Friday, June 30, 2006

So Long, Farewell

Here it is, my last official story written as the Herald-News Sports Editor. Lacking motivation in the worst way, I didn't want to write it, but my boss kept pushing me and I'm glad he did. It's a happy-feel-good, tale just the type he says should win a Tennessee Press Association award next summer. I guess they can mail it to me.

Determination on the Diamond

Dayton 9-year-old learns to compete with disability on the field and in the game of life

By Matt Williams, Herald-News Sports Editor

It’s a scenario every baseball player dreams about being in. Last at-bat. Down by two runs. Two outs with the bases loaded. But for Dayton’s 9-year-old Ty Jones, the story had another twist last month during the Dizzy Dean nine-year-old league regular season championship game.

Ty was swinging the bat with just one arm.

“That’s my favorite memory from this past season...hitting the triple to win the game in the regular season league championship game,” Ty explains with all the excitement of a television color commentator. “We were down 7-6 in the top of the sixth, and I was hitting with two outs and the bases loaded. I hit it over shortstop. It bounced once and hit the wall and drove in all three runs for the lead. Then, we shut them out in their last at-bat to win the game. It was a good feeling.”

Jones, a rising fifth-grader at Frazier Elementary School, was born on Aug. 20, 1996, with several disabilities to his right arm. He had no elbow, and while he was born with a right hand, he was missing three fingers on it. Only his thumb and index finger were developed.

“The doctors didn’t let us know how major a situation it was at first after delivery,” said Debbie Jones, Ty’s mother. “We went all around the world to the best doctors, trying to do the best thing for him. He had options to have surgery and get prosthesis, but the doctors said there was a chance the surgery would have killed the nerves in his arm. We waited until he was older, and he said he didn’t want to have it done.

“Doctors have told us that people that are born without digits usually have their middle, fourth and pinky fingers. Ty got his thumb and index, so he can do a lot more than most people [with the disability]. He can do an awful lot.”

A standout pitcher, first baseman and center fielder for the Dayton Dodgers and now for the Dayton 9-year-old All-Star team, Jones comes by his athletic ability naturally. His mother Debbie played softball and basketball at the collegiate level, while his father Ray, a native of Dublin, Ireland, is a runner and ran track at East Tennessee State University on scholarship. In addition, Ty’s older brother Josh Jenkins is a former Rhea County High School basketball standout and his uncles Brien and Steve Crowder have both played basketball and coached several sports both in Rhea County and across the country.

“Brien and Steve have been a big inspiration to him, and he’s real close to his big brother Josh,” said Debbie. “He’s had a lot of encouragement from his family.”

While athletic ability came naturally for Ty, hard work and determination are character traits he has developed over time. Ty got his start in sports by playing soccer at the age of 5, making up for what he couldn’t do with his arm by using his quick feet and speed on the field.

“His feet could just fly,” said Debbie. “They wanted to bump him up an age group to play on a traveling AAU team, but then he decided he wanted to play baseball. He likes challenges— he’s a determined little guy.”

It wasn’t hard for Ty to put down his soccer cleats and fall in love with America’s pastime.

“My favorite players are Derek Jeter, Gary Sheffield and Ken Griffey Jr. I don’t know why, but I really like the Yankees. Derek Jeter plays really hard, and Sheffield can just kill the ball, and Ken Griffey Jr. is a great center fielder. I guess I really like the Reds too…” Ty rambles on when asked about his favorite sport and players.

Learning to compete on the diamond, like anything involving the use of his limbs, proved to be a more formidable task for Ty. Batting, catching and throwing are hard enough for youngsters with two arms, but Ty quickly developed his own techniques.

His left arm being nearly twice as long as his right arm, Ty had to tweak the traditional player’s approach at the plate. When he steps to the plate to bat, he is essentially swinging with just one arm, but despite the limitation Ty has developed his own batting technique that allows him to swing partially with the use of the two fingers on his right hand. His follow-through swing becomes a one-armed offering, but his approach at the plate has resulted in a remarkable consistency making contact with the ball.

In the field, Ty catches and throws with his left hand using a right-hander’s glove. After fielding the ball, he fluidly tucks the glove and ball under his right arm before retrieving the ball with his left hand.

“I like playing center field because I love to catch balls. It feels just like anyone else playing ball,” said Ty concerning playing ball with his arm. “Everyone else thinks it’s hard, but it’s easy for me. I like having my arm. I know people love to watch me play because they want to see if I can hit the ball, so I’m glad that I can do that and show them that they can do it too.”

“He’s definitely one of our main players,” said Ty’s Dizzy Dean coach Allen Smith. “He’s one of the anchors of our team. We were playing in [the Middle Valley Invitational tournament] a few weeks ago and were down two runs with runners on first and third. Ty came up with a hit to right field and sent the game into extra innings. We didn’t win the game, but we wouldn’t have had a chance without that hit.

“One thing I admire about Ty is that he is a competitor. He plays to win and gives 100 percent every time. He’s what we call a clutch player. I don’t look at him as someone with a disability...I look at him as a baseball player.”

In addition to baseball, Ty also considers himself “a good basketball player” and hopes to continue playing in basketball leagues in the future. Debbie says doctors have said Ty is in the 98^th height percentile for kids his age.

“He’s definitely surpassed the expectations I had for him when he was younger. We’ve told him that he can do anything he wants to do if he puts his mind to it. It is harder for him, but he’s determined. Sometimes I think he’s too serious about baseball for a kid his age, but he’s just really focused,” said Debbie.

Debbie and Ty each credit the testimony of Jim Abbott as being instrumental in Ty flourishing in his condition.

“We started showing [Ty] videos of Jim Abbott when he was really little to show him that he could do whatever he wanted to do,” said Debbie.

Abbott was born without a right hand but went on to a successful 10-year career as a major league baseball pitcher for the California Angels, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers. He was only the 15^th player in MLB history to make his professional debut in the major leagues, was a member of the United States’ gold medal-winning Olympic team in 1988, pitched a no-hitter for the Yankees on Sept. 4, 1993 and is currently a pitching instructor for the Los Angeles Angels organization and a motivational speaker aimed specifically at helping children born with disabilities.

“When I saw that Jim Abbot could do it, I knew that I could do it too,” said Ty.

Off the field, Debbie says Ty is still special but is also just your average 9-year-old boy.

“He’s not so ‘special’ when it comes to school work. He’s your typical 9-year-old. He’s like most boys his age, he’d rather be playing ball. He doesn’t like school so much.”

She says there have been plenty of times when Ty hasn’t been happy about his challenges. Several times Ty has come home from school upset because someone had made fun of his disability.

“He has had hard times where people have picked on him for being different, but we’ve told him that God sent him as a special person and gave him a special arm,” said Debbie. “His daddy always says ‘how many seven-fingered kids do you see out there playing ball?’”

Most of the time, Ty handles the pressure of being different like a pro, often using his unique sense of humor to disperse the tension of stares and questions. Debbie relayed one of her favorite stories of Ty: “We were at the beach one time and two boys came up to Ty and asked him what happened to his arm. He just looked at them and said ‘What? You guys didn’t hear about the shark attack?”

Ty has big plans to continue his baseball and basketball careers in the future, hopefully at the professional level one day, but for now he seems very content collecting favorite memories on the diamond like they’re baseball cards of his favorite players. And he’s happy to tell the stories.

“In the regular season first half, I pitched the last inning against the Braves and shut them out for the win,” said Ty. “We hadn’t beaten the Braves yet in the season, so when I shut them out in the last inning we were all jumping around and going crazy. Everyone went crazy. It was great.”

Matt Williams can be reached at mattwilliams@xtn.net