Kornacki: Michigan Career Paved Abbott's Way to Olympics
7/13/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
July 13, 2016
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The Summer of 1988 was a golden time for Jim Abbott. He won an Olympic gold medal, struck gold after being drafted early in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft by the California Angels and moved to "The Golden State."
Abbott, a University of Michigan baseball pitching legend, starred in the Olympics before adding to his success with the Angels and later pitching a no-hitter for the New York Yankees. The inspirational athlete started and won the gold-medal game for the U.S. in the '88 Olympics held in Seoul, Korea. Abbott went the distance in a 5-3 win over Japan.
"To be on that mound to make the last pitch in that game was one of the great moments of my life," said Abbott. "It was one of those indescribable moments in life. You want time to stop, and you want to enjoy every breath and every single second. That team was very close. We played for two summers together, beginning with the Pan-Am Games in '87, went to Cuba to play and then came back and picked up a couple more players for the Olympics.
"We had that singular goal of winning the Olympics, and won, and by the time we went through all the trials and tribulations of traveling all over the world together, it was an experience that was kind of neat. We went to the Olympic Village and hung out with some great athletes."
Baseball was a demonstration sport in 1988, but it didn't diminish the accomplishment in any way. The U.S. won the gold medal -- with college players such as Robin Ventura, Tino Martinez, Andy Benes, Ben McDonald and Abbott -- while competing against other nations with older players the same age as those in Major League Baseball.
Their experience one year earlier in Cuba set them up for Olympic success.
Abbott won a game for Team USA during its historic 1987 series in Havana. The U.S. had lost the first two games but took the next game, 8-3, with Abbott allowing only three hits in five-plus innings.
He received a standing ovation from 50,000 fans when introduced before the game at Estadio Latinoamericano because his story was well documented for them before the games. The passionate Cuban fans took to Abbott, who was born without a right hand, when he made a strong play to throw out the leadoff hitter. They cheered him as if he was one of their own, and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro sent a request for Abbott's autograph.
"It was really an incredible experience," said Abbott. "I was only a couple years away from playing in Flint (for Central High) and Connie Mack baseball. I made the team, coming from Michigan, and was coached by Ron Fraser, who had all those great teams at the University of Miami.
"We were the first team to go down to Cuba in a long time, over 25 years. They were the best amateur team in the world and didn't have any players coming over here to play back then. We were college players, and some of their guys were 30 years old. So, it felt like we were going up against a major league team.'
"We battled them tooth and nail and lost the first couple games. Then we beat them the third game, and it was really one of the touchstones of my baseball playing days. To have gone up against them in Havana and won for the U.S. was one of my proudest moments."
This was 1987, only a quarter-century after the Cuban Missile Crisis and Bay of Pigs Invasion served to sever relations between the Communist island nation and the free world leader located just across the Straits of Florida.
However, times are changing.
The Tampa Bay Rays played an exhibition game against the Cuban national team on March 22, and Barack Obama became the first U.S. President since Calvin Coolidge to visit the country to promote his initiative to open relations with the Cubans.
Three decades had passed since Abbott pitched there and won hearts, and I asked him if that appearance by him and his U.S. teammates might have been the first step toward someday reviving the relationship between the countries.
"You never know," said Abbott, who noted that Sports Illustrated writer S.L. Price recently shared his thoughts on that series with him.
"(Price) said people there still look back at that quite fondly," continued Abbott. "We battled the Cuban team for two years, and sadly they didn't come to the (1988) Olympics. We also played them in the world championship series in Italy the next summer.
"But we didn't know them as political rivals. We were rivals, but we went to dinner and things together. We really came to be friendly, and there was a great mutual respect."
The Angels made Abbott the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 1988 draft that was wedged in between his junior season at Michigan and the Olympics. He signed that August but never threw one inning in the minor leagues.
Abbott went 12-12 with a 3.92 ERA as a rookie in 1989. He posted his best season two years later, going 18-11 with a 2.89 ERA for the Angels to finish third in American League Cy Young Award voting.
He pitched more than 10 seasons, winning 87 games, but none was more memorable than the no-hitter thrown for the Yankees against the Cleveland Indians on Sept. 4, 1993.
Abbott first drew notice as a star pitcher, hitter and football quarterback at Flint Central and moved onto Ann Arbor from there.
Michigan won two Big Ten Tournaments and two regular-season conference titles as well as reaching the NCAA Tournament in each of Abbott's three seasons, 1986-88.
He won the AAU's Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the U.S. and also the Golden Spikes Award as the nation's top amateur baseball player in 1987. Abbott was the first baseball player named Big Ten Athlete of the Year in 1988. He was the U.S. flag-bearer at the 1987 Pan American Games, playing on the silver medal team.
Abbott was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame and Michigan Hall of Honor in 2007, and became only the sixth Wolverine baseball player to have his number, 31, retired in 2009.
He's now a motivational speaker and lives in Corona del Mar, California, with his wife, Dana, a former University of California-Irvine basketball player. They have two daughters, Ella and Maddy, who was second with 434 assists on the Wolverines volleyball team as a freshman.
"I cherish everything," said Abbott, "and that goes down even to the difficult times. My career had a lot of great moments, but I also had some real disappointments and retired much earlier than I'd hoped.
"But all of that went into my experience. I had a chance to play in some fantastic places: New York City, Anaheim, Chicago and Milwaukee. Coming from Flint, Michigan, I never dreamed I'd be a New York Yankee or play on the West Coast, where I live today."
Abbott paused for thought before continuing.
"And I don't want to sound corny in saying this," he said. "But to be honest with you, I cherish my connection with the University of Michigan as much as anything. It really means a lot to me, and it's grown in its importance to me because so much was possible because of the opportunity I had to play at Michigan, the exposure that I received and what (Coach) Bud Middaugh did for me.
"That opened the door for me to play with the U.S.A. team, and that opened the door for me to play professionally. So, I've been very blessed, but I put being a Michigan Wolverine right near the top. People might roll their eyes at that, but so much was made possible by my decision to go to school in Ann Arbor."
• Reminiscing with Graduation Speaker Jim Abbott (April 28)
