- 4 days ago
This is the incredible true story of Jim Abbott, the one-handed baseball pitcher who took the MLB by storm.
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00:00As the Yankees' one-handed pitcher stepped up to the mound, the Cleveland Indians weren't worried.
00:05Jim Abbott had failed to live up to the hype around him in his previous game against them,
00:10and the Indians were certain they were about to destroy him all over again.
00:14Jim's chest tightened, he wound up and threw the first pitch.
00:18It was a wild pitch, a terrible one to start the day.
00:21He threw the second, outside, too far away from the batter.
00:25A few more nervous throws, and Kenny Lofton jogged to first base without even swinging.
00:31Jim had just given the fastest player on the Indians his first base free.
00:36This wasn't how it was supposed to be.
00:38This was supposed to be Jim's chance to turn it all around.
00:42The moment, he proved to everyone and himself that he had earned his place on the New York Yankees.
00:48Instead, he was crumbling.
00:50Standing in front of the Yankees' home crowd of over 27,000 fans, self-doubt plagued Jim's mind.
00:58Maybe he was overhyped.
01:00Maybe he simply couldn't keep up with the best in the world,
01:03just like the doubters in Little League and high school baseball had always told him.
01:08However, somewhere buried deep beneath the fear, Jim Abbott did still have hope.
01:15He had already come a long way.
01:17For a young boy who couldn't even tie his own shoes, the thought that he may one day play for
01:21a Major League Baseball team
01:23would have seemed like a total fantasy to Jim and his parents.
01:27Being born without a right hand and growing up in the 70s, there wasn't a lot of support available for
01:32Jim.
01:33Jim's parents had tried to assist him in combating his perceived disability through his youth,
01:38even fitting him with a prosthetic hook made of fiberglass and metal.
01:42But Jim hated it.
01:44It was heavy, clunky. The kids at school called him Captain Hook.
01:49Some of them recoiled when they saw him, and some even cried because his arm frightened them.
01:55So early on in Jim's life, he made a conscious choice to forego the clunky and rudimentary prosthetics
02:01that existed at the time, and instead face the world as he was.
02:05Even if that meant occasionally tucking his right arm in his pocket to put others at ease.
02:10His parents did their best to instill in Jim the belief that he could achieve anything he set out to
02:16achieve.
02:16And his father even reframed his disability as a potential strength,
02:20telling him something that would stick with him for the rest of his life.
02:24What is taken away once will be given back twice.
02:28In other words, maybe the thing that made him different could actually be a gift.
02:33But Jim had a hard time accepting that when he couldn't even tie his own shoes.
02:38It seems like such a small thing, but for Jim, not being able to tie his own shoes was everything.
02:45His parents would triple knot his laces every morning and send him off with strict instructions.
02:50Don't untie your shoes for any reason.
02:53But inevitably, with play and running around, shoes come untied.
02:57And when they did, Jim had to ask his classmates for help.
03:02When you're trying to fit in, that's not ideal.
03:05Jim never wanted to feel like he had to rely on others for help.
03:09He was headstrong, and he refused to accept that he couldn't be like everyone else, regardless of his difference.
03:14So when a teacher took Jim aside during class one day and told him that he had come up with
03:20a way for Jim to tie his own shoes with only one hand, Jim listened.
03:25After seeing Jim struggle, the teacher, Don Clarkson, had been spending his own evenings at home coming up with a
03:31technique for tying shoelaces tightly with one hand.
03:34As a former NASA contractor, Don had a fascination with creative solutions to complex and unique problems.
03:41And he couldn't help but take up the challenge.
03:44So when he'd finally figured it out, Don put on a film for the rest of the class to watch,
03:48and he excitedly took Jim into the hallway to show him the technique.
03:52Jim watched as Don pulled up a chair, leaned down, and showed him the process he'd discovered.
03:58It was a small moment of kindness for Don, but it stuck with Jim for years.
04:03Because if someone would go to that much trouble for him, and his greatest struggles could really be solved with
04:08a bit of ingenuity and thinking outside the box, what else could be possible?
04:14Just like Mr. Clarkson, Jim's parents never treated his difference as a limitation, just as a challenge to overcome.
04:22No coddling, no special treatment, just the expectation that he would find a way.
04:27The same as anyone else.
04:29And so behind his house in Flint, as each day he overcame new challenges he was faced with, Jim started
04:36dreaming big.
04:36He discovered a love for baseball, and in particular, he developed a fascination with the challenge of pitching.
04:43Of course, the actual pitching part wasn't really the challenge.
04:47Jim's coordination, dexterity, and strength in his left hand had been something he was basically forced to overdevelop since he
04:54was born.
04:55But the real challenge came after the moment of pitching.
04:58How was he going to catch the ball with no right hand to wear a baseball glove on?
05:03He certainly couldn't pitch the ball while wearing a glove on his left hand.
05:07And so, inspired by the ingenuity shown by his teacher, Jim started developing his own technique for handling his baseball
05:15glove.
05:15He'd stand in front of a brick wall in the backyard with a ball in his left hand and a
05:19baseball glove balanced on his right forearm.
05:22And for hours, every day, he'd throw a ball against the wall.
05:25After each release, he'd switch the glove over as quickly as he could, from his right arm, slipping it onto
05:31his left hand.
05:32And then he'd catch the rebound, swap the glove back, and throw the ball again.
05:36His father helped him figure it all out.
05:39How to balance the glove on his forearm while he threw, and then switch it to his hand in one
05:43fluid motion.
05:44It would eventually become known as the Abbott switch.
05:47And over time, it became second nature to him.
05:50When Jim finally pitched his first Little League game at 11 years old, the parents of other kids on the
05:55team were supportive, but a little skeptical of his abilities.
06:00Nervous that he might be a burden on the team rather than an asset.
06:04However, Jim got to work quickly dispelling all of their concerns.
06:09In his first game, Jim threw inning after inning after inning without allowing a single hit.
06:16His team was winning by so many runs that the league's mercy rule kicked in.
06:20Ending the game early to spare the other team further embarrassment.
06:24In future games where his opponents did manage to hit his pitches, the opposing teams seemed to all fall victim
06:29to the same strategy.
06:31Opposing team coaches who hadn't seen Jim play before consistently instructed their batters to bunt the ball straight back to
06:38Jim.
06:38Under the impression that he wasn't going to be able to field the ball.
06:42But they too were proven wrong, with Jim's patented Abbott switch getting his glove onto his left hand almost before
06:48his pitch even touched his opponent's bat.
06:53Little League became high school baseball.
06:55And despite the doubters telling him he'd eventually get left behind, Jim continued performing at a high level.
07:02Not just in pitching, but in batting too.
07:04He even eventually started exploring his ability in other sports.
07:08In his junior year, the head coach of the Flint Central football team rang Jim's house, begging him to give
07:14football a try too.
07:15After all, they needed a quarterback with a good throw.
07:18And Jim had one of the best.
07:20When he arrived at practice, they handed him a helmet, pads and shoulder pads.
07:24And he didn't know how to put any of it on.
07:27Then he walked out onto the field and everyone else seemed to know exactly where they were going and what
07:33they were doing.
07:34Jim felt completely lost and out of place.
07:37But just as he was considering walking away, the coaches stopped the entire practice and everyone focused their attention on
07:44Jim.
07:44They all took the time to help Jim figure out how he could take the snap.
07:48How he could receive the ball from the center to start each play.
07:52They worked it out together, coming up with another patented Abbott technique.
07:56They soon realized that if Jim used his right forearm and dipped down a little lower, he could secure the
08:02ball.
08:02It was the same lesson all over again.
08:04With the right adjustments, with people willing to think differently, Jim really could do anything he put his mind to.
08:11He became the starting quarterback and led Flint Central all the way to state semifinals.
08:17And all the while, he continued to dominate the baseball diamond too.
08:20In 1985, the Toronto Blue Jays noticed his incredible ability.
08:25And they drafted him in the 36th round of the Major League Baseball draft.
08:30On the surface, it seemed like an incredible, inspirational success story.
08:35The boy with one hand who was accepted into Major League Baseball.
08:40So it surprised a lot of people when Jim turned the offer down.
08:45See, Jim didn't want to be seen as an inspiration.
08:48Jim didn't want his story to be one of charity and acceptance.
08:52Jim was on a mission to be one of the best players in the world.
08:57Not the greatest disabled player, but truly one of the greatest players in history, regardless of his limb difference.
09:05Being picked in the 36th round meant the team didn't see him as a top prospect.
09:10The impression was that they were taking a chance on him, or that they were potentially just using him as
09:16a publicity move.
09:17Not that they saw him as a truly formidable player.
09:21Jim felt like he had more to prove.
09:23He turned down their offer, along with the remarkably high $50,000 signing bonus,
09:29and instead, he accepted a baseball scholarship to the University of Michigan.
09:34At Michigan, Jim tore through the competition.
09:37Over three seasons, his team won 26 games and lost only eight.
09:42He also became the first baseball player in history to win the James E. Sullivan Award,
09:47given to the nation's top amateur athlete across all sports.
09:51Then he won the Golden Spikes Award as the best college baseball player in the country.
09:55The kid who had been a 36th round pick was now being recognized as one of the best amateur athletes
10:02in America.
10:03But an even bigger stage was waiting for him.
10:06Seoul, 1988, the Summer Olympics.
10:10Jim Abbott took the mound in the gold medal game against Japan.
10:14He pitched the entire game, all nine innings, and the USA beat Japan 5-3.
10:19Millions of people around the world watched a pitcher with one hand dominate the best players in the world.
10:26After his incredible performance on the world stage, the California Angels drafted him in the first round,
10:32eighth overall in that same year.
10:34And they brought him straight into the major leagues.
10:37No apprenticeship in the minor leagues like they'd usually do, just straight to the top.
10:42Jim was only the 16th player in the entire history of baseball to make that jump.
10:47He had well and truly proven himself.
10:49Jim had a really strong start to his MLB career.
10:53And from 1991 to 1992 in particular, he continued proving the Angels were right to believe in him.
10:59In 1991, he finished third in the voting for the Cy Young Award,
11:03the prize given to the best pitcher in baseball that year.
11:07His earned run average, or ERA, the stat that measures how many runs a pitcher gives up per game,
11:12was 2.89, among the top ERAs in the league.
11:17And in 1992, Jim improved his ERA to 2.77.
11:22However, despite Jim's incredible performance,
11:26he finished the season with a personal record of only 7 wins and 15 losses.
11:31It wasn't really Jim's fault.
11:33The Angels simply weren't scoring enough runs to win games when he pitched.
11:37But the team, desperate to cut costs and rebuild their team, traded him anyway.
11:42However, the New York Yankees, focusing more on the ERA than the win-loss record,
11:48and seeing the diamond that the Angels seemed to be unable to see,
11:52traded three players to get Jim on their team.
11:55They expected him to help deliver a championship to the Bronx.
12:01All Jim ever wanted was to be a pitcher.
12:04He wanted to be judged by his performance on the mound,
12:06and not by what made him different.
12:09But that continued to be an ongoing challenge for him.
12:12And in New York, it only got worse.
12:15Every single week, he received dozens of letters from families all around the world.
12:20Parents writing on behalf of their sons and daughters who were born without hands.
12:24Boys and girls who discovered that somebody with one hand had made it to Major League Baseball.
12:30That somebody had proven it was possible.
12:34Hospital visits with disabled children became part of Jim's routine.
12:38At first, it felt meaningful.
12:40But as the pressure mounted, it started to feel like an obligation.
12:45Like a responsibility he didn't ask for, but he couldn't escape.
12:49Like he'd become commodified as the inspirational one-handed pitcher.
12:54And he felt like he was being glorified for his condition more so than his ability.
13:00And that weight was crushing him both personally and professionally.
13:05By September, he had nine wins and 11 losses with the Yankees.
13:09His ERA had shot up massively to 4.31.
13:13It still wasn't terrible, but it was far from the elite number
13:16that made him such an appealing prospect for the Yankees.
13:19And to make matters worse, he'd lost about two miles per hour off his fastball
13:24over the course of the season.
13:26He couldn't overpower the hitters anymore.
13:29The Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner, blamed Jim's struggles on his charity work.
13:33He said all those hospital visits with disabled children were distracting him from baseball.
13:39And Jim couldn't even fault George for saying that.
13:42He was starting to feel that way to Jim, too.
13:45He so wanted to help everybody he could.
13:48But it was clear that this added expectation of him,
13:51that wasn't an expectation on any other pitcher,
13:54was pulling him away from his beloved sport.
13:57And it was starting to impede his practice and his focus.
14:01The media piled on.
14:03An article surfaced in the New York Times that described Jim as an underachiever.
14:09For Jim, that word cut deeper than anything else.
14:13After everything he'd accomplished, the Olympics, the gold medal,
14:17his impressive start to his MLB career,
14:20after everything he'd overcome,
14:23underachiever wasn't something Jim was used to being called.
14:27But in a weird way, it was kind of what Jim had always said that he wanted.
14:33Jim was being judged, maybe too harshly, for his dwindling performance on the field.
14:39There was no more sugarcoating or tempering of what was expected of him.
14:44Isn't that what he always wanted?
14:46To be treated like everybody else?
14:50Maybe he'd already achieved everything he could.
14:55Jim tried to hold on to hope.
14:57But with each game, it felt harder and harder.
15:01And it all fell apart on August 29th, 1993, at Cleveland Stadium.
15:08The Indians had Kenny Lofton, one of the fastest players in baseball.
15:13And at that point, he was leading the league in his batting average.
15:16Then there was Carlos Bayerga, who'd racked up 205 hits the season before.
15:21And Albert Bell, a power hitter who'd knocked 34 home runs the previous year.
15:27Jim didn't even last four innings.
15:30It was the worst performance of his entire season.
15:33The Yankees manager, Buck Showalter, walked to the mound and took the ball away from Jim.
15:39Jim walked off the field in silence.
15:41In the second inning, the Yankees trainer approached Showalter in the dugout.
15:46We've got a problem, he said.
15:48Jim Abbott's left the building.
15:50Jim had changed into running shorts and an inconspicuous t-shirt,
15:54walked out of the stadium and disappeared into the streets of Cleveland.
15:58For hours, he ran through the city, burning off the frustration and the humiliation.
16:03When Jim finally came back covered in sweat, the game was long over.
16:08The Yankees had rallied and they won 14-8.
16:11But to Jim, that just fostered more doubt in his mind.
16:15He thought, maybe the team doesn't need him after all.
16:19Maybe he really was just a burden on the team.
16:22For the next five days, he carried that weight.
16:25The Yankees were only a game and a half behind the Toronto Blue Jays in a desperate fight to make
16:31the playoffs.
16:32Every game mattered.
16:33There was even talk in the clubhouse that maybe Jim should miss his next start.
16:38Buck Showalter was running out of patience.
16:42Everything came down to Saturday morning on September 4th, 1993.
16:47The Indians were coming to the Yankees' home ground in New York.
16:51But Jim Abbott had been thinking.
16:53And this time, he had a plan.
16:55The sky over Yankee Stadium was overcast.
16:5877 degrees Fahrenheit, 25 Celsius.
17:01Occasional rain was threatening to move in.
17:04Labor Day weekend was in full swing.
17:06The crowd that showed up was modest by Yankees' standards.
17:1027,225 fans.
17:13A lot of people had already left for the holiday weekend.
17:16And the morning showers had kept some people away.
17:19But it was still a significant crowd.
17:21Before the game, Jim Abbott sat down with his catcher, Matt Noakes, and the bullpen coach, Mark Connor.
17:27They needed to face reality.
17:29Jim had lost velocity on his fastball.
17:31He couldn't just rear back and overpower this lineup.
17:34They needed a different approach.
17:37And Jim certainly wasn't a stranger to thinking outside the box.
17:41They made a decision pre-game to throw more breaking balls, more sliders, to try to be a little bit
17:46more unpredictable.
17:47A bit more finesse over force.
17:50Jim walked to the mound.
17:52He could hear the home crowd murmur.
17:54Nervous that Jim Abbott might be a burden on the team rather than an asset.
17:59He went into his wind-up, released the first pitch, and it sailed past the catcher all the way to
18:05the backstop.
18:06It was terrible.
18:08Jim was obviously cracking once again under the pressure of expectation.
18:12The crowd groaned.
18:14Jim could feel his chest tightening.
18:16Not now.
18:17Not like this.
18:19He thought to himself.
18:20He took a breath.
18:22Tried to settle himself.
18:23But the next pitch was outside.
18:25Then another.
18:26A few more nervous throws and Kenny Lofton, one of the fastest players in baseball, jogged to first base without
18:33even swinging.
18:34The Indians' dugout was buzzing.
18:36Their fans in the stands were grinning.
18:39Jim stood on the mound, feeling the weight of it all, as the next batter, Felix Fuhrman, stepped up to
18:44the plate.
18:45Jim pitched again, but this time the ball made contact.
18:48It was a hard ground ball.
18:50Wade Boggs at third scooped it, fired it to second.
18:53One out.
18:54The second baseman pivoted and threw it to first.
18:57Two outs.
18:58A double play.
18:59Jim no longer had the pressure of a runner being on base.
19:03One more batter, Carlos Bayerga, flew out to left field.
19:06The ball was caught, which made three outs, and the inning was over.
19:10Jim walked off the mound.
19:12He'd survived.
19:14In the third inning, the Yankees finally broke through.
19:17Deion James hit a single to center field.
19:19Then everything fell apart for Cleveland.
19:22The Indians' center fielder threw the ball back toward third base, trying to prevent the runners from advancing.
19:28But the throw came in awkwardly, and the third baseman, Jim Tomey, couldn't handle it cleanly.
19:33The ball bounced off his glove and rolled away.
19:35One Yankee runner crossed home plate to score.
19:38Tomey scrambled to pick up the loose ball near the dugout and fired at home, desperate to stop the second
19:44runner.
19:44But his throw sailed past the catcher and rolled into the Yankees' dugout.
19:48By the time the chaos ended, the Yankees had crossed home plate, giving them a 3-0 lead.
19:55And that's the moment the energy shifted for Jim Abbott.
19:58With a cushion like that, he felt he could comfortably execute his game plan.
20:02He didn't need to strike everyone out or throw unhittable pitches.
20:06He just needed to keep the batters on their toes and try to force mistakes, making the batters hit the
20:11ball on the ground or easy fly balls that his teammates could catch.
20:15He felt like he had room to breathe.
20:17When Jim did throw fastballs, he was throwing at 88 or 89 miles per hour, about 143 kilometers per hour.
20:25Not overpowering, but he was locating it well.
20:28Mixing in his cutter, a pitch that moves slightly as it reaches the plate, and spinning his slider.
20:34In the fourth inning, Jim forced three straight ground outs.
20:38Hits that go straight into the ground to be scooped up and thrown to first base before the runner can
20:43get there.
20:43Felix Furman, Carlos Bayerga, Albert Bell.
20:46It was a shutdown inning, and Jim had momentum on his side.
20:50With every throw, it felt like the ball was coming out of his hand a little bit better.
20:55In the fifth inning, Randy Vallade, the Yankees shortstop, crushed a solo home run to deep right center field.
21:024-0.
21:03Yankees.
21:04Jim was settling in.
21:05He wasn't dominating.
21:06By this point, it only technically struck out two batters himself.
21:10But he was doing something just as effective.
21:13His plan was working, and he was successfully getting the Indians to hit weak ground balls and lazy fly balls.
21:19Pitches that looked hittable, but weren't quite where the batters really needed them.
21:24But as the sixth inning approached, that's when the energy in the entire Yankee stadium began to shift.
21:30A whisper started spreading through the crowd.
21:33Zero hits.
21:35The Cleveland Indians hadn't actually recorded a single hit.
21:39Every time the Indians made contact with the ball, they got out from a catch or a throw to first
21:44base.
21:45In baseball, that's extraordinarily rare.
21:48A no-hitter happens maybe once or twice a season across all of Major League Baseball.
21:52Some pitchers play their entire careers without ever achieving one.
21:56And last time it happened at Yankee Stadium was 10 years earlier.
22:01In the Yankees' dugout, the team were quietly exchanging knowing glances.
22:06The unwritten rule every player knows is that you never mention a no-hitter while it's happening.
22:11You don't want to jinx it.
22:12So Jim's teammates went completely silent.
22:15They stopped talking to him between innings.
22:18The Indians were getting nervous too.
22:20This felt like an entirely different picture to the man they'd embarrassed six days ago in Cleveland.
22:26History felt within reach for Jim Abbott.
22:29And everyone in that stadium knew it.
22:33Carlos Bayerga led off the seventh inning with a ground ball for the first out.
22:37Then Albert Bell stepped up to the plate.
22:39Bell was a dangerous player to be up against.
22:42He was a power hitter who'd smashed 34 home runs the previous season.
22:47Jim delivered his pitch.
22:48Bell made contact.
22:50He crushed a ground ball in the hole between shortstop and third base.
22:54It looked like the no-hitter was about to end.
22:57But at third base stood Wade Boggs.
23:00He launched himself diving at full extension.
23:02And he snagged the ball just before it shot past him into left field.
23:06Then in one fluid motion, he sprang to his feet.
23:09Fired a rocket across the diamond to first baseman Don Matingley.
23:12The ball beat Bell by half a step.
23:15Out.
23:16The stadium erupted.
23:18The no-hitter was still alive.
23:20In the eighth inning, Jim struck out Manny Ramirez.
23:23And he'd now thrown seven and one-third innings without giving up a single hit.
23:29Earlier that season, on May 29th, he'd actually made it to exactly this point in a game against the Chicago
23:34White Sox.
23:35Before Bo Jackson broke it up.
23:38However, this time, Jim kept going.
23:41Three more outs.
23:44As Jim Abbott walked to the mound for the ninth inning, his legs barely had any feeling left in them.
23:50Goosebumps covered his forearms.
23:52The hair on the back of his neck was standing up.
23:55The Yankees fans were on their feet.
23:58Kenny Lofton stepped up to the plate to lead off the inning.
24:01But this time, instead of taking a full swing, Kenny Lofton tried something a little bit cheeky.
24:06He held his bat out and tried to tap the ball softly down the third base line, hoping to catch
24:11the defense off guard and get an easy hit.
24:14It's called a bunt.
24:15And in baseball, to attempt a bunt against a no-hitter in the ninth inning is considered incredibly disrespectful.
24:22And he bunts foul.
24:24The fans don't like that.
24:26Wade Boggs immediately moved up onto the infield grass, positioning himself to defend against a second bunt attempt.
24:33Lofton abandoned the bunt strategy, then hit a high-bouncing ground ball that came straight back toward the mound.
24:39Jim leapt, reaching up with his glove, but the ball sailed just over his outstretched hand.
24:45Thankfully, Mike Gallego, the second baseman, was right there.
24:49He fielded it cleanly and threw it to first.
24:52Out number one of the final inning, Felix Fuhrman stepped up to the plate once again.
24:58The crowd was deafening.
24:59Jim could barely hear himself think.
25:01Fuhrman fouled a couple pitches and then Jim threw the decider.
25:05Fuhrman swung and connected cleanly.
25:07It looked like a hit that would shatter the dream and send everyone home disappointed.
25:13Centre fielder Bernie Williams had been playing shallow because Fuhrman rarely hit the ball with power.
25:18But now he had to sprint a long way, tracking the ball against the overcast sky.
25:23Williams glided across the outfield grass, his legs pumping, his eyes locked on the ball.
25:29He made the catch, just a few strides in front of the warning track.
25:33It was the hardest hit ball of the entire day, and they'd caught it.
25:38Two outs.
25:40In the dugout, Buck Showalter exhaled.
25:42He hadn't moved from his seat in four innings.
25:45Only one batter remained.
25:48Everything came down to this moment.
25:52Carlos Bayerga stepped into the batter's box.
25:55Carlos boasted the most hits out of any player in his team.
25:59He thrived in big moments like this.
26:02The roar was pressing down on him from every direction.
26:05On the mound, Jim Abbott felt it too.
26:08He was on the precipice of something truly great.
26:11Not just great for a man with a limb difference, but a feat truly worthy of baseball's history books.
26:18Behind the plate, Matt Noakes crouched into position.
26:21The catcher who'd sat with Jim before the game and helped him figure out the new strategy.
26:26Complete trust between them.
26:28Jim wound up and delivered.
26:30Strike one.
26:32Jim delivered the next pitch.
26:34Bayerga swung.
26:35And this time, he made contact.
26:37It was a ground ball rolling toward the shortstop, Randy Vallade.
26:41The ball rolled into his glove as the crowd held its breath.
26:45Vallade set his feet and fired across the diamond to first base.
26:49The ball sailed through the air, straight into Don Matingley's glove on first base.
26:54He did it! He did it! No hitter from Jim Abbott!
26:59The celebration erupted.
27:01A celebration that had been building for a lifetime.
27:04A celebration of the boy who believed in something nobody thought was possible.
27:09A celebration of one of the greatest pitchers in MLB history.
27:16The next morning, fans were still celebrating 19 hours later.
27:20When Jim arrived at Yankee Stadium, crowds were 20 deep at the player's entrance.
27:25The stadium grounds crew approached him with a gift.
27:28They'd dug up the pitching rubber from the mound where he'd made history.
27:31Every teammate had signed it.
27:33The first no-hitter in 10 years.
27:36The eighth no-hitter in Yankees franchise history.
27:39And the New York Times called it the finest out of all of them.
27:43In the years that followed, several other stars followed in Jim Abbott's footsteps.
27:49Shaquem Griffin made it to the NFL.
27:51Nick Newell became an MMA champion.
27:54Carson Pickett became a soccer star on the U.S. women's national team.
27:58Bethany Hamilton became one of the greatest surfers in the world.
28:02And to this day, Jim Abbott is recognized around the world as a symbol of possibility, grit and adaption.
28:10Not only for those with limb differences, but for anyone with a dream of achieving great things.
28:17Amen.
28:18Amen.
28:18Amen.
28:19Amen.
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