Piedmont Pride pitcher Andrew Corbitt uninhibited by use of just one hand

After six innings of baseball on a recent Thursday, the Piedmont Pride trailed the Carolina Vipers 3-0. Coach Joe Hudak threw in right-handed pitcher Andrew Corbitt.

At first glance, Corbitt looks like any other pitcher. After watching him throw a few pitches on the mound, it’s clear he’s unlike most pitchers, or any baseball players for that matter. Each pitch sounded like the catcher’s mitt was going to burst. This man throws the ball so hard and so fast, it’s difficult to believe he lacks a fully developed left hand.

Corbitt’s malformed left paw is the result of amniotic band syndrome (ABS). ABS is a pregnancy disorder affecting about 1 in 1,200 births, in which amniotic bands wrap around a fetus, or part of the fetus, disrupting or blocking blood flow and stunting development. In some cases, like Corbitt’s, the bands can result in amputation of the appendage in the womb.

Baseball is a sport intimately interwoven with hand-eye coordination, and missing a hand – or part of one – presents an obvious challenge. But handless or fingerless Major League players Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown, Bob Wickman, Chad Bentz, and Jim Abbott showed younger players with similar conditions that pro ball wasn’t impossible.

It was Abbott – the one-handed lefty who threw a no-hitter in Yankee Stadium, won the gold medal with team USA in the 1988 Summer Olympics, and pitched 10 years in the Major Leagues – who inspired Corbitt to pick up a glove and take the mound.

When Corbitt was 9 years old, his dad, Rick, showed him a video tape of Abbott pitching. Rick Corbitt had recorded the television special on Abbott two years earlier, squirreling it away to play for his son when the timing felt right. The images on the TV screen gave Corbitt an idea of how he could play baseball.

“‘Let’s go do it,’” he told his dad.

Home-rigged

Athletes in any sport have unique obstacles to overcome in the hunt for success. In Corbitt’s case, the challenge was learning how to play a two-handed sport.

“Everybody plays baseball a little bit differently,” Abbott said last week. “And I think that’s one of the great things about the game is that you can play differently and still find success.”

After initially experimenting with Abbott’s style of play – the former Major Leaguer balanced a traditional baseball glove on his right hand before switching to his left, post-pitch – Corbitt and his dad home-rigged a unique glove with an exterior pocket.

Before he throws, Corbitt’s left hand is jammed into the exterior pocket that faces the opposite way of the glove’s traditional opening. After the pitch, momentum carries his right hand – throwing hand – straight into the glove so that he can field. When Corbitt fields a hit, he slips the glove off quickly, cradling it against his body as he throws the ball.

In real time, the motion is almost unintelligible.

“I haven’t seen too many adaptive gloves or things like that,” said Abbott. “That’s awesome that he’s able to do that and become proficient at it.”

The right place, finally

After winning a Virginia high school state championship, Corbitt played in the junior-college ranks the last three years with a redshirt season caused by a back injury sandwiched in the middle.

His second stop – Georgia Perimeter College – scrapped its baseball program and Corbitt landed at South Georgia State, another junior college, late in the recruiting process last summer.

It wasn’t an ideal scenario. Corbitt threw 8 1/3 innings over the course of the season, finishing with an 11.88 earned-run average.

“I never heard him complain,” said South Georgia assistant coach Jamie Dennis. “He was always a team guy. He always put the team first, no matter what, even when he wasn’t playing he was putting the team first. He came to work everyday; he kept his mouth shut, just kept working for an opportunity.”

Now in Rock Hill, Corbitt feels that he’s finally found the right place. The Pride’s coach, Hudak, has worked at many Div. I programs and successfully steered players into professional careers.

“(Hudak) has so much experience developing guys,” said Corbitt. “And the Pride is a faith-based program. I thought that’d be really cool to learn what it means to be a better Christian and work on that side of things for me as well.”

Just a matter of believing

Corbitt throws four pitches: fastball, split-finger fastball, slider, and a curveball. He throws the ball hard too, ranging between 88 and 92 miles per hour, and Dennis said his offspeed stuff is good enough for Div. I. Corbitt should pitch more this summer than he has in the last three years combined, enabling him to focus on attacking the strike zone more consistently, an issue he pointed out.

“I got in trouble a bit this year falling behind guys in some counts early,” Corbitt said. “But other than that, if I can get ahead and throw strikes, I should be competing.”

Corbitt, 22, wants to play professionally but his immediate future needs sorting out first. He’d love to secure a spot on a Div. I roster and his well-connected Piedmont Pride coach might be able to help.

Corbitt already possesses a key ingredient that Abbott leaned on during his own career.

“It was just a matter of believing that you could do it,” the former Major Leaguer said. “Being up to the challenge no matter what country you’re playing in, against what level of competition, just maintaining that confidence, that belief that you can be as good as anybody.”

Corbitt knows for sure he’ll be joining his teammates when the Pride takes a mission trip in August to the Dominican Republic, an island nation with 41 percent of its residents living in poverty, according to the World Bank. He is proof that any kid can pick up a glove, no matter the physical or economic circumstances.

Regardless of what happens with his baseball career after July, Corbitt has a story to tell.

This story was originally published June 9, 2016 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Piedmont Pride pitcher Andrew Corbitt uninhibited by use of just one hand."