for some reason it felt as though we had kind of won the cuban fans over to me that play really solidified the lore of jim abbott we will end up winning that game probably one of the best games that we played all year it was a game i was very proud of it was a big point in allowing me to say to my teammates and to the international amateur baseball world i can do this you know i can feel my position i can get the best amateur team in the world out [Music] [Applause] one of my favorite childhood memories games and tiger stadium playing major league baseball is i would have say an ultimate dream for me you walk through those dark and dingy corridors and all of a sudden the light shines and there's those pristine ball fields i would love to do it but i'm not counting [Applause] i was drafted by the angels first round eighth pick big leagues [Music] spring training with the angels heads up i'm anxious to prove the angels right and their selection when jim first started throwing force what really struck me was what he could do with a baseball you saw experienced major league catchers really struggling to handle his cutter and he thought okay this guy is pretty electric that dog gun pitch that he had that cut fastball that slider was just a phenomenal pitch that cut fastball was my pitch it looked like a fastball but it broke late when the batter started to swing it was coming in on him he's pitched remarkably well striking out the most dangerous hitter in baseball jose canseco of the oakland days i was doing pretty well going pretty good on the mound most of the fans who've come out to gene archery park have done so to see jim abbott good morning america abc nightly news george michael sports machine everybody wanted the one-on-one the question started to arise why are the angels doing this there was a real debate where the angels trying to attract attention by having a one-handed pitcher to think that we would exploit jim as a publicity stunt that really made me very angry certainly never was a factor in any way you think you're ready to play the majors right now well i don't know um i've never been in the major leagues i've never been professional baseball before kathy his mother asked me the question how long do you think he'll spend in the minor leagues and i said he's a major league pitcher today jim abbott has been named to a major league roster after just one spring training session [Music] opening day anaheim california walk into this locker room take a look around pinching yourself that you that you're in a major league clubhouse [Music] thinking about how far you've come and the the improbability of it [Music] all of a sudden it hits home that it's real jimmy abbott making his major league debut right out of college and the fans appreciate it [Applause] so abbott's first professional pitch is a fastball for a strike and we are in the way we had a respectable rookie year 112 games had a pretty decent earned run average held my own i think within a rotation a shutout for jim abbott the youngster from flint michigan comebacker abbott has trouble with it went through some growing pains my second year she just can't pitch in and out you know you had to change speeds you had to become more unpredictable learn how to sequence pitches doug rainer said you need another pitch he said hey i got a curveball he challenged himself to work as hard as anybody that had the uniform on how do you do that pitching is trust so much of pitching many times it's just throwing your shoulders back sticking your chest out and saying i'm ready for this oh jackson goes down swinging is rung up in this third and fourth year he became extraordinary wow is that a lively fastball oh that moved he was literally one of the best pitchers in the league struck him out swag dammit struck out the side there's a career high 10th striker [Applause] i've been blessed to be around great athletes superstars who've had a lot of demands on their time with endorsements and expectations and everything else that goes along with it but jim the demand for jim abbott just was different and unique from anybody else it was emotional time they wanted from him [Music] every town the angels went to in every ballpark there would be families waiting to meet jim abbott kids born missing a limb it wasn't just about getting the photo or getting the autograph it was about giving of gym to these people we did those meetings away from the media away from the fans we did them underneath outside the clubhouse i'd be in the clubhouse with my teammates where i wanted to be where i always wanted to be on the team [Music] and i'd get that pat on the back [Music] there's somebody down by the dugout who'd like to talk to you there's somebody outside the clubhouse door truth be told i didn't always want to go i didn't always want to go because it was a reminder to me of my own differences again it was a reminder of to me of things that i would never really be able to escape but when i got down there and i met these families [Music] i never walked back up into that clubhouse uninspired [Music] and so when i think of those beautiful stadiums when i think of the privilege that it was to play on those fields it's those meetings that stick with me so clearly [Music] when sam was born i was concerned about how he was going to do things and started trying to educate myself a little bit and found jim abbott who was already doing it one two years old i started sitting on my dad's lap in the recliner and we just watch everything it was amazing to have that kind of an example to help your child that's where i fell in love with baseball i mean i because i saw this guy out there he had a nub like me and he was out there playing at the top of the league and striking these big guys out we started nobility athletics foundation to teach kids who were born with long differences to play mainstream sports there we go all right it never would have happened if my dad wouldn't have showed me jim abbott late sunday evening jim abbott one of the top pitchers in baseball became a new york yankee the angels offered me a contract we had a number in mind they had a number in mind somewhere in the middle of those negotiations i was traded jim being traded was rather unforeseen i think he thought he was going to be an angel forever and i guarantee angel fans thought he was going to be an angel forever it was a gm agent fight that took a bite out of the player the yankees win world series or they are failures and and that just exists the biggest thing about playing in new york is is you're under a spotlight when you put on those pen stripes you're following in the lines of babe ruth lou gehrig joe dimaggio mickey mantle there's something special about pitching for the yankees no doubt about it you know i'm very glad to be a part of it professionally new york didn't go as well as i had hoped the expectations were high that i would be a top of the rotation pitcher like to become the new eighth new york yankees pitching staff that weight was heavy he was going to be an ace or a near ace of the new york yankees it was the first time in a long time that i felt like baseball was tough jim would get to a point where sometimes he would cut his delivery off and consequently he couldn't reach out and extend to where cut fastball got to where he intended to be in my big league career i really only got hit hard one time i was pitching against frank thomas the big hurt i threw a ball on the outside part of the plate i finish i come over i hear the ball be hit and then i felt it i found after i got hit i would throw and i was cutting pitches off to try to get the glove on faster i was losing that last little bit of finish to the pitch that's required for it to have that life and that ride so that was a fight in my career to let go of that fear that cutter that so surprised right-handed hitters no matter how many times you hit against him became defendable [Applause] to wonder if i'm not a pitcher if i'm not a good pitcher then who am i [Music] i hated losing that pushed me that drove me but there were times when it could be corrosive when it could push you to the point where you just snapped there is such a degree of doubt that's built into all of us but in jim's case the hopes of so many people that rode with his success made it so much more difficult to to get through tough spots first year with the yankees the new york times did one of those mid-season report cards in the in the in the synopsis he called me an underachiever he was exactly right i was under achieving for the ability that i had i was underachieving right there in front of me if i took a step back and was honest i was being judged as a pitcher for the first time not as a kid who would overcome anything not as a kid who had battled against anything i was being judged as a pitcher there was not a feeling of supreme confidence walking on the mound that day jim abbott will go to the mound coming off a tough august the yankees desperately need abbott to show them the consistency that they thought they'd get when they made the deal with california i had pitched against the same exact team five days before and i got shelled i mean i didn't make it through the third inning and that's driven to deep left field we kind of had some struggle we had he had a couple rough outings and he was a catcher it's your job to build them up we just said hey let's pitch backwards a little bit which means to instead of beginning with the cutter and ending with the cutter which was his strength let's get strikes early in the count with off speed pitches and he started doing it [Music] matt noogs gets down behind the plate and i threw the first pitch all the way to the backstop and i said oh boy here we go again and he walks lofton to start the ball game when a pitcher loses his feel there's a catcher it's your job to build them up i'm thinking okay we gotta have a good game here out to the mound goes matt knows to talk with jim abbott we talked about trust amidst all that uncertainty he talked about trust trusting in that pitch and believing that it is enough to get that guy out matt said i want you to see my target throw it through the target trust it let's go broken back down to third box to second down [Applause] [Music] [Applause] one ball one strike lifts one into left center field slicing back toward change and dion makes the catch to retire the side got the third out of the first inning sat down on the dugout and put my jacket on fans were still coming into the stadium it was the middle of the first inning and yet i felt like something really momentous had happened i made it through the first inning without giving up a run on to the second inning from yankee stadium the second inning third inning i'm getting a lot of work he's on top of that cutter producing that ground ball swung hard but it's in the glove of wade boggs i didn't say anything but i knew it was happening right away he started pitching backwards and was hitting his pitches it was like you're throwing strikes with these [Applause] by the fifth inning i was like this is happening [Applause] he had some good movement on that sixth inning comes around there's maddie knows behind the plane in that crowd here we go here we go you got walking on the mountain that day i wanted to be good i wanted to be good for the new york yankees i wanted to be someone that a young kid in the bronx or new york city or connecticut or kansas city said i can be good those zeroes are still up on the board the crowd now they're at every pitch [Applause] you're feeling it you're feeling it there is something beyond just the energy of the game well the one two and a bouncer over the head of abbott to gallego one out of the nine [Applause] [Applause] bernie williams tracked it down into left center field [Applause] ultimately the greatest journey for jim abbott is is the individual one where he came to know himself best and the impact he can have on people without really consciously trying good since i've started ability i've showed thousands of kids his glove transfer the goodness of him the purity of the guy the impact that he had on others that's what is going to be remembered for all time who's your favorite baseball player jim abbott just thinking that jim can do it and jim did do it i think it's fueled my fire he couldn't write a script that would have more magic along the way we're just immensely proud and grateful as a young person i ran away from my difference i wanted to be like other people but i realized now that i'm older is that it shaped me and it molded me and it's who i am and i think the danger is to deny that because i wouldn't have gone to the places that i went to without it these instances of being different create strength and a resiliency that you will draw upon that will make you up to the challenge that you will face [Applause] [Applause] and shuts out the cleveland indians four to nothing there's always the pioneer there's always the first jim abbott will always have that place in history he was under the radar flag bearer showing a community physical challenges aren't setbacks my name is goldarrage and i play football [Music] i'm grover siegel and i play basketball i bree williams and i play soccer [Music] and the fans in jim abbott's corner all the way today there is freedom and liberty in knowing that you can go after anything in this world that you want to do you can pitch on a mound with one hand and you can play with the best players in the world you can play in yankee stadium you can pitch a no-hitter in yankees stadium [Music] then what's not possible [Music] [Music] it's always the same dream every single time i'm pitching that knife and i can't find my shoes and i can't get i can't get to where i want to go you know it's it and i wake up frustrated but those initial feelings when that dream starts are always the same it's always this happiness of being back you know being back in the in that environment and competing again on the mound

Channel: cacable7

Views: 2,637

Rating: 4.9444447 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: uJc429Ejmg0

Length: 43min 53sec (2633 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021