Jim Abbott
Pitcher
Born: (1967-09-19) September 19, 1967 (age 44) Flint, Michigan
Batted: Left	Threw: Left
MLB debut
April 8, 1989 for the California Angels
Last MLB appearance
July 21, 1999 for the Milwaukee Brewers
Career statistics
Win–loss record	87–108
Earned run average	4.25
Strikeouts	888
Teams
California Angels (1989–1992) New York Yankees (1993–1994) Chicago White Sox (1995) California Angels (1995–1996) Chicago White Sox (1998) Milwaukee Brewers (1999)
Career highlights and awards
1987 Golden Spikes Award 1992 Tony Conigliaro Award 1995 Hutch Award Pitched a no-hitter on September 4, 1993

Medal record
Baseball
Competitor for the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold	1988 Seoul	Team
Pan American Games
Silver	1987 Indianapolis	Team
Baseball World Cup
Silver	1988 Rome	Team

Jim Abbott, post retirement

James Anthony Abbott (born September 19, 1967) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher, who played despite having been born without a right hand. He played for the California Angels, the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, and the Milwaukee Brewers, from 1989 to 1999.

He graduated from Flint Central High School and grew up in the East Village area of Flint, Michigan. While with the University of Michigan, Abbott won the James E. Sullivan Award as the nation's best amateur athlete in 1987 and won a gold medal in the demonstration event at the 1988 Summer Olympics. He was drafted in the first round of the 1988 Major League Baseball Draft and reached the Majors the next year. He threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians in 1993.^[1] Abbott retired with a career record of 87 wins and 108 losses, with a 4.25 earned run average.

He currently^[when?] works as a motivational speaker. Abbott also appeared in the Boy Meets World episode "Class Preunion."

Playing career[link]

Amateur years[link]

Abbott was born in Flint, Michigan.^[2] He was picked up by the Ypsilanti, Michigan American Legion team and went on to win the championship. He graduated from Flint Central High School in Michigan where he was a stand-out pitcher and quarterback.^[3] He played for the Grossi Baseball Club during the summer in the Connie Mack leagues of Michigan. He was drafted in the 36th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft but didn't sign, instead moving on to the University of Michigan.

He played for Michigan three years under coach Bud Middaugh, from 1985 to 1988, leading them to two Big Ten championships. In 1987, he won the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States, becoming the first baseball player to win the award.^[1][2] Abbott was the flag-bearer for the United States at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis, helping lead the USA to a second place finish.^[2][4] Though baseball was a demonstration sport in the 1988 Summer Olympics, Abbott pitched the final game, winning an unofficial gold medal for the United States.^[2] Abbott was voted the Big Ten Athlete of the Year in 1988. Abbott would be selected 8th overall by the California Angels in the 1988 draft. Abbott's University of Michigan #31 jersey was retired at the Wolverines' April 18, 2009 home game against Michigan State University. ^[2]

In 2007, Abbott was elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame for his career at Michigan.

Major League career[link]

In 1989, Abbott joined the California Angels' starting rotation as a rookie without playing a single minor league game. That season, he posted a 12-12 record with an ERA of 3.92,^[2] and finished fifth in the year's American League Rookie of the Year Award voting.

In 1991, Abbott won 18 games with the Angels while posting an ERA of 2.89, finishing third in the American League Cy Young Award voting.^[2] In the 1992 season, he posted a 2.77 ERA, but his win-loss record fell to 7-15 for the sixth-place Angels.^[2] Abbott also won the Tony Conigliaro Award in 1992.

On September 4, 1993 while pitching for the New York Yankees, Abbott pitched a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians.^[2]

In 1994, Abbott's Yankees led the American League East, but the strike ended the season on August 12. The following year, after starting the season with the Chicago White Sox, he returned to the California Angels, who held an 11 game lead over the Seattle Mariners in August, but lost the American League West in a one-game playoff to the Mariners.

He struggled through the 1996 season, posting a 2–18 record with a 7.48 ERA and briefly retired.

Abbott returned to the White Sox in 1998, starting five games and winning all five. Abbott continued his comeback the following year with the Milwaukee Brewers, but pitched ineffectively. This was the first time he'd played for a National League team, forcing him to bat for the first time in his career. He recorded two hits in 21 at-bats during his Brewers stint.

Abbott retired after the 1999 season with a career record of 87–108, with a 4.25 ERA.

Playing with one hand[link]

When preparing to pitch the ball, Abbott would rest a right-handed thrower's glove on the end of his right forearm. After releasing the ball, he would quickly slip his hand into the glove, usually in time to field any balls that a two-handed pitcher would be able to field. Then he would remove the glove by securing it between his right forearm and torso, slip his hand out of the glove, and remove the ball from the glove, usually in time to throw out the runner and sometimes even start double plays. At all levels, teams tried to exploit his fielding disadvantage by repeatedly bunting to him; this tactic was never effective.^[5]

Batting was not an issue for Abbott for the majority of his career, since the American League uses the designated hitter, and he played only two seasons in the interleague play era. But Abbott tripled in a spring training game in 1991 off Rick Reuschel,^[6] and when Abbott joined the National League's Milwaukee Brewers in 1999, he had two hits in 21 at-bats, both off Jon Lieber.^[7][8] New York Yankees teammate Mariano Rivera claimed to have witnessed Abbott hitting home runs during batting practice.^[9]

Awards[link]

1986 - Jim Abbott was presented with the United States Sports Academy's Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias Courage Award for his courageous action in overcoming adversity to excel in sports.^[10]

1987 - Jim Abbott wins the Golden Spikes Award.

1992- Jim Abbott is awarded the Tony Conigliaro Award, given annually by the Boston Red Sox to a Major League player who overcomes an obstacle and adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination, and courage that were trademarks of the Boston star.^[11]

Autobiography[link]

In April 2012, Abbott's autobiography, Imperfect: An Improbable Life (ISBN 0345523253), co-written with Tim Brown, was published by Ballantine Books.^[12]

See also[link]

Baseball portal

• List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
• Pete Gray

References[link]

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Official Website
• Works by or about Jim Abbott in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Jim Abbott collected news and commentary at The New York Times
  • New York Times: "BASEBALL; A Most Extraordinary Fella" December 25, 1992

Douglas Metunwa Glanville (born August 25, 1970 in Hackensack, New Jersey) is a former American Major League Baseball outfielder who played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and the Texas Rangers.

In 1999 Glanville batted .325, and placed second in the National League to Luis Gonzalez in hits, with 204. Glanville was also known as an exceptional fielder, reaching double-digit outfield assists on three separate occasions. He also ended his career going 293 consecutive games without a fielding error.^[1] In game 3 of the 2003 NL Championship series, Glanville hit the game-winning triple in the 11th inning for the Chicago Cubs.

In 2005, with no immediate prospects of joining a major league roster, Glanville signed a one-day minor league contract with Philadelphia, then retired, having collected exactly 1100 career hits. He stated he wanted to leave baseball wearing the uniform of the team that he grew up a fan of, and to which he gave most of his playing career.

Glanville is currently a consultant with Baseball Factory, a high-school player development program. He writes guest columns for The New York Times and ESPN.com on baseball and sports in general.^[2] On April 1, 2010, Glanville joined ESPN as a baseball color analyst. He contributes to Baseball Tonight, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.^[3]

Background[link]

Glanville grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey,^[4] where he attended Teaneck High School.^[5] He was a childhood friend of former New Jersey Nets head coach Lawrence Frank. Glanville attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in systems engineering.^[6] He is one of only five Penn alumni to play in Major League Baseball since 1951. He is an avid MMOG (Massively multiplayer online game) player along with former teammate Curt Schilling.^[7]

Glanville played center field for the Indios de Mayagüez for 2 seasons, in his first season he was named MVP of the Puerto Rico Winter League over Roberto Alomar. Doug Glanville will be best remembered for his 1999 season in which he batted .325 and hit 11 homers while driving in 73 runs and stealing 34 bases.^[8]

Business activities[link]

After leaving baseball, Glanville served as managing partner for Metropolitan Development.^[9] Glanville announced in a December, 2008 interview with Jimmy Scott that he was writing a book similar to his New York Times column.^[10]

Currently, Glanville is President of GK Alliance, LLC, a Glen Ellyn, Illinois based company providing intellectual capital for start-up and emerging companies.^[11] In his role with GK Alliance, he serves as Director, New Business Initiative for both James Romes Consulting^[12] and MechTechnologies,^[13] and President of Glanville-Koshul Homes.^[14]

On May 9, 2009, Glanville wrote an Op-Ed article in The New York Times regarding his choice to not use steroids during his baseball days. The article compares the decision to Neo's choosing between blue and red pills in the movie The Matrix. Glanville wrote that thoughts of his mother kept him from abusing PEDs. In an online New York Times article of January 21, 2010, Glanville responded to Mark McGwire's admission that he used steroids.^[15] Glanville's book The Game From Where I Stand (ISBN 0805091599) was published by Times Books in May 2010.^[16] Buzz Bissinger called it "a book of uncommon grace and elegance...filled with insight and a certain kind of poetry."^[17]

See also[link]

• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases

References[link]

External links[link]

• Doug Glanville's Website
• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• May 2010 Chicago magazine story and video about Glanville and his book, The Game from Where I Stand
• Archive of "Heading Home," Glanville's 2008 season column for the New York Times
• "From Teaneck to the Big Time". Ivy League Sports. 1999. http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/documents/bh04-penn-glanville.asp. Retrieved 2007-02-16. ^{[dead link]}
• Stark, Jayson (2001-05-18). "Wild Pitches". ESPN.com. http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stark_jayson/1201283.html. Retrieved 2007-02-16. 
• Glanville, Doug (2010-01-21). "Seeing is Disbelieving". New York Times. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/seeing-is-disbelieving/. Retrieved 2010-01-22. 
• Glanville, Doug (2009-01-26). "Measures of Success". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/opinion/27glanville-success.html?pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2009-01-27. 
• Glanville, Doug (2009-03-04). "Bling Training". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/opinion/05glanville-upgrades.html. Retrieved 2009-03-04. 
• "The Fresh Air Interview: Doug Glanville - 'From the Ivy League to Center Field'". NPR. May 12, 2010. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126613240. 

William Bruce Jenner (born October 28, 1949) is a former U.S. track and field athlete, motivational speaker, socialite and television personality. He won the gold medal for decathlon in the Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics.

Following his Olympic victory and the related recognition, his professional career evolved into being a television celebrity. By 1981 he had starred in several made-for-TV movies and was Erik Estrada's replacement on the top rated TV series CHiPs. Since the 2007 debut of Keeping Up with the Kardashians he has appeared as the step-father to the Kardashian sisters.

Early life[link]

Bruce Jenner is originally from Mount Kisco, New York.^[1] He attended Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut,^[1] after spending a year at Sleepy Hollow High School in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Jenner earned a football scholarship and attended Graceland College (now Graceland University) in Iowa, but a knee injury forced him to stop playing football and he switched to the decathlon. He was mentored by Graceland's track coach L. D. Weldon, who was the first to recognize Jenner's potential and encouraged him to pursue the decathlon. Jenner debuted in the decathlon at the Drake Relays in 1970, placing fifth.

Olympic career[link]

Jenner placed third in the decathlon at the 1972 U.S. Olympic trials^[2] and finished in tenth place at the 1972 Munich games.^[3] His success prompted him to devote himself to an intense training regimen,^[4] while also selling insurance outside training hours.^[1] He acknowledged that he was supported and subsidized by his then wife, Chrystie Crownover, who worked as an airline stewardess.^[5] In the era before professionalism was allowed in athletics, this kind of training was unheard of. During that period he spent eight hours a day at the San Jose City College track.^[1][6] Centered around Bert Bonnano, the coach at SJCC, San Jose at the time was a hotbed for training aspiring Olympic athletes, including Jenner, along with Millard Hampton, Andre Phillips, John Powell, Mac Wilkins, Al Feuerbach and others.^[6][7] In 1974 and 1976, Jenner was the American champion in the event.^[8]

At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, he won the gold medal in the Decathlon, setting the world record of 8,618 points. The world record was broken by just 4 points by Daley Thompson in 1980. In 1985, the IAAF Decathlon scoring table was changed, so Jenner's winning score has been reevaluated against that table and reported as 8634 for comparative purposes. As of 2011, Jenner is #25 on the world all-time list and the #9 American.^[9]

As a result of winning the Olympic decathlon, Jenner was a national hero. He was the 1976 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Jenner was also the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year in 1976. He was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, the Connecticut Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1980.

San Jose City College hosted the "Bruce Jenner Invitational" (frequently shortened to "Jenner") as a televised, annual stop on the United States Track and Field Circuit (a meet equivalent in stature to the Prefontaine Classic) for the better part of two decades. Records were set at the meet, with Jenner frequently hosting the telecasts.^[10]

Celebrity[link]

In the 1970s, Olympic athletes were considered amateur and were absolutely not allowed to seek or accept payment for their position as a sports celebrity. In 1972, three major Olympic titles (basketball, 100 meters and decathlon), were won by Soviet athletes during the Cold War. Winning 'back' the decathlon title made Jenner an American hero. After his Olympic success, Jenner set out to cash in on his celebrity status (requiring him to give up any future Olympic appearances). He left his vaulting poles in the stadium, having no intention of ever using them again. Quickly after the Games, Jenner appeared on the front of Wheaties brand breakfast cereal as a "Wheaties champion." Of several hundred athletes who have been so featured, Jenner is one of seven Wheaties "spokesmen." He was invited to the White House to meet with President Gerald R. Ford, who autographed a political cartoon that featured the pair.

On November 22, 1977, Bruce went to San Francisco to refute charges filed by the district attorney that General Mills, the makers of Wheaties, had been engaged in false advertising. Jenner contended that he likes the cereal and consumes this breakfast cereal two to three times per week. Two days later District Attorney Joseph Freitas withdrew the false advertising suit against General Mills for its advertising campaign featuring Mr. Jenner, saying that it was "a case of overzealousness" on the part of his staff.^[11]

In 1977, the Kansas City Kings selected Jenner with the 139th pick of the NBA Draft. Jenner had not actually played basketball since high school; the closest he came to a roundball career came when he sank a basket in the "YMCA" sequence of the film Can't Stop The Music in 1980. The movie was a disco-era comedy about the singing group The Village People. It gave Jenner a starring role, but the movie was a flop. Jenner was nominated for the 1980 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for his performance That was the end of his theatrical movie career until he appeared in 2011's Jack and Jill in a scene with Al Pacino as an actor in a play. Adam Sandler won the Golden Raspberry as both Worst Actor and Worst Actress in that film. Both Can't Stop The Music and Jack and Jill won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture, making Jenner two for two in his movie career.

Jenner decided to try for a television career, and had some success, starring in the TV movies The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story (1980) and Grambling's White Tiger (1981). In 1981–82 he became a semi-regular on the police series CHiPs, guest-starring as Officer Steve McLeish (substituting for star Erik Estrada, who was lodged in a contract dispute with NBC and MGM), for a half-dozen episodes.

His "hero shot," the finish of the final event of 1976 Olympic decathlon, was parodied by John Belushi on Saturday Night Live endorsing "Little Chocolate Donuts" instead of Wheaties.^[12]

Jenner also appears in the video games Olympic Decathlon (1981) and Bruce Jenner's World Class Decathlon (1996).

Auto racing career[link]

Jenner was a successful race driver in the IMSA Camel GT series (International Motor Sports Association) in the 1980s. His first victory came in the 1986 12 hours of Sebring in the IMSA GTO class driving the 7-Eleven Roush Racing Ford Mustang with co-driver Scott Pruett, not only winning their class but finishing 4th overall in the 12-hour endurance race. His most successful year was also 1986 finishing second in the championship to Pruett.

Further TV appearances[link]

Jenner has appeared as himself on a variety of game shows and reality TV programs. He starred with Grits Gresham in an episode of ABC's The American Sportsman. The program featured Gresham hunting, fishing, or shooting in exotic spots with celebrities. In the early 1990s he was the host of an infomercial for a stair-climbing exercise machine called the Stair Climber Plus.

In January 2002, Jenner participated in an episode of the American series of The Weakest Link featuring Olympic athletes. In February and March 2003, he was part of the cast of the American series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, and made a cameo on a season three episode of The Apprentice that originally aired in May 2005. He was partnered with Tai Babilonia for Skating with Celebrities that aired January–March 2006 (they were eliminated during the fifth of seven episodes). Jenner has additionally served as a guest judge on Pet Star on Animal Planet, and appeared on NBC's game show Identity as well as Celebrity Family Feud with his family.

Additional television and talk show appearances by Jenner include Nickelodeon's made-for-TV film Gym Teacher: The Movie as well as episodes of Murder She Wrote, Family Guy, Pet Star on Animal Planet, Identity, Lingo Olympic Winners episode ^[13] and Celebrity Family Feud as well as such talk shows as Hannity and The Bonnie Hunt Show.^[14]

Since late 2007,^[15] Jenner has starred in the E! reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians, along with wife Kris Jenner, stepdaughters Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and stepson Rob (from Kris' marriage to attorney Robert Kardashian), and daughters Kylie and Kendall. Season two had an average of 1.6 million viewers, an increase over the previous cycle.^[16] Jenner has also made cameo appearances on the show's spinoff series.

Personal life[link]

His company, Bruce Jenner Aviation, sells aircraft supplies to executives and corporations.^[17] Jenner was the business development vice president for a staffing industry software application known as JennerNet, which was based on Lotus Domino technology.

Jenner was the marketing name for Bruce Jenner's Westwood Centers for Nautilus & Aerobics in the early '80s. Jenner had no ownership in the centers. The fitness centers were owned by David Cirotto and Chin Yi. The centers were sold to Super Fitness Centers, owned by martial arts expert Paul Snow. Chin Yi later became the founder of LA Fitness. Jenner also was diagnosed with dyslexia as a young child—he appeared on the sitcom Silver Spoons where he revealed his condition to the Stratton family—and after retiring from sports, built a successful career as a motivational speaker and television sports commentator (making an appearance on the series Learn To Read).

Jenner has a younger sister named Lisa. His younger brother, Burt was killed in an auto accident in Canton, Connecticut shortly after Jenner's success in the Olympics,^[18] so Jenner named his first son after his deceased brother. In his first marriage to Chrystie Crownover (December 15, 1972 – January 2, 1980) he had two children, first son Burton William "Burt" Jenner (b. September 6, 1978) and daughter Cassandra Lynn "Casey" Jenner (b. June 10, 1980).^[19][20] His second marriage was from 1981–1985 to Linda Thompson. Their two sons together Brandon Thompson (b. June 4, 1981) and Brody (born August 21, 1983) appeared in their own reality show The Princes of Malibu; which also featured them living with their stepfather David Foster. Brody was also on the reality show The Hills.

Jenner is married to Kris (née Houghton). After dating for five months, they married on April 21, 1991.^[21] Kris was previously married to lawyer Robert Kardashian. Jenner has two daughters with Kris, Kendall Nicole (b. November 3, 1995) and Kylie Kristen (b. August 10, 1997). He is also the stepfather of Kim, Khloé, Kourtney and Rob Kardashian. In 2009 Jenner became a grandfather to Francesca, his daughter Casey's first child. He became a step-grandfather for the first time on December 14, 2009, when his stepdaughter Kourtney gave birth to her first child, Mason.

See also[link]

• List of athletes on Wheaties boxes

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Bruce Jenner at the Internet Movie Database
• IAAF profile for Bruce Jenner
• Wheaties spokesperson
• Jenner Communications
• The short film Ten for Gold (1976) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Bruce Jenner's U.S. Olympic Team bio
• USATF Hall of Fame bio

Records
Preceded by Mykola Avilov	Men's decathlon world record holder August 10, 1975 – May 15, 1980	Succeeded by Daley Thompson