Jim Abbott - Down, But Not Out

"Baseball can be cruel," wrote Sporting News reporter Steve Marantz in 1997, "even to its most admirable player." Abbott took that year off to recoup and reenergize, then accepted a minor-league contract with the White Sox for the 1998 season. He endured half a season "riding buses around North Carolina," according to a Sports Illustrated article, "pitching in the Alabama humidity … and toiling in an old stadium in rodeo-rabid Alberta." When the White Sox called him up in September 1998, added the reporter, "almost no one noticed."

But Abbott made them notice, wrapping up the season with a 5-0 record against such formidable foes as the Cleveland Indians and Abbott's former team, the New York Yankees. But the winning streak did not last. A 2-8 season with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1999 marked the end of Abbott's Major League play. His career won-loss record stood at 87-108, with a 4.25 ERA. But his influence lived on through the positive and inspirational image he invoked for the public, particularly the disabled.

With his Major League career ended, Jim Abbott left the spotlight of professional sports. The husband and father continued to provide inspiration off the field by working with physically challenged children. Though he's been known to shy away from television or film depictions of his life, the left-hander has been the subject of several biographies, including Nothing to Prove: The Jim Abbott Story.

If Abbott's "glory days are gone," Marantz noted in the Sporting News in 1997, "it is perhaps because we have come to take his uniqueness for granted. Against what standard should a pitcher with one hand be measured? The only standard is Abbott's and he would have us measure him against pitchers with two hands. Such is his illusion, art and greatness."