Columnist Dean Juipe: We all need heroes and here's mine

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

Heroes are hard to find.

In fact, there are times they seem downright scarce.

But they are out there, however few their number, scattered throughout business, industry and, yes, even a sports world that frequently seems widely decadent and dysfunctional.

Rare breed that they are, not too many pass our way.

Yet one of the truly awe-inspiring athletes of this or any other generation is in Las Vegas tonight and Saturday, accompanying the Milwaukee Brewers to Cashman Field for the annual Big League Weekend series of Major League Baseball exhibition games.

It may not be beyond belief that Jim Abbott can play baseball, but it does stretch the imagination to see him at the sport's top level despite being born without a right hand.

It's curious in a satisfying way. Here's a man who is comfortable with his disability and -- defying what has to be astronomical odds -- pitching in the major leagues.

As if that's not enough of a challenge, this year he also has to bat. By joining the National League's Brewers, he's no longer protected by the American League's designated-hitter rule.

So far this spring with the Brewers, he's 1 for 4 at the plate. But the more pertinent news is that Abbott has earned a spot in Milwaukee's rotation and next week will begin his 10th season in the majors.

Imagine the difficulties he has overcome. While it would have been amazing enough had he learned to play softball with the guys, Abbott has been a top-flight athlete his entire life.

In high school, he quarterbacked his team to the state championship game in Michigan. In college, at the University of Michigan, he not only went 26-8, he was the first baseball player ever to win the Sullivan Award as the nation's finest amateur athlete. He followed that by winning the Golden Spike Award for leading Team USA to the gold medal in the 1987 Pan American Games, where he was the first American in 25 years to defeat the Cuban National team on its home soil.

Continuing his Ripley-like tale, he bypassed the minor leagues and went straight to the California Angels in 1989. Two years later he had his finest season, going 18-11, and a year after that he pitched a no-hitter against Cleveland as a member of the Yankees.

All without a right hand.

Old-timers and historians will recall Pete Gray, a one-armed outfielder who played with the war-depleted St. Louis Browns in 1945. His was an astounding story as well, having lost his right arm in a childhood accident. After catching or fielding a ball, Gray would tuck his glove under his stump, roll the ball across his chest and grab it and throw it all in one fluid motion.

He hit .218 before dropping out of baseball and becoming a recluse.

Abbott, 31, takes more of a straightforward approach to his predicament. "The facts are the facts," he says. "I am different."

He's different in a delightful way. Publicly at least, he has never been caught brooding or cursing his misfortune despite the fact he has to wonder how much easier it would be competing in a sport that ordinarily requires two hands if, indeed, he actually had two hands.

Instead, he's perpetually cheerful and upbeat. He says he has led a good life.

Others who appreciate his attitude and successes believe he has led a great one, exemplifying a very real courage.

By any measurement, he is truly remarkable.

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