Outfielder turned author exclusively shares part of his new book with Youth Sports Business Report during Deaf Awareness Month
By Jeff Moeller / Special to Youth Sports HQ
Curtis Pride is a former professional baseball outfielder who is deaf. He is the first and only Deaf player in the contemporary history of Major League Baseball.
A veteran of 11 big league seasons over 23 pro seasons overall, Pride’s story is an inspiration to many because of his determination and perseverance. He played for the Yankees, Angels and Red Sox among other clubs, overcoming the odds and proving his ability surpassed his disability.
Now he has written the next chapter – literally – of his life.
Pride’s pro career began at age 17 in Rookie Ball with the Kingston Mets. His first big league stop was in Montreal seven years later. His final appearance came with the Angels in 2006. He finally took off his uniform two years later after a stint in Independent Baseball with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.
I Felt the Cheers / The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride is a new, impactful autobiography that goes beyond sports. His memoir details his unique journey, on and off the field.
The book features a foreword by Hall of Fame legend Cal Ripken Jr. and includes an endorsement by one of Pride’s legendary Yankees teammates in Derek Jeter.
The book is now available for purchase. A three-sport star as a kid – Pride’s best sport was actually soccer and he played D-1 basketball at College of William & Mary – he never allowed being deaf from birth from rubella define him; rather it is just part of a story he firmly believes helps make the book an important read for young athletes in particular along with their families.
LOOKING BACK
Back in elementary school, not everyone welcomed me with open arms. I was always the fastest kid in school and when we would have races during recess, I would always win. This would include outrunning the school bully, who was in sixth grade, and winning the race gave my class home field advantage.
But being frequently outrun by the deaf kid did not sit well with the bully, so he did what bullies do and began kicking me around, making fun and hitting me. It was an emotional roller coaster, coming off the high of winning a foot race, only to be denigrated and beaten up by his fists. I’d go home crying, so my father taught me to defend myself, how to fight.
The next day, the bully picked on me as usual, but this time I pushed back. A fight ensued, and when I got the best of the bully, I suddenly had even more credibility with my classmates on the playground. The bully never bothered me again, and I had learned a valuable lesson that I carried with me.
LITTLE LEAGUE, BIG DREAMS
In baseball, I still believe the biggest at-bat of my life came when I was six years old. It was my first T-ball game, and I wore a deck-of-card sized hearing aid, tucked in a pouch my mom made, harnessed to my chest. There were wires running down the device, attaching to a custom mold that fit behind my ear.
I felt like an old car that was being jumpstarted, and the long wire that protruded from my shirt and into my left ear made me look like a robot that was being restrained by electrical cables in some low-budget horror movie. When I ran, the device would bounce up and down, and I was in constant fear of it breaking loose, smashing into a million little pieces as it hit the ground.
But mostly I was afraid of how it made me look and what other kids would think of me.
YES I CAN
The league’s administrators were convinced I had no place in the league, that my presence would be a burden to everyone involved, although they didn’t put it that way. The excuse they used was age, although there were concrete examples of exceptions to the age requirement. When my father was informed of their decision, he politely told league officials that his son would, in fact, be playing. He told them they could do it the easy way, or the hard way, which would have entailed legal proceedings. My father was not bluffing. When he says something, he has invariably thought about the long-term implications and is prepared to act on them.
I am even more proud of my dad for the type of person he was, the values he championed throughout his life, and the way he treated everyone with respect.
FATHER KNOWS BEST
My father, John, passed away during the production of the book. But he already knew the story better than anyone because he was with me every step of the way and his imprint is on every page. Along with my mom Sallie, my dad played a huge role in my upbringing and helped shape me into the man I am today.
IT STARTS WITH EDUCATION
The first thing I can remember was wanting to be a baseball player. Stereotypes about deafness threatened to end my baseball career before it started.
Nothing did more damage to the Deaf community, and to me personally, than the alliteration ‘deaf and dumb.’ The term insidiously made people think that being hearing impaired was synonymous with being stupid. The irony, of course, is that the original definition of the word ‘dumb’ in that phrase is ‘unable to speak.’ Later, the definition was revised to include lacking intelligence.
GETTING THE CALL (Les Expos de Montréal!)
I was awestruck by the whole atmosphere upon my first big league call-up, and I couldn’t believe I was going to play with many of the players I had been watching for years. Some of the veterans were gracious enough to act as if they were inspired by me, too. It was not uncommon for veterans to shun rookies, but this time the veterans immediately tried to make me feel welcome.
Before I could pull up the chair in front of my locker and change into my first big league uniform, some of the Expos’ biggest stars reached out to me. ‘Welcome to the Expos,’ Marquis Grissom said, as he shook my hand. ‘I know all about you and I’m impressed with what you have accomplished.’
Other veterans like Larry Walker, and Delino DeShields offered up similar sentiments. They treated me like I was already one of the guys, and I really appreciated that. But inside, I didn’t feel like one of the guys. Not yet anyway. Since I joined my first T-ball team, my goal had always been to fit in with others and prove I belonged. I always loved being around people, and more than anything, I wanted people to love being around me, too.
THE BIG APPLE
I grabbed a copy of the New York Post and flipped through the pages to the sports section. I wanted to see if my recall to the Yankees had made the paper, almost as if I needed validation that I was really a New York Yankee. I still wasn’t sure that it was really happening.
Finally I found it on the back page, a headline too good to be true: CURTIS TO BE LATEST PRIDE OF THE YANKEES. My name was associated with an iconic baseball franchise all – in one clever headline associated with a classic movie – sent chills up my spine.
THE JOURNEY
The word journeyman has a negative connotation in sports but playing for many different teams never caused me to feel any shame. If anything, I took pride in joining a new club, quickly fitting in, and helping that team win. My two decades of traveling were not planned, but I wouldn’t trade them. I was living my dream and wherever I played, I met friendly, supportive people who played a role in fulfilling that dream.
There is no bad place to play baseball. I enjoyed every minute of my playing career, loved meeting a lot of people and seeing so much of the country. There were a lot of great people rooting for me, a lot of great memories. You never know where baseball will take you, what the game will teach you, or whom you will meet.
COACHING ‘EM UP
After my playing career ended, I was the head coach at Gallaudet University, the only university in the world for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. I never view the deaf kids in my program any differently than the major leaguers I played alongside, and my team shouldn’t view themselves differently either. That first morning on the job, I called my players into a small classroom in the athletic department: Things will be different.
‘You can’t let your hearing disability be an excuse for anything or let it affect your performance,’ I told them. ‘That’s why communication is so important. You can’t afford not to understand because as soon as you do, someone will say, ‘We can’t invest in this guy.’ You are deaf, so most people already assume you can’t cut it. The burden of proving them wrong is on you. You must be twice as good as a hearing player to get half the chance.’
THE RIGHT STUFF
Even after playing hundreds of games in the major league, the compliment I enjoyed the most from the managers I played for – several of whom are all-time greats – is that Curtis Pride played the game the right way.
PLAYING WITH PURPOSE
Over time and repetition, I learned to control my emotions and nervousness so that I would be able to speak to larger groups of people. Today, I still get butterflies before a public engagement, but that’s part of the thrill of reaching out for a connection. Addressing a large group of people is much easier because I’m used to it. Like hitting a curve ball, it all comes down to practice and conditioning.
I have had the privilege of being a featured speaker everywhere from high school banquets to corporate seminars, to big league clubhouses, and it’s always an honor, but it’s also a responsibility that I take seriously, so I take time to practice what I plan on saying. Being well prepared is the best remedy for fear.
September is Deaf Awareness Month. I Felt the Cheers / The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride (co-written by Doug Ward) is available for purchase at Amazon.com, and where you buy your books online. All details on the new book can be found on Instagram: @CurtisPrideBook. Youth Sports HQ story features excerpts from the book, which is published by New York-based Kensington.
Imagery courtesy: I Felt the Cheers / The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride (Kensington).
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