The Phils were on their way to the National League East title, and led the second-place Expos by five games entering the contest. The visitors trailed, 3-0, entering the sixth inning, but touched up Montreal starter Dennis Martinez and a pair of relievers for 7 runs in the top of the frame. The home squad scratched across a run in the bottom of the inning, but entered the seventh down three.
The score was still 7-4 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh when the first two Expo batters reached base. Manager Felipe Alou called on rookie Curtis Pride, a September callup, to bat for pitcher Chris Nabholz. Then this happened (go to 2:56 if the link doesn't take you directly there):
And that's only a very small part of the story. Pride, who was 95% deaf from birth (note in the video above that third-base coach Jerry Manuel has to tell him to doff his cap to acknowledge the crowd, which he couldn't hear), went on to bat .250 with 20 homers in 421 major league games. But before that, he was a member of the U.S. National U16 soccer team, and named one of the world's 15 best youth soccer players after the 1985 U16 World Championship.
He was also, as you may know, the point guard of the William and Mary Tribe from 1987-1990. Pride played 94 games for the Wrens, averaging 5.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game (good for 10th in the all-time W&M record books in the latter category) for some of the worst college basketball teams you'd ever want to see. But consider this: he earned a four-year NCAA Division I scholarship in his third-best sport.Pride is now the head baseball coach at Gallaudet University, and two-time NEAC Coach of the Year. The Bison won a school-record 25 games in 2012, and went 11-3 in conference play last season.
Curtis Pride, we submit to you, is one of the sickest all-around athletes of all time. And we didn't even get to see him at his best, in his best sport(s).
Do better.
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13 comments:
You should introduce him to the DLC.
tribe are 2.5-point dogs at charleston this evening. cautiously, i like the road team.
Keri tweeted out the story of that Pride hit a few days ago. When asked if he knew how loud the crowd had cheered, Pride indicated that he could feel the crowd's roar through the turf. In related news, I love Jonah Keri's writing. I believe he's the only baseball writer I follow on Twitter. I'm sure he's pumped about that.
Finally, the football team at my first college was dreadful. They only won a single game my freshman year. The team they beat? Gallaudet. Gallaudet used drums located on the sideline to signal their snap count.
Great news! After flirting w/ 50 this w/e in the northeast, the weather will drop back down to single digit lows by middle of next week. Good times. We need some more ice.
My sump pump will be overwhelmed by this weekend's melt. That is not a euphamism.
do i really have to do better? i'm having a hard enough time doing it at all, and i can hear!
so alex ovechkin is a choking dog, eh? /medianarrative
Honestly, I feel a little sorry for Russia....
No I don't!! Screw those guys!
WOLVERINES!!! NOW MORE THAN EVER!!!
Czechs bounced from medal round!
So then they moved to Shaolinland.
No spoiler alerts please, but I am genuinely excited for Yulia Lipnitskaya in ice skating. Her performance earlier was one of the true "holy fuck, how does she do that" moments of the Olympics.
I will now step away to jam myself.
The Tribe lost by 33?!
yeah, that was a shitburger. better now than in march.
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