HOMEPAGE www.danieljvance.com

 

DISABILITIES WEEK 127

By Daniel J. Vance

 

  In nine Major League Baseball seasons, outfielder Curtis Pride has amassed all of 19 home runs and 80 runs batted in for six different teams, paltry numbers when compared to the game's greats. He has never played in more than 100 games in a season and had only one above-average year, 1996 with Detroit.

  Yet he is a star in the hearts of one million Deaf Americans.

  On September 23, 1993, he recorded his first Major League hit. "I was very surprised about the reaction I received after getting it," he said recently over email. "It was a very emotional experience." Montreal Expos fans gave Curtis a five-minute standing ovation he could not hear. But he certainly could see and appreciate it. In time, he would be the first full-season Deaf player in the modern era of Major League Baseball.

  Born profoundly deaf, Curtis Pride later graduated from high school in suburban Washington D.C. with a 3.6 GPA. He was a first-team high school All-American soccer player and was on the United States National Team that played in the Junior World Cup in China. Then he earned a full-ride basketball scholarship from the College of William and Mary, one of the nation's elite colleges.

  How did he do so well in college?

  "I spent a considerable amount of time studying with classmates," he said. "I had a note taker for almost all my classes. I also sat in the front of the class near the professor so I could read lips. Sometimes I met with my professors before or after class to review." He graduated from William and Mary with a finance degree in 1990.

  During his baseball career, he has been interviewed by Dan Rather on the TV show 48 Hours, and featured in Reader's Digest, Sports Illustrated and the New York Times.

  Today, though his career is winding down, he still receives hundreds of letters annually from people with disabilities. "The letters have all been very touching," he said. "I try to respond to each and every one of them."

  He and his wife Lisa, a television sports reporter and producer, have co-founded The Pride Foundation to help hearing-impaired children. "We felt it was important to give back to the hearing-impaired community because I had a lot of support growing up. We have provided college scholarships and hearing ads to hearing-impaired kids."

    For more, see www.danieljvance.com or www.togetherwithpride.org