Jim Abbott

This article is about Jim Abbott the one-handed baseball player. For Jim Abbott the Canadian politician, see Jim Abbott (politician).

James Anthony Abbott (born September 19, 1967 in Flint, Michigan) was a Major League Baseball player for the California Angels, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, and Milwaukee Brewers.

A left-handed pitcher born without a right hand, Abbott was one of the feel-good stories of 1988 and 1989. In 1988, Abbott won a gold medal pitching for the United States in the 1988 Summer Olympics. The following year, he jumped directly from the University of Michigan into the Angels' starting rotation, posting a 12-12 record with an ERA of 3.92 at the age of 21. His 12 wins in his first professional season were the most since Mark Fidrych won 19 for Detroit in 1976, and he finished fifth in the year's rookie of the year voting.

Abbott wore a right-handed glove over the stump on his right arm, rapidly putting the glove on his left hand after finishing his pitching motion in order to field any ball that might come his direction. He would then remove the glove and make the throw with his left hand. In spite of his disability, Abbott's fielding statistics matched or slightly bettered the league average most seasons.

Abbott's best season would come two years later, when he won 18 games while posting an ERA of 2.89 and finished third in the American League Cy Young Award voting. He again pitched well in 1992, posting an even better 2.77 ERA, but his win-loss record fell to 7-15 for the sixth-place Angels. On September 4, 1993 while pitching for the Yankees, Abbott threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians.

Although Abbott pitched effectively for the Yankees and White Sox before returning to the Angels, he never recaptured his 1991 form. He struggled through the 1996 season, posting a disastrous 2-18 record with a 7.48 ERA and briefly retired.

He returned to the White Sox in 1998, starting five games and winning all five. Abbott continued his comeback the following year with the Brewers but pitched ineffectively. However, he did collect two hits in 21 at-bats and drove in three runs, in spite of only being able to swing the bat with one hand.

Abbott retired with a career record of 87-108, with a 4.25 ERA and now works as a motivational speaker.

In 1992, Jim Abbott was honored with the Tony Conigliaro Award.

YEAR TEAM AGE W L PCT G GS CG SV GF IP H R ER BB SO ERA RSAA 1989 Angels 21 12 12 .500 29 29 4 0 0 181.1 190 95 79 74 115 3.92 -3 1990 Angels 22 10 14 .417 33 33 4 0 0 211.2 246 116 106 72 105 4.51 -12 1991 Angels 23 18 11 .621 34 34 5 0 0 243 222 85 78 73 158 2.89 24 1992 Angels 24 7 15 .318 29 29 7 0 0 211 208 73 65 68 130 2.77 32 1993 Yankees 25 11 14 .440 32 32 4 0 0 214 221 115 104 73 95 4.37 -8 1994 Yankees 26 9 8 .529 24 24 2 0 0 160.1 167 88 81 64 90 4.55 -3 1995 Whitesox 27 6 4 .600 17 17 3 0 0 112.1 116 50 42 35 45 3.36 14 Angels 27 5 4 .556 13 13 1 0 0 84.2 93 43 39 29 41 4.15 5 TOTALS 11 8 .579 30 30 4 0 0 197 209 93 81 64 86 3.70 19 1996 Angels 28 2 18 .100 27 23 1 0 2 142 171 128 118 78 58 7.48 -41 1998 Whitesox 30 5 0 1.000 5 5 0 0 0 31.2 35 16 16 12 14 4.55 0 1999 Brewers 31 2 8 .200 20 15 0 0 3 82 110 71 63 42 37 6.91 -22 TOTALS 87 108 .446 263 254 31 0 5 1674 1779 880 791 620 888 4.25 -14 LG AVERAGE 94 94 .500 23 1 1674 1703 880 803 659 1085 4.32 0

YEAR TEAM HR H/9 BR/9 SO/9 BB/9 SO/BB SHO WP IBB HBP BFP BK NW NL 1989 Angels 13 9.43 13.30 5.71 3.67 1.55 2 8 3 4 788 2 12 12 1990 Angels 16 10.46 13.73 4.46 3.06 1.46 1 4 6 5 925 3 11 13 1991 Angels 14 8.22 11.11 5.85 2.70 2.16 1 1 6 5 1002 4 18 11 1992 Angels 12 8.87 11.94 5.55 2.90 1.91 0 2 3 4 874 0 15 7 1993 Yankees 22 9.29 12.49 4.00 3.07 1.30 1 9 4 3 906 0 12 13 1994 Yankees 24 9.37 13.08 5.05 3.59 1.41 0 8 1 2 692 1 8 9 1995 Whitesox 10 9.29 12.18 3.61 2.80 1.29 0 0 1 1 474 0 6 4 Angels 4 9.89 13.07 4.36 3.08 1.41 1 1 0 1 368 0 5 4 TOTALS 14 9.55 12.56 3.93 2.92 1.34 1 1 1 2 842 0 11 8 1996 Angels 23 10.84 16.04 3.68 4.94 0.74 0 13 3 4 654 1 6 14 1998 Whitesox 2 9.95 13.64 3.98 3.41 1.17 0 0 0 1 134 0 3 2 1999 Brewers 14 12.07 16.90 4.06 4.61 0.88 0 7 3 2 394 0 3 7 TOTALS 154 9.56 13.07 4.77 3.33 1.43 6 53 30 32 7211 11 99 96 LG AVERAGE 175 9.16 12.96 5.83 3.54 1.65 5 63 51 49 7245 8

JIM ABBOTT LEAGUE LEADERSHIP RANKINGS

1989 AL SHUTOUTS T7TH 2

1990 AL LOSSES T8TH 14; GAMES STARTED T8TH 33; HITS 1ST 246; RUNS 3RD 116; EARNED RUNS 3RD 106; WORST ERA 5TH 4.51; BALKS T3RD 3; NEUTRAL LOSSES T10TH 13

1991 AL WINS T4TH 18; GAMES STARTED T7TH 34; INNINGS PITCHED 6TH 243; HITS 10TH 222; ERA 4TH 2.89; RSAA 6TH 24; BATTERS FACED T5TH 1002; BALKS T1ST 4; NEUTRAL WINS 4TH 18

1992 AL LOSSES T3RD 15; COMPLETE GAMES T8TH 7; ERA 5TH 2.77; RSAA 6TH 32; NEUTRAL WINS T9TH 15

1993 AL LOSSES T4TH 14; RUNS 9TH 115; EARNED RUNS 10TH 104; SHUTOUTS T10TH 1; NEUTRAL LOSSES T5TH 13

1994 AL HOMERUNS T6TH 24

1995 AL COMPLETE GAMES T8TH 4; HITS 10TH 209; ERA 9TH 3.70; SHUTOUTS T9TH 1

1996 AL LOSSES 1ST 18; EARNED RUNS 9TH 118; WORST RSAA 2ND -41; WILD PITCHES T3RD 13; BALKS T10TH 1; NEUTRAL LOSSES T3RD 14

1999 NL WORST RSAA T7TH -22

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