One Hand

Zach Hodskins, drafted by a Florida College team

Another young man just made some sensational news when he was drafted by a Florida basketball team in college. Thousands of students are drafted and picked every year, but Zach Hodskins is special. He was born with one hand, and has played basketball ever since he was a young child. He does not know any other way. And he’s pretty good, watching some of the videos shown on ESPN. Good luck to him!

Jim Abbott, celebrating his no-hitter in 1993 with the NY Yankees

Another one-handed sports star is the baseball player Jim Abbott who was drafted to play professional baseball with the California Angels. Jim was also born with one hand, but this did not deter him from trying his best in what he knew best - throwing a baseball.  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 Baseball with the USA 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 was with the New York Yankees between 1993 and 1994 and he will always be remembered for throwing a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians in 1993. A no-hitter is every pitcher's dream and very few ever record that milestone, maybe 2 to 3 every year out of thousands of games played throughout a season of 162 games. Abbott retired with a career record of 87 wins and 108 losses, with a 4.25 earned run average. This comes to show that nothing is impossible for those who dream big.        Good luck to Zach Hodskins and thank you to Jim Abbott for never giving up!