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An Improbable Life
Ballantine Books
April 2012
On Sale: April 3, 2012
304 pages ISBN: 0345523253 EAN: 9780345523259 Kindle: B005NKHC8A Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir
On an overcast September day in 1993, Jim Abbott took the
mound at Yankee Stadium and threw one of the most dramatic
no-hitters in major-league history. The game was the
crowning achievement in an unlikely success story, unseen in
the annals of professional sports. In Imperfect, the
one-time big league ace retraces his remarkable journey.
Born without a right hand, Jim Abbott as a boy dreamed of
being a great athlete. Raised in Flint, Michigan, by parents
who saw in his condition not a disability but an
extraordinary opportunity, Jim became a two-sport standout
in high school, then an ace pitcher for the University of
Michigan.
But his journey was only beginning.
As a nineteen-year-old, Jim beat the vaunted Cuban National
Team. By twenty-one, he’d won the gold medal game at the
1988 Olympics and—without spending a day in the minor
leagues—cracked the starting rotation of the California
Angels. In 1991, he would finish third in the voting for the
Cy Young Award. Two years later, he would don Yankee
pinstripes and deliver a one-of-a-kind no-hitter.
It wouldn’t always be so good. After a season full of
difficult losses—some of them by football scores—Jim was
released, cut off from the game he loved. Unable to say
good-bye so soon, Jim tried to come back, pushing himself to
the limit—and through one of the loneliest experiences an
athlete can have.
But always, even then, there were children and their parents
waiting for him outside the clubhouse doors, many of them
with disabilities like his, seeking consolation and advice.
These obligations became Jim’s greatest honor.
In this honest and insightful memoir, Jim Abbott reveals the
insecurities of a life spent as the different one, how he
habitually hid his disability in his right front pocket, and
why he chose an occupation in which the uniform provided no
front pockets. With a riveting pitch-by-pitch account of his
no-hitter providing the ideal frame for his story, this
unique athlete offers readers an extraordinary and
unforgettable memoir.
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