Yankees fan born without hands and legs tosses perfect first pitch
Throwing out a first pitch can be pretty tough. All eyes are on you. There’s a lot of pressure to succeed. Some have failed spectacularly, like 50 Cent. But even more practiced hands, like Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein haven’t been totally accurate.
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Landis Sims, an 11-year-old New York Yankees fan, wasn’t fazed by the challenge. Sims, who was born without hands and legs, came through where many others have faltered, throwing out an excellent first pitch prior to Sunday’s game.
He was pretty great, right?
If you’re a Yankees fan, you may already be familiar with Sims. He’s been a fixture at Yankees camp for years now, and even signed a one-day contract with the team in 2016. That experience also earned him a feature on ABC News.
This won’t be the last you’ll see of Sims. He’s set to announce one of the team’s draft picks Monday, as Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay says in the clip. He’ll be joined by Nick Swisher.
Sims hasn’t let challenges stop him from achieving his goals. He’s a three-sport athlete, and wasn’t even intimidated by throwing out the first pitch, according to ABC News.
[Sims’ mother Amanda] Haag told ABC News ahead of Sims’ first pitch on Sunday that her son is not nervous. His mother added that her son will likely “think, ‘This is really cool just throwing from a Major League pitcher’s mound.'”
But just to make sure everything went right, Sims made sure to get some practice in before he took the mound.
Sims does not sound too worried either. The longtime Yankee fan said he’s been to Yankees spring training in Florida and has even stepped on the field at the facility a few times.
Still, he admitted that it will be a little different standing in front of a regular season crowd, but said he’s been practicing by throwing “a lot of long throws to see how accurate I can get it.”
Looks like that hard work paid off. Some professionals don’t look as good as Sims did throwing out the first pitch.
(BLS H/N: CBS Sports)
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
