Olympic Baseball Gold + Major League Pitcher = Missing Right Hand
Join host John Moffet as he speaks with Major League Baseball legend Jim Abbott! Even after being born without his right hand, Abbott found his passion for sports early and persisted in being the best, despite his limitations. Hear Abbott's journey from his high school team to the big leagues as a Yankee.
Read Jim's book, Imperfect: An Improbable Life:
https://a.co/d/6ZR833A
Olympic Baseball Gold + Major League Pitcher = Missing Right Hand
Join host John Moffet as he speaks with Major League Baseball legend Jim Abbott! Even after being born without his right hand, Abbott found his passion for sports early and persisted in being the best, despite his limitations. Hear Abbott's journey from his high school team to the big leagues as a Yankee.
Read Jim's book, Imperfect: An Improbable Life:
https://a.co/d/6ZR833A
This is season three, Episode 11 of sports life
Jim Abbott:I remember being on my ninth grade baseball team and get a hit, you know, on the whole team. And I was then I often think that it wasn't all that much longer was in the major leagues. And, you know, playing with guys who playing in the big league stadiums and playing against the It was it was really, really amazing. And, you know, I just playing in those stadiums. I mean, they were perfect, you perfect. But if there were times riding in a bus to the next town pinched yourself. It was, you know, how does this happen? You
JOHN MOFFET:Introducing major league pitcher Jim Abbott, his unlikely rise to the pinnacle of baseball. I'm John joining us today on Sports life balance. Jim was born without parents in working class Flint, Michigan. His passion for sports unyielding support of his mom and dad, Jim thrived despite his unprecedented talent and fierce drive earned him a starting Michigan's baseball team. Then just three years later, Jim won closing pitcher at the 1988 Seoul Korea Olympic Games. But grail of pitching accomplishments was throwing a Yankees in front of a home crowd in 1993. Throughout Jim's best selling author, motivational speaker and family around the mindset taught to him by his father, which is to you're given, rather than focus on what's been taken away. All going? Let's do it. All right, Jim, will thank you for sitting with me on sports life balance, really appreciate it.
Jim Abbott:Happy to do it, John. Thanks for having me.
JOHN MOFFET:You know, right off the bat. Oh, I that's that was a mean. But I've got an admission of sorts for you though. Until really been a baseball fan. I never really followed it. And in got me interested, because baseball is is one of the only time to the pandemic and I kind of became a Dodger fan. And it fact that I was an absolutely terrible baseball player as a why I went and became a swimmer.
Jim Abbott:Two different skill sets for sure.
JOHN MOFFET:In the Yes, yes, indeed. But I was definitely your story, and the fact that you were missing your right pitcher in the big leagues. And and after reading your book, realized that your notoriety as a one handed Major Leaguer as a like the bane of your existence, having that always be part of feelings about about that aspect of your career.
Jim Abbott:Sure. So you know, I grew up differently, I grew up way I was born. So I never knew any different. I can't say that, learned to go about my day were any, any more difficult or any It's just what I did, you know, I had to find a different way of then, you know, get the job done. I guess like anybody, you themselves, maybe as being a little bit different, whether subconscious. You know, there's, there gets to be there gets to suppose a little bit. And so, I did spend a lot of my life I that, working with it, working around it, working within it, I to sports. I think it pushed me to play sports to the best of my became thankful for it but it was a long process.
JOHN MOFFET:Right right. So well, it it that takes me to the gears a little bit but with with I found with all athletes find fascinating about I love athletes. And and it starts with how they were raised. And your parents were very young when they were just 18 years old. Correct?
Jim Abbott:They're very young. Yes.
JOHN MOFFET:Yeah. So so it was, it was, it wasn't the easiest the world, especially under the circumstances in the 60s. And, you spend a lot of time in your book actually really going in mindset and where they were, when you were born in a little
Jim Abbott:Well, my mom and dad, Mike and Kathy Abbott, you early age, they both had pretty distinguished high school athlete, and probably could have done some played athletics in and my mom was a was a very smart student. And, and so, you they had to give up some of their dreams, you know, they had was right in front of them. So yeah, it was, you know, early, say, you know, the sacrifices that they made, you know, young family and to find a way to make a living. Yeah, we improbable journey, for sure. I think, if you would have told might work out for all of us, for my brother, my brother, I done very well, and, and my mom and dad, I lost my dad earlier mom went on to become an attorney, and I'm just proud of I am on my own. Yeah, that
JOHN MOFFET:I mean, it is it is a, a, an amazing way that you go you were born, what they were experiencing, and all of that, I point, you were fitted with a prosthesis and essence, it was, a hook. But you really didn't, it was supposed to help you, but to it. Tell me about why that was?
Jim Abbott:Well, you know, my parents were, you know, they the I don't know that they were grasping at straws, so to speak. And that was an attitude that would ultimately become And but it did lead down to some roads that you know, ultimately, through on and so a prosthesis Yeah, they they had me fitted the same. They haven't evolved all that much, although there things that they're doing now with hands. But this one was you had a strap around my back and, and then it had the big a fitted cast, and then the metal hook at the end of it. So it was just wasn't something that helped me to do the things that to play sports, I love to mix in with, you know, the, you know, and that book, you know, almost served as a barrier to that and I don't you know, I know a lot of people have very great prosthetics. It wasn't for me, but I love the symbolism of it willingness to get out there and try to find a solution and to help that I might need to get through. You know, my my kids
JOHN MOFFET:Yeah. All right. Well, yeah, you mentioned that struggling there's no guidebook on how to deal with a child much has some physical limit limitations. At some point they rehab facility or a hospital it was Mary Mary Free Bed. Was that And you they spent they sent you there obviously to improve your to deal with the limitations better. But I guess about a epiphany. Tell me about what that epiphany was and what, what
Jim Abbott:Well, it's funny, you know, again, sent me down to really was a hospital it I don't know that I have an earlier even really know. I mean, I guess I could guess how old I that that's, I think it was so jarring. And I don't really mean remember it, you know, and I don't remember a lot around were just a lot of kids, you know, John, I've met so many similar challenges as I do with limb difference and many, many, I've been very lucky, to be honest. But that was sort of there, you know, it was, like, you I was saw kids, you know, it. And, and I think, again, it was an effort for my parents to environment put me in an environment where there were think my dad just driving home from there one day, I don't, I but I think I went a couple different times. And I think he know, this isn't how we want to raise him, you know, that I that we were going to make the most of what would has been to be on loss, but rather on you know, positivity. And, and, and know, what's taken away wants is given back twice. And I think around. And my mom too, and I don't mean to do not include my more was given to me than was taken away. And it was time to you know, what wasn't there?
JOHN MOFFET:Right, right. And so how did how did that change How did how did that? How did that then affect you? Do you do
Jim Abbott:Well, I think it changed the entire mindset of to lot of excuses, right? I mean, when when you change your focus don't have this or I don't have that, and I don't, you know, I do. You know, you can get it really can, can spiral down, it what you think is possible. And I think when you change to that, all of a sudden, the excuses are eliminated, you know, it's are looking in the mirror, like, you know, what, you know, making given, and it really became a driving force in my life, you for an excuse.
JOHN MOFFET:So how did that mindset translate into you doing
Jim Abbott:Well, I love sports. I grew up in Michigan, in Flint, athletic legacy in the city with basketball players and football baseball players here and there, but and so it was the culture, varsity jacket, I went to movies at the cinema, and I'd see, you reading about in the local Flint Journal paper. And it was not a there was something about fitting in and being a part of And those were my heroes. So I was lucky, I had a great stable, that when we got up in the morning, sports, were the first played until I got dark, and then we got up and did it again. up and say, I have one hand, I'm gonna go prove everybody wrong. And, again, that that mindset from my parents encouraged to go about holding a baseball bat or switching the glove on was that I needed to do to play. There was a way you know, doing it, you were going to find a way and so I ended up, you culture and that life.
JOHN MOFFET:Yeah. And you, you, you speak of the theme about equalizer for you. You speak about that throughout your book, also say, it doesn't matter how you were born. Explain the discovering that as you grew up as a boy.
Jim Abbott:Well, I think, you know, like you probably and like years, I've immersed myself in different books and different biographies. And it's funny to me that that a lot of the things John, you know, you hear about in actors or you hear about in and different you know, there's there's a driving force behind you know, it's not always the feel good story. And maybe little bit of discomfort can be what ends up prodding you to could always do. And so my story fits into that narrative. I that at the time. And I don't mean to tidy it up with a bow. very, very competitive. I hated losing. In an almost ugly way, ambition that showed itself sometimes that, you know, I from. And so maybe it came from my hand, maybe it didn't. But I believe that that growing up the way I did missing a right hand, that.
JOHN MOFFET:Yeah, you talk about ambition and trying to do things that all of us grapple with, to varying degrees. But a lot of pain. Really high ambition is a really constantly putting yourself in it exactly.
Jim Abbott:Right. Yeah, it is uncomfortable. When you're, some of the other people that you've spoken with, as you get speak, I guess when you get up and you start going against the same thing you're really good at, you know, the moving forward and in getting caught is very, very small. And that you don't always think are possible, and hopefully it somehow you come tumbling and flying out the other side, and my gosh, you know, look at look at this, we never never thought know, I have a chance to speak to people nowadays quite a bit. And, and my message, I guess, at the end of the day is very much me the things that are possible, and in good. And within us. And years, I hope we will all continue to believe that because noise and a lot of dissonance telling us you know, otherwise,
JOHN MOFFET:a very, very well said and I can't agree with you baseball found you. What do you mean by that?
Jim Abbott:Yeah, you know, I I love basketball. I love football really matter to me what it was out there. Until baseball sort identified with it wasn't that it was a singular pursuit. To be off as a third baseman on my little league team. And, you dad put me at pitcher and I said, like, I kind of liked it, something that I woke up in the morning thinking about playing Detroit Tigers. You know, I love the Detroit Lions. I love the of Michigan. You know, those were all my heroes. And so it something you love to do. And I know that's a hard thing to do. but I found Baseball, baseball found me and it did become 24/7 I always was thinking about pitching and trying to get for that.
JOHN MOFFET:Well, through that singular focus, you began to get really getting noticed, noticed and started receiving awards. uncomfortable about many of the accolades and the attention that through your your prowess on the on the baseball field, you know, inspirational person and overcoming obstacles and all of much discomfort for people recognizing what is in fact your
Jim Abbott:Well, thank you for doing your research. I about this stuff. I don't know You know, I was I was 12 years written about me and and it was great. I loved it framed in my know, my my my friends teased me my parents, you know, got a lot then as I did well, you know, it just became one banquet after to sound disparaging, I'm very thankful, and I got to meet some intention was great, I really do. But I just didn't want to be over and over again, I really was trying to be good. And I'm participate. But for me, when it became obvious that there was a certainly was appreciative of that. And for whatever good that similar to me, fantastic, right. But wouldn't it be great if the you know, of, of doing well, and not just participating, but love to do. I love to compete. And so I'm very proud of awards, achievement involved, I wasn't as proud of the awards that were
JOHN MOFFET:Well, you, you were good, very, very good. And you University of Michigan baseball team. I mean, and you mentioned you're a huge fan, that that must have been a big dream come
Jim Abbott:It is and, and I know, you know, right now, our writing a little bit of a high end, people, people don't always know, I grew up in Flint, Michigan, as I mentioned, and my Rick leach was a starting quarterback at the University of a two sport athlete, he was, you know, he was from Flint. And, Blue was deeply ingrained in me. And, and, you know, to this day, kindly that I was very good. But I think like a lot of athletes, You know, I always thought about where I was at that particular kind of looked at to the next step, you know, to the, you high school to high school, I never, I don't remember ever lick, you know, I'm coming into this hot, you know, and people you know, I was, I always felt like there was a certain amount so going to Michigan was a big time, notch in the belt and able to play with great players from within a very good baseball are great players from Ohio, from the Midwest in the state of competed against. So that was a great gave me great confidence on the on the way but at least had been gotten to the place
JOHN MOFFET:Right. And you you mentioned notch in your belt. was the fact that you started getting noticed, by Team USA midst of your collegiate career. And the you you were selected on go to Pan American Games, I believe this was 1987 How was different than previous teams that you had been on in your
Jim Abbott:Well, you know, as you know, the the USA experience else. And, you know, we I, you know, had a certain amount of found a certain amount of success at Michigan, but regional program, a national program, but, but they did very and so, to be invited to those tryouts and to be in the Tennessee, with you know, guys from Auburn and Stanford and who had read about and thought about and to try out for that was gratifying personally. But I also love the experience of the mission was so singular you know, it was it was there was everybody was so happy to be there. Everybody was proud to were proud to play against you know, Cuba and Japan and great world. And so it was just a magical I wouldn't trade you American game or USA team experience for anything it was played for.
JOHN MOFFET:Yeah. And you ended up getting silver at the Pan which were very good at the time. Yes. But but that silver qualify for the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. You spent a lot next summer. And you dedicate a great deal of your book to it was like bonding, traveling, competing training with this me Tell me about that experience leading up to soul.
Jim Abbott:Well, we played an 87 on the Pan American team, and second place in the Pan Am Games in Indianapolis, you know, to following year. So we did that, which was a tremendous sense of they brought a lot of the same guys back maybe a core some new guys. And so the experience was completely new. from Oklahoma State and Tino Martinez from Tampa and our head Stanford, our pitching coach was Skip Bertman from LSU. I mean, college game, you know, took time away from their families in together all summer, and it wasn't glamorous. We played in carried our own bags, we traveled in school buses. And it
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Jim Abbott:And it wasn't glamorous. We played in minor own bags, we traveled in school buses. And it was worth every team was a bunch of 20 through 22 year old kids. We were 30 years old. We thought they were ancient. They were the best and Japan and Korea. You know a lot of those players this was a really were starting to come to the United States to play Major seeing some high level competition and a lot of times But what a formative experience I mean just to to play in those to see us in small towns where we traveled and played and and love each other they really did and when we got to Seoul we got Olympic Village is a magical place right and all those that music to be together there was really a culmination it
JOHN MOFFET:Dream light. Indeed. And, and those with such a happy ending in which you were actually pitching Japan. When you your Team USA won gold must have just been what a what a what a different trajectory, suddenly you must summer
Jim Abbott:is true. I'm sitting in my office now I'm looking at there's jam pile of baseball players in Korea and I was the and see me out of the pile. You know, guys jumped six feet in And you know, the Olympics, you know so much has been said and You know that mean? To me the memories are competing. But it's the great swimmers, the track stars, you know, everybody you bananas and raisins and things like that. And we were eating having the time of our lives. But we did win. And, you know, I and to celebrate. And I will never forget that flight home flight home and just being, you know, tremendously happy and what was next. But knowing that that what had just happened was
JOHN MOFFET:I love the fact that you said that you're at an accomplishment that was bigger than yourself that you life and, and you came out the other end and were able to If I'm getting the timeline correct, not long after the 1988 first round to the angels. They're now the Los Angeles think they were just the Anaheim. California Angels. again, I show my ignorance about the baseball history stuff you
Jim Abbott:or I'm showing my age.
JOHN MOFFET:But being drafted into the major leagues, and then California, what a like an epic, consequential shit consequential right then.
Jim Abbott:Yeah. Yeah, everything was happening so being on my ninth grade baseball team. And I was the only one who the whole team. And I was embarrassed by that. And and wasn't all that much longer about, I think about six years, you know, playing with guys who I watched on TV growing up and someone who grew up in the Midwest, you know, California your imagination, literally, with Disneyland and Anaheim. But know, playing in the big league stadiums and playing against the It was it was really, really amazing. And, you know, I just playing in those stadiums. I mean, they were perfect, you And they're even better to 10 times better now. But there were next town riding on a plane, you just pinched yourself it was, You know, pretty amazing ride.
JOHN MOFFET:But it, I would also assume that part of that shock, I would think to suddenly find yourself against playing baseball players on the planet. It must have been quite international play.
Jim Abbott:You know, it really was, although I do think flying preparation for professional baseball. But what I loved about back to the context of having one hand and perceptions nobody leagues. Yeah, once the feel good stories were disseminated, plenty of people and reporters and camera crews, you know, in league. After that, it was all accountability. You're planning you know, who are fathers and who are, you know, husbands in livelihood and coaches who are fighting for their livelihood. damn how you got the ball to the plate. You know, they just it know, the people in AAA didn't care what your personal story they wanted it tomorrow, right so it was a fight you know, it was I never really I guess there were a few times but you never deep breath and go Oh, isn't this the best? It was always to get better what I gotta do tomorrow to get better you know or you know, there was always moving forward always trying to and then you know, really the days go by very quickly.
JOHN MOFFET:But also being a pro athlete, there are some reaching the top and you spoke about this a lot before but, you you're facing a tough day, or you just had a really, really tough day and make sure that it didn't turn into another and
Jim Abbott:Well, I mean, by might be asking the wrong person one of the most valuable lessons. You know, I had a, I proud of I won 18 games one year. And I, I also lost 18 manifestation of exactly what you're speaking of right now the moment to simplify. To control the mental noise that made the insurmountable. Right, that it became, you know, when you're know, and there's questions about your record and your place next time out, can take on a real added significance if you mentally break it down and go back to the things that you do and that year, it did break down on me, I really scuffled with my what's the perception of me, you know, this thing that I'd always self esteem from was all of a sudden, on very shaky ground. you know, and so, that is the fight for an athlete trying to exactly what you're trying to do, you know, in a process based based approach.
JOHN MOFFET:Right, and letting those emotions get carried. Let doubt right. Yeah. No, that that is definitely there's definitely life balance that I you know, I'm any athlete realizes that that sometimes you're on and sometimes you're off and you I believe it was four seasons with the angels, you were traded I believe by got the years is correct. That must have been to suddenly find yourself from Southern California to living in in the Bronx.
Jim Abbott:Yes. Well, particularly for a Tigers fan angel who will always thought he would be an angel. And I mean necessarily Angel. It was a shake up for sure. It was it my traded to the Yankees. And there were great expectations. I was doing pretty well. I wasn't traded for negative reasons contract that the angels wanted me to sign so they traded me. I make sound corny. I am so thankful for having played in imagined I tried to think of a world where I stayed in Anaheim. know how that would have went but to have played in California Yankees. It's a different experience. It's a hybrid scrutiny, the attention, the players, the travel, everything so I'm happy for that. And it wasn't always a smooth ride in love you there, you know, forever if you can just do right for that connection.
JOHN MOFFET:Yeah, yeah, for sure. You I've got to I've got hitter. I mean, that's just you. You were struggling a bit. In against Cleveland. And then four days later was September 4, Cleveland. And that's a day, Jim that even me as not a baseball seeing you in the news and reading and reading about you pinnacle of pitcher achievement, which was the no hitter, the you innings in your book, it's kind of like the spine of the book. line of your storytelling. And you dedicate one chapter to each And I really appreciated especially me not knowing the trying to understand what was in your head and the momentum that toward the end of the nine innings. How did you keep from The nerves, the fear?
Jim Abbott:Yeah. You know, it's something where I was, I was game recently, in football, and I'm a big Michigan football fan, even more so now for some reason than I ever was. And I was so that game, and I looked at my wife and I very rarely talked I said, you know, I was never this nervous. I never felt like played sports, I had an older daughter who played volleyball polo. And I felt like that in their games, you know, like, I in control. Well, they were
JOHN MOFFET:they were, they were at Michigan, and Michigan,
Jim Abbott:They did we share that connection, which is one of But so to make a long story, I, I was nervous, I was excited. excitement. You know, it really was an excitement about the had kind of converged, and it hadn't been a perfect game, my it wasn't perfect. I was imperfect, we're none of us are finding, you know, this, this excitement, and this joy within was the theme. And so, you know, that game, I just kind of roll know, the innings piled up, and I certainly felt it in my lungs thoughts. But yet, you know, I had been through a ninth inning know, I had been there at a place where I really, really happen. And it worked out. So I kind of went back to that a lot of mental training, I really do a lot of visualization tools at my disposal in terms of control of breath and in terms between innings, so it was excitement, it was nervousness, and elation at the end.
JOHN MOFFET:And, and the fact of the matter is, as well as when I as I read about the each of the nine innings is that no without their team behind them. And without the team firing on grand metaphor for for life, right for our communities, for
Jim Abbott:Absolutely. And my team was phenomenal that day. catcher you know, just fantastically supportive and birdie Williams made a great play in centerfield and Mike Boggs made a great play. You know, like I said, it was a, it as if things were meant to happen. And Donnie Mattingly or my favorite people in the world from Evansville, Indiana, caught here's a guy who had done anything and everything in New elation in that moment. It's just, you know, it was it was a lot of things have to go right for something like that to I'm so thankful because it has given some people identify that back to what we spoke about earlier. There's some level of accomplishment there that maybe a young kid like me can latch on know, I don't have to just be on the team I can do well, you can play with other kids. I might do things differently, but as anybody else in this world.
JOHN MOFFET:It truly is an athletic feat that transcends pitcher I mean, absolutely, for sure. You know, just I did a And you're probably more familiar with this. then me, but 257 pitchers who have hit hit no hitters in the MLB. Just three accomplished throughout the history of the MLB, which has right, that's 146 years. So I went on to read that the odds of hitter, is point 00013. Well, what what an amazing, amazing wholeheartedly that that it had nothing to do with the fact that with no right hand?
Jim Abbott:Yeah, I mean, I guess that's the that's the there's so many things have to go right. And one thing that and you know, I pitched had a no hitter late in the game, I the White Sox earlier that year and Yankee Stadium, I love the way, I really something about being in New York and the know, there was a comfort there. But I pitched against the White White Sox team at that time. And he came up to bat and he kind of pitching is so process oriented, there's really not a lot of result, once it leaves your hand, and any kind of flared a hard, but it was a base hit. And, and so and then the next still winning, it was four to two, but I realized how quickly to your point of how improbable that what the statistics are to do. And and so there was a certain resignation within that control over this. I don't really have a lot of control I can only hit the shot. And it might bounce in the sand trap, hole one of those two things. I don't know. But so that really mind late in the game. Like, let's just throw the pitches and
JOHN MOFFET:Yeah. Great. Great example, just to keep your mind every step one pitch at a time, right? Yeah, absolutely. You about this in this in this question that I wanted to ask, if somehow having no right hand some supercharged in a way your sharpened dexterity of having your brain, our brains are all perhaps it doubled up on the nerves and doubled up on the that Do you ever feel is though, you have that that magic came talent that was developed based upon having only a left hand?
Jim Abbott:Um, I, you know, I don't know, maybe a little bit I psychologically. Like, I know that, you know, there wasn't a know, somebody, and I've met like I said, so many kids. I've with a wonderful doctor and Nina like Dale up at Children's specialist and, and gone to a couple of her clinics with kids believe how many kids just in the Los Angeles area, you know, of a hand, you know, and and they have to be adaptable. You know, turning your hand a different way or opening a jar hand over to open a doorknob. You know, there are certain right handed or left handed, so you have to find a way to get dexterity might be a good way to put it. I do think there's a strength that goes along with having to do everything with one important to go to your point about balance, to try to keep though you know, weightlifting. You know, I always did a lot of things to try to balance out both sides of the body not to side.
JOHN MOFFET:Want to fast forward a bit to the career and every something that every athlete must must face and and and your retirement from from baseball was I don't mean the way you don't feel but it was tough. It was it was some it you finally walk away from the game that transformed your life?
Jim Abbott:Well, there's an old saying in baseball that the hitters let me know that, you know, it was just I really my career and I felt like I had, you know, overturned every stone and ran every sprint and did every mental challenge I could was coming up short, I didn't have the velocity that it took honest. And so I had to be honest with myself and and it really difficult to go out there time in and time again and out hard to walk back into the clubhouse, it's hard to come And I just had had, I just knew that it's not how I want to live game. And as hard as I knew it was going to be to walk away. I tough few years. You know, I had all my eggs in one basket, it's bunch of friends who kept playing for a long time after I games and it really hurt. But it goes away, you know, after a fact that you did everything you could, there was nothing left on and more proud of, of, I guess like my dad said what was given you'd become more and more satisfied with that? Yeah,
JOHN MOFFET:yeah, there's I think as we as we age and get mean, first of all, the the the acute pain when you have to end of an ache and then it just is more prospective. But you know, I've realized, and I've gone through many as you many big know, you always want to go out on top, but I found that because of disappointment or sadness, or, or struggles or feel that way? It's that we just need to sometimes it's time and
Jim Abbott:Yeah, I, you know, I think there's a very important know, remember, we talked a little bit about not being in that's true in life, right, we only control the effort that we sometimes it goes our way. And sometimes it doesn't. And circumstances conspire against us. But we keep moving forward, things in life that make us happy. And even if we can't get keep moving forward. And you know, now I've gotten to a point that I love using some of the training that you have, as a some of that visualization, you know, in the morning or at know, meditation, I guess is what we were doing at the time. you know, some of that honest evaluation, you know, real to pitch a good ball game and and think that it was better maybe got away with a bad picture too. But hey, the result great ballgame and you lost and you feel like Oh, I did the great lessons in life, I think is is honest evaluation of evaluating, moving on and trying to get better the next time.
JOHN MOFFET:Yeah. Wow. I mentioned briefly a little drafted to the angels and living in Southern California Orange, consequential move for you. And you've settled into your family Newport Beach, and it's coincidentally where I also went very familiar with Newport. And you're currently traveling you motivational speaker, correct?
Jim Abbott:Yes, fine. After the pandemic, and what wasn't a lot suppose, I suppose but yeah, people are starting to get back that to be invited to some places that I get to go,
JOHN MOFFET:yeah, yeah. And you've mentioned kids, and how you share your story with, with kids? What do you tell the kids struggles of missing a body part? Or are or struggling with limitation?
Jim Abbott:Well, first, I should say, I do feel a great know you have worked a lot with the Paralympics as well. And to tell there is a connection there. both good and bad, you fact that there's an empathy and understanding of the journey. know, we don't need to be categorized together, just physical, you know, limitation in some way that's maybe different people, we all know, nobody likes a label, right? So I'll say, in the second, I just tried to, I just tried to be share my experience, I can't tell you what it's going to be different parents than you. And you know, they say no child And I kind of agree that and no, probably no person grows up with disability. Right? It's all different. But I do know that along the way, that it's not always easy, that it gets resilient, you become tougher. And those times of struggle and disability, as you get older, start to spread out. And you mindset that allows you to come to terms with who you are, and that's what I've tried to say, I know, that's a lot for young you're gonna do this, you know, the same things, my dad said, know, so much more has been given to you that's taken away. believe the things that are possible, if you just keep believing in yourself.
JOHN MOFFET:So true. And I have found that throughout my life as parent, as a parent, myself, a parent of two kids in their 20s of your parents and how they dealt with raising you. Explain but husband as well, how, how their example of how they raised influenced you raising a family?
Jim Abbott:Oh, wow. Well, you know, my kids, my girls, they've into perspective, right? I mean, they, you know, just watching very fortunate, we're fortunate as a family, you know, that they have a great life down here. And baseball, provided us an growing up that I don't think we ever would have imagined in 40 years ago. But my kids have, have given me a chance to move move away from all the internalization and the and day to day things and everything shifts, everything happy. And and it's hard. You know, it's really hard because a good thing, right? We talked about it earlier. But then when discomfort, we hate it. So let's let's get rid of this somehow yet you have to watch him struggle and, and go through And so the lessons do go both ways. And for me having two they have a great mom and buy. My wife has served as such an good cop down here and I'm happy to do that.
JOHN MOFFET:Well, and that was a lesson that your parents need to forge your own way and you you need to take it on the yourself up and all of that same Yes, I agree with you that is
Jim Abbott:very difficult. Yeah, sure is. Sure is and know, and I want to guide them. And I did a I did a event one Curry, who I have great admiration for and who coaches he said one time, something that stuck with me, he asks his kids are now, I imagine they're probably getting up close to his kids, what do you what do you think your mom and I reserve think is a phenomenal question like, What do your kids think although I don't know that I've ever asked them directly that that they think it's the same thing that I think it is that I and empathy and, and, you know, gratitude, and I hope it wasn't pool or results on a volleyball court. You know what I mean? So always trying to get better, and hopefully, our kids can, we can let them be their own people.
JOHN MOFFET:Yeah, that's that's the whole point of all this families. Well, thank you, Jim, thank you for being so open. amazing. And I appreciate chatting with you and getting to
Jim Abbott:Thanks, John. I appreciate it. And I'll be episodes from you and congratulations. And it was it
JOHN MOFFET:Thanks, Jim. Jim is inspired by a quote from Cormac Western, All the Pretty Horses. In it, the author writes, those will always be set apart, but it is just that misfortune, which their strength. And I agree, I found the biggest heartbreaks in that is if we allow ourselves to if you'd like to pick up Jim memoir is appropriately titled imperfect and improbable life. sports life balance. If you've enjoyed this episode, please and do me a favor and tell a friend. Take care everyone. life balance with John Moffat.