In 1987, there was no better college athlete in the country.
He received the Sullivan Award, honoring the nation’s top athlete. He was also named the Golden Spikes winner for the best college baseball player in the country.
He was then named to the Sporting News college baseball All-America team. Then he represented our country on the 1988 U.S. Olympic baseball team. Finally he was drafted eighth overall in the 1988 free-agent draft.
In 1989, he became just the 15th player in Major League Baseball history to make his professional debut in the major leagues. During the ’89 season he was the first left-handed rookie since 1974 to post double figures in wins. He was then named to the Topps’ All-Star Rookie team.
By 1991, he was a seasoned veteran of the major leagues. He finished third in the American League Cy Young award voting after going 11-5 with a 2.38 ERA in the second half of the season, and 18-11 with a 2.89 ERA overall.
On Sept. 4, 1993, he reached the pinnacle of pitching. In the house that Ruth built, against the Cleveland Indians, he went out and threw a no-hitter.
He was a remarkable athlete on the most difficult of playing fields. In a world filled with the best physical specimens on this Earth, he excelled.
He was honored as the Victory Award recipient by the National Rehabilitation Hospital saluting the individual who best exemplified depth of inner strength, purpose and integrity. He was also voted one of the top five sports role models by fans of athletics.
He is Jim Abbott, and he was born with just one hand.
The sports world is a unique fraternity of physical greatness. It takes an athletic ability above and beyond any other to get into this fraternity.
Most of the members have built themselves in the gym and have chiseled their bodies into Michelangelo-esque works of art.
However, there are those who must overcome immense adversity to be able to succeed in the athletic realm. In the history of sports, perhaps there is no one person that has overcome more setbacks than Abbott.
Having been born with just one hand, Abbott was able to develop his own style of pitching that allowed him to transfer his glove from his handless arm to his hand in one fluid motion.
This motion let Abbott pitch freely and defend his position as well as any other player on the field.
Abbott enjoyed great success from his time in college through his time in the professional ranks. This success can surely be attributed to his inner strength and belief in himself.
In his time growing up, there were surely those that told Abbott that he could not succeed because of his lack of a right hand.
To succeed in a community dominated by the tall, fast and strong is a story within itself. The percentage of those who do succeed is so small that in some cases a person’s chances are better to win the lottery than to play professional sports.
All too often, those who are succeeding with less than immense physical stature are overlooked. Unfortunately, those that are overlooked can often have a great impact on their sport and sports itself.
There may never again be an athlete like Jim Abbott. The success that he had with the use of one hand is incredible.
Perhaps there will be another athlete whose physical ability will mirror Abbott’s. But until that time, Abbott is in a league of his own.
So the next time that an athlete succeeds despite a physical disability, the sports world should not only recognize him for his success on the field, but also for his success over those who would say it couldn’t be done.
