Left-handed pitcher Jim Abbott is probably the most celebrated athlete with a major disability of his era. Born with a deformed right arm, Abbott was already a national hero before signing a professional contract with the California Angels in 1988. Jim Abbott’s parents were still teenagers when he was born in Flint, Michigan, on September 19, 1967.
Having a child at such as young age was difficult enough, especially a child with a disability, but Mike and Kathy Abbott resolved to make their son’s life as normal as possible. Mike Abbott sold cars and worked as a meatpacker and Kathy took courses at home while raising Jim. Eventually both parents finished college and went on to successful careers, Mike in management and Kathy as a teacher and later an attorney.
Jim’s parents always encouraged him to try things and helped him acquire confidence. “We decided that if Jim wanted to [play sports] then to let him try,” said Mike Abbott in a 1998 USA Today interview. “I helped out with some things. But in the end it was all Jim. Jim started showing an interest in sports at an early age.
Trying to nudge him toward a sport that didn’t depend on the use of his hands, his parents bought him a soccer ball. But, Jim didn’t really like soccer. After all, every other kid in the neighborhood was playing baseball so that’s what he wanted to do. So Jim Abbott began developing the remarkable hand-eye coordination that would allow him to do with one hand what others did with two. He spent hours throwing a rubber ball against a brick wall and catching it on the rebound. His father helped him develop the technique for handling his glove-hand switch which allowed Jim him to throw and catch the ball with the same hand.
When Jim began school, he was fitted with a mechanical hand made of fiberglass and metal. But he hated the prosthesis, which he called a “hook,” because it frightened some of his classmates and made him self-conscious. At the age of 11, Jim joined a Little League team and threw a no-hitter in the first game he pitched. Despite his early success, most people figured the competition would soon pass him by.
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In fact, at every step, from Little League on, he kept hearing that his playing days would probably end at that level. But at each new level, Jim proved his doubters wrong. When he entered high school at Flint Central, his new coach doubted Jim would be able to defend his position adequately. Even his hitting was exceptional. Jim batted from the left side, wrapping his left hand around the bat and the stub of his right arm.
He was able to generate remarkable power, blasting seven homers and batting an excellent .427 as a senior. Jim was also the backup quarterback for Flint Central until the end of his senior year when he started the last three games, passing for 600 yards and six touchdowns. In addition, he was the squad’s punter, averaging 37.5 yards per kick as a senior. Abbott was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays out of high school in the 36th and last round of the draft, but turned down their $50,000 bonus offer to attend the nearby University of Michigan.
Despite the major league offer and his high school achievements, colleges with top baseball programs didn’t heavily recruit him. There were still some reservations about his disability, and Abbott himself admitted to having some initial doubts about his ability to play college baseball. But they were quickly dispelled. As a freshman he was named Most Courageous Athlete for 1986 by the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association after posting a record of six wins against two losses. The season was not without embarrassment, however. Over the next two seasons, Jim continued to develop as a pitcher and began to think seriously about a career in professional baseball.
In 1987 he pitched the Wolverines to first place in the Big Ten Eastern Division standings and then to the conference championship and threw a shutout in the NCAA tournament. For the season he won 11 games against three losses.
Overcoming Perceived Obstacles -- Jim Abbott
Abbott had another fine season at Michigan in 1988, becoming the first baseball player to ever be named Big Ten Conference Player of the Year. After his Olympic triumph, Abbott decided to forgo his last year of college eligibility to enter the professional ranks. He was selected by the California Angels with the eighth pick in the first round of the amateur draft and negotiated a $207,000 bonus.
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As happened whenever Jim moved up to another level in sports, skeptics came out of the woodwork to question whether a player with one arm could perform at the next level. On bunts and slow rollers Abbott often didn’t have time to field the ball with his glove and make the transfer. So he usually discarded the glove and fielded bunts barehanded. In high school, an opposing coach once ordered the first eight batters to bunt. After the first one reached base, Jim shut down the bunting game by retiring the next seven in a row.
Of course, he had to pass the same test in college and the big leaguers would also give it a try. The 1989 edition of the Angels that Abbott joined as a rookie was a talented team - legitimate pennant contenders. They’d finished fourth to Kansas City in 1988 and featured a solid pitching staff that had been bolstered by the off-season acquisition of veteran ace Bert Blyleven, who already had more than 250 major-league victories under his belt.
Up to that time only 15 players had made their professional debut in the major leagues since the establishment of the amateur draft in 1965. Still fewer enjoyed successful careers while most quickly faded into oblivion. Everyone assumed Abbott would be farmed out to gain needed experience, but he made the team out of spring training and edged into the starting rotation. Injuries to other members of the rotation, as much as his own performance, allowed Abbott to make the opening day roster, but there was still a good deal of second-guessing.
It’s true Abbott was a media sensation. His first spring appearance was in a “B-game” that had to be moved from a practice field to the main stadium to accommodate the throng of fans and media representatives. At the postgame press conference, Abbott patiently discussed his pitching/fielding motion. “I’ve been doing this since I was 5 years old. As with the beginning of every new phase in his career, Abbott’s first regular season start was a major event.
The media, including four television crews from Japan, converged on Anaheim Stadium in full force for the grand debut. Jim lasted less than five innings and racked up his first major league loss, but left to a standing ovation from the huge crowd. After another defeat, Abbott beat the Baltimore Orioles in his third start and settled down to pitch good baseball the rest of the season. He ended the year with 12 wins against the same number of losses. The dozen victories were the most major league wins by a pitcher in his first professional season since long-forgotten Ernie Wingard won 13 in 1924 for the old St.
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The Angels finished the 1989 season in third place and Abbott was voted the club’s Rookie of the Year. Abbott’s deft handling of the constant public pressure may have been his most impressive accomplishment, however. Handsome and articulate, he was interviewed countless times by the major networks and publications. Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Bobby Doerr asked for his autograph, and 363-game-winner Warren Spahn called him his hero. Jim studied communications in college and was better prepared than most 21-year-old rookies to handle the crush.
Questions about his ability still remained, however. Abbott had trouble holding runners on base and his fielding was weak. He was the second easiest pitcher in the league to steal against and he had a rather low fielding percentage. Abbott experienced a disappointing 1990 sophomore season, compiling a 10-14 won-lost record. He got off to a terrible start in 1991, suffering four straight losses to begin the season after an unimpressive spring performance.
In fact, he ended up enjoying a breakthrough campaign. Although the Angels faded after the All-Star Game, Abbott won eleven games after the break to finish 1991 campaign with an 18-11 won-lost mark and a stingy 2.89 earned run average. In the voting for the American League Cy Young Award, the most prestigious pitching honor in the league, he placed third as Roger Clemens of the Red Sox captured the trophy for the third time. Abbott’s 1991 record is even more impressive when the lack of run support provided by the Angels hitters is taken into account. Another highlight of Abbott’s excellent 1991 campaign was a 375-foot triple he drove into the gap in a spring training contest against the San Francisco Giants.
Since the Angels were in the American League where the designated hitter is used, Abbott didn’t get to bat during the regular season. In December 1991 Jim married Dana Douty, who had grown up in the Anaheim area. The 1992 season was another memorable one for him, but for all the wrong reasons. The Angels won only 72 games and finished fifth in the seven-team American League Western Division.
Despite pitching well all year, Abbott posted a dismal 7-15 won-lost record. But his sparkling 2.77 ERA was a more accurate indicator of the quality of his efforts. Throughout his career Abbott routinely suffered from poor run support, but in 1992 the Angels backed him with the lowest run-support figure in the American League since the adoption of the designated-hitter rule in 1973. In December 1992 Abbott was swapped to the New York Yankees for three minor-league prospects when the Angels couldn’t sign him to a long-term agreement.
The Yankees, who hadn’t participated in a postseason game in more than a decade, were hungry for a pennant going into the 1993 season. They’d signed Wade Boggs and Jimmy Key as free agents and acquired Paul O’Neill and Abbott in trades and looked like a solid contender. Abbott and agent Scott Boras, who’d rejected a four-year, $4 million-per-season offer from the Angels in October, immediately ran into problems negotiating a contract with the Yankees. They ended up in arbitration, where the Yankees’ $2.35 million offer beat out Abbott’s $3.5 million request.
The Yankees’ negative arguments confused and upset the young hurler. “Why did they trade for me if that’s what they think?” he wondered. It was an early sign that the sensitive pitcher might have a tough time in the Bronx. Nevertheless, Abbott tried to embrace the city and the team.
One of the few bright spots was a September 4, 1993, no-hit victory over the Cleveland Indians in the midst of a tight pennant race. But a little more than a week after his no-hit gem, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner publicly blasted Abbott for not doing the job, even questioning the pitcher’s courage. Steinbrenner’s outburst, with his team only a game and a half out of first place, seemed to take the heart out of the club, and they limped home to a second-place finish, seven games behind Toronto.
Abbott’s second season in New York started out as turbulently as the first. Before spring training even started, “The Boss” blamed Abbott’s mediocre 1993 performance on his charity work and frequent visits with disabled children. “Jim Abbott’s got to give 100 percent of his attention to baseball!” Steinbrenner demanded.3 Abbott, who’d been selected for the prestigious “Free Spirit Award” for his work with children, was stunned and actually found himself having to defend his charitable efforts. Another confrontation occurred when the Yankees invented a new glove for him with a flap that was supposed to hide his grip on the ball from the opposing first base coach’s sight.
The theory was that Abbott was tipping his pitches because he wasn’t able to pitch out of his glove like other pitchers. The 1994 season ended in mid-August when the players went on strike. Abbott’s final tally for the abbreviated season was nine wins and eight losses. On December 23 the Yankees decided not to tender an offer for the 1995 season and he became a free agent. He was expected to sign with the Angels, who’d just named Marcel Lachemann, Jim’s favorite pitching coach, as their manager.
Abbott pitched respectably in Chicago, but the Sox traded him to the Angels when they dropped out of the Central Division race early. The Angels, who were in the thick of the Western Division race, welcomed Jim back with open arms. He won five games and lost four for California, but the team came up a game short in its quest for the division title. Before the 1996 season, Jim signed a new three-year deal with the Angels and reported to spring training set for a big season.
But he posted a woeful 2-18 won-lost record, accompanied by a horrendous 7.48 earned run average. Even a midseason trip to Vancouver, the first minor league action of his career, didn’t help. After sitting out the entire 1997 season, Abbott attempted a comeback with the White Sox. He worked his way back pitching in the Sox system for Hickory, Winston-Salem, Birmingham, and Calgary before a late-season trial call-up to Chicago.
The miracle comeback was not to continue, however. The White Sox weren’t confident that Abbott’s resurgence was for real and didn’t re-sign him for the 1999 season. He signed with the Milwaukee Brewers but was released in July with a 2-8 won-lost mark and 6.91 earned run average. He did provide some final heroics, though.
Since Milwaukee was in the National League where the designated hitter isn’t employed, Abbott got a chance to bat, and on June 15, 1999, he lined out the first base hit by a one-handed batter in the major leagues in more than 50 years since one-armed out... Abbott, who retired in 1999, pitched with a right-hander’s fielder’s glove perched pocket-down over the end of his stubbed right arm. Abbott’s right arm ends about where his wrist should be. He doesn’t have a right hand, just a loose flap of skin at the end of his underdeveloped arm.
At the conclusion of his delivery, he would deftly slip his left hand into the glove and be ready to field the ball. After catching the ball, he would cradle the glove against his chest in the crook of his right arm and extract the ball with his left hand, ready to make another throw. When preparing to pitch the ball, Abbott would rest his glove on the end of his right forearm.
After releasing the ball, he would quickly slip his hand into the glove, usually in time to field any balls that a two-handed pitcher would be able to field. Then he would secure the glove between his right forearm and torso, slip his hand out of it, and remove the ball from it, usually in time to throw out the runner at first or sometimes even start a double play. Batting was not an issue for Abbott for the majority of his career, since the American League used the designated hitter, and he played only two seasons in the interleague play era.
His disability inspired him to work harder than most. "Sports became a way for me to gain acceptance. I think this fueled my desire to succeed.
Key Moments in Jim Abbott's Career
Here's a summary of some key moments in Jim Abbott's career:
| Year | Event | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Drafted by Toronto Blue Jays (36th round) | N/A (Did not sign) |
| 1988 | Selected by California Angels (1st round, 8th overall) | California Angels |
| 1989 | MLB Debut | California Angels |
| 1991 | 18-11 record, finished 3rd in Cy Young Award voting | California Angels |
| 1993 | Threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians | New York Yankees |
| 1995 | Signed as a free agent | Chicago White Sox |
| 1996 | Struggled with a 2-18 record | California Angels |
| 1998 | Returned and won all 5 starts | Chicago White Sox |
| 1999 | Recorded first MLB hit | Milwaukee Brewers |
| 1999 | Retired | Milwaukee Brewers |
James Anthony Abbott (born September 19, 1967) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the California Angels, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, and Milwaukee Brewers from 1989 to 1999. Abbott graduated from Flint Central High School and grew up in the East Village area of Flint, Michigan.
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