As Parker Byrd walked to the plate, cheers, applause and shots ensued, so when he got to the batter’s box he took off his helmet and tilted it.
In the bottom of the eighth inning on Friday, Bird became the first Division I baseball player to pinch hit and eventually draw a walk as East Carolina University won 16-2 against Rider at Clark LeClair Stadium. Participating in the game with a prosthetic leg.
In 2022, his right leg was amputated in a boating accident.
Byrd required 22 surgeries in 45 days. According to The Athletic.
However, the infielder and right-handed pitcher gradually regained his form and returned to the Pirates team, where he had originally committed to playing college baseball.
“I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity today,” Bird said after the game, according to The Athletic.
According to Perfect Game, Byrd leaves Scotch High School in Laurinburg, North Carolina, as the No. 328 overall prospect and No. 75 shortstop in the Class of 2022, tied for No. 328 in the nation and No. 20 and No. 2 in the state of North Carolina, respectively. .
But everything changed the summer before he left for East Carolina when he went tubing, fell out of the tube, and then hit a boat’s propeller while trying to swim back. Per WHSV.
He left the scene by helicopter and his mother, Mitzi, had her right leg amputated below the knee. I wrote this in a Facebook post at the time:.
She said the whole thing was a “bad nightmare” that wasn’t over yet.
“I knew for sure that I was going to die in the helicopter,” Bird said. told WITN in October 2022.
Still, Byrd persisted in his desire to play baseball for the Pirates.
“Just because you lose your leg doesn’t mean you lose hope or you lose your heart,” Byrd told WITN in October 2022. Return to the field. ”
That happened Friday after East Carolina coach Cliff Godwin inserted Bird into the lineup in the eighth inning.
Godwin recalled to reporters after the game that veteran umpire Jimmy Paylor told Pirates coaches that he started crying because it was the “coolest moment” he had ever experienced.
The first pitch to Bird was a strike.
Three balls followed.
And after the fifth pitch from Rider’s pitch ended up outside the strike zone, Bird flipped his bat toward the East Carolina dugout and jogged down the baseline.
He was replaced by a pitcher-runner.
And waiting for him by the dugout were Godwin, his teammates, and more cheers for the latest step in a recovery that once seemed impossible, but now comes to a storied conclusion. There is.
“It’s been a long journey,” Godwin told reporters Friday. “This is one of the proudest moments I’ve ever had as a coach. He’s going to get some more. [opportunities], but he grew a tail. He was very moving. ”
Former Yankees pitcher Jim Abbott, who pitched one-handed in the majors and pitched a no-hitter in 1993, said: Blessed Bard’s X.
“Well done, Parker, nothing can stop you!” he wrote.
