Jim Abbott

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James Anthony Abbott (born September 19, 1967), is a former Major League Baseball pitcher for the California Angels, the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, and the Milwaukee Brewers, from 1989 to 1998. Abbott is best known for playing despite having been born without a right hand.

He graduated from Flint Central High School and grew up in the East Village area of Flint, Michigan. While with the University of Michigan, Abbott won the James E. Sullivan Award as the nation's best amateur athlete in 1987 and won a gold medal in the 1988 Summer Olympics. He was drafted in the first round of the 1988 Major League Baseball Draft and reached the Majors the next year. He threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians in 1993.^[1] Abbott retired with a career record of 87 wins and 108 losses, with a 4.25 earned run average.

He currently works as a motivational speaker and near Harbor Springs, Michigan along M-119 in the summers with his wife Dana and two children.

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Amateur years

Abbott was born in Southfield, Michigan and moved to Flint, Michigan shortly afterwards. He was born without a right hand. He was picked up by the Ypsilanti, Michigan team in American Legion and went to win the championship. He graduated from Flint Central High School in Michigan where he was a stand-out pitcher and as an American football quarterback led his team to the state championships.^[2] He played for the Grossi Baseball Club during the summers in the Connie Mack leagues of Michigan. He was drafted in the 36th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft but didn't sign, instead moving on to the University of Michigan.

He played for Michigan three years, from 1985 to 1989, leading them to two Big Ten championships. In 1987, he won the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States, becoming the first baseball pitcher to win that award.^[1] The same year Abbott pitched for the United States at the Pan-American Games, winning a silver medal. The highlight of his amateur career was when he pitched the final game in the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal for the United States. Abbott was voted the Big Ten male athlete of the year in 1988, receiving the Jesse Owens Award. Abbott would be selected 8th overall by the California Angels in the 1988 draft.

In 2007, Abbott was elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame for his career at Michigan.

[edit] Professional years

Jim Abbott, post retirement

In 1989, Abbott joined the California Angels' starting rotation as a rookie without playing a single minor league game. That season, he posted a 12-12 record with an ERA of 3.92. His 12 wins in his first professional season were the most since Mark Fidrych won 19 for the Detroit Tigers in 1976, and he finished fifth in the year's Rookie of the Year voting.

In 1991, Abbott won 18 games with the Angels while posting an ERA of 2.89, finishing third in the American League Cy Young Award voting. In 1992 season, he posted a 2.77 ERA, but his win-loss record fell to 7-15 for the sixth-place Angels. No player since 1917 started at least 20 games, had an ERA under 3.00, and had a worse winning percentage.^{[citation needed]} Abbott was also won the Tony Conigliaro Award in 1992.

On September 4, 1993 while pitching for the New York Yankees, Abbott pitched a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians.

That same year, Abbott's charity work and visiting of children with disabilities in New York was deemed an "unnecessary distraction" by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.^{[citation needed]} This work, however, earned him the "Free Spirit Award" later that year.^{[citation needed]}

In 1994, Abbott's Yankees led the American League East, but the 1994 Major League Baseball strike ended the season on August 12, 1994. The following year, after starting the season with the Chicago White Sox, he returned to the California Angels, who held a 13 1/2 game lead over the Seattle Mariners in August, but lost the American League West in a one-game playoff to the Mariners.

He struggled through the 1996 season, posting a 2-18 record with a 7.48 ERA and briefly retired.

Abbott returned to the White Sox in 1998, starting five games and winning all five. Abbott continued his comeback the following year with the Milwaukee Brewers, but pitched ineffectively. This was the first time he played for a National League team, forcing him to bat for the first time in his career. He recorded two hits in 21 at-bats during his Brewers stint.

Abbott retired after the 1999 season with a career record of 87-108, with a 4.25 ERA.

[edit] Playing with one hand

When preparing to pitch the ball, Abbott would rest a right-handed thrower's 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 remove the glove by securing it between his right forearm and torso, slip his hand out of the glove, and remove the ball from the glove, usually in time to throw out the runner, and sometimes even starting double plays. During international play, Cuba once decided to repeatedly bunt against him, hoping that he wouldn't be able to manage, which proved to be an unsuccessful strategy.^{[original research?]}

Batting was not an issue for Abbott for the majority of his career, since the American League uses the designated hitter. But Abbott tripled in a spring training game in 1991 off Rick Reuschel^{[citation needed]}, and when Abbott joined the National League's Milwaukee Brewers in 1999, he had two hits in 21 at-bats, both off Jon Lieber.^{[citation needed]} New York Yankees teammate Mariano Rivera said Abbott could hit home runs into the bleachers during batting practice.^[3]

[edit] References

• Bernotas, Bob. Nothing to prove: The Jim Abbott Story. Kodansha International, Tokyo. 1995

[edit] See also

• List of baseball players who went directly to the major leagues
• List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
• Pete Gray

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube