American Games And Abbott example essay topic

514 words
JIM ABBOTT: THE GOLDEN ARM Jim Abbott was born on September 19, 1967 in Flint, Michigan with only a stub as a right hand. When he was 6 he learned to balance his glove on his stub and switch so he could still field the ball. When he was a kid he would bounce the ball against a brick wall to work on his fielding. When he realized how good he was he went and played little league. In his first little league game he threw a no-hitter.

In high school he played for varsity his sophomore year as their ace. The first game he pitched the first eight batters bunted against them because they didn't think he would be able to field the ball. The first man was safe but the next seven were all easily out. He was also the quarterback of the runner-up to the state championship in Michigan his senior year. He played point guard on the basketball team and is third on the all time lists of assists for basketball in the state of Michigan. He was accepted to the University of Michigan even though the Toronto Blue Jays drafted him.

He had a career record of 26 wins and 8 losses at the school. As a member of Team USA in 1987, he became the first American pitcher in 25 years to beat a Cuban team on Cuban soil. The team won a silver medal at the Pan-American Games and Abbott won the U.S. Baseball Federation's Golden Spikes award as the best amateur player in the country. In the 1988 Olympics, Abbott was the winning pitcher in a 5-3 victory over Japan that brought the U.S. its first gold medal in baseball. He was then chosen by the California Angels in the first round of the 1988 amateur draft, he went directly to the major leagues and had a 12-12 record, with a 3.92 earned run average, in 1989. Many people thought that it was just a publicity stunt drafting Abbott and bringing him straight to the majors.

In 1991, his best season to date, he won 18 and lost 11. Despite an ERA of 2.77, Abbott was only 7-15 in 1992, when the Angels scored an average of only 2.54 runs in games that he started. In the middle of 1992 he was traded to the New York Yankees and had an 11-14 record with them in 1993. One of his victories was a no-hitter. In 1995, the Yankees traded him to the White Sox and he never got back to his old ways and was 2-18 over 1996 and 1997 so he retired. Jim Abbott is a great man in the community and he doesn't look at him self as being special because of his disability.

He says that you can't put the disability that other people put on you on your mind or you " ll fall into what they are saying.