Sunday, April 04, 1999
Birth defect can't keep Batavia's Sutton from games he loves
BY DAVE SCHUTTE
Enquirer contributor
Andrew Sutton, a 17-year-old junior at Batavia High School, is not your normal three-sport standout.
That's because Sutton, who pitches and plays outfield for the Bulldogs baseball team, was born with a deformed right hand.
“I've often wondered how it would be if I had two normal hands,” Sutton said. “But I probably wouldn't be as good an athlete if everything was normal because I've been forced to work much harder.”
Besides baseball, Sutton plays soccer in the fall and basketball during the winter.
“I can't say that Andrew is handicapped because the hand hasn't stopped him from doing anything,” Sutton's father, Tony, said.
“He first discovered it when he was two or three-years-old. When he was playing with other kids and couldn't do something, he'd sit there afterwards and work until he got it.”
Sutton has a partial thumb and four shortened and deformed fingers that surgery failed to correct.
“When Andrew was three-years-old, a couple of bones were taken from his toes and put into the fingers with the hopes they would grow,” Tony Sutton said.
“The bones never grew but they remain on the hand. At the same time, doctors repaired the ligament in the thumb which allows him to wear a baseball glove and catch the ball.”
Sutton vividly remembers the mental torture when in grade school.
“We lived in Fairfield and a couple of the older kids got on me,” Sutton said. “It was pretty tough but after we moved to Batavia, no one has ever said anything about it.”
In fact, one caring person, Joe Bick, a baseball agent (Paul O'Neill, Yankees and Jeff Shaw, Dodgers), went out of his way to help Sutton's baseball career.
“I was playing for the Willowville Stingers and pitched a one-hitter against Milford several years ago,” Sutton said. “After the game, Milford's coach (Bick) told my coach (Ron Hughes) that I was a very good pitcher.”
At that point, Hughes informed Bick of Sutton's deformity.
“Mr. Bick wanted to help and went out of his way to have a custom-made glove made for me in Louisville that straps on my wrist,” Sutton said. “I'm still using it.”
One of Sutton's strongest supporters is his mother, Judy, who also got into the act by making a batting glove for the right hand, that includes cut-off fingers.
“I'm amazed at what Andrew can do,” Batavia baseball coach Bryan Anstaett said. “He's quite effective as a pitcher and will contribute as a batter.”
Amazing as it may appear, Sutton is a switch hitter.
“I have more power batting from the right side but I make better contact from the left side,” Sutton said.
A left-handed pitcher, Sutton's best pitch is the fastball but he's also developed a good change-up while continuing to work on a curve.
Anstaett points to the success in soccer as the turning point in his athletic career, giving Sutton the confidence needed to compete at the varsi ty level.
“This was my first year playing soccer and I scored 19 goals, 15 for junior varsity and four for varsity,” Sutton said. “I didn't know any of the rules but late in the season, I was moved up to the varsity.”
Sutton also played varsity basketball, averaging about two points a game.
Although Nolan Ryan, recently elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, is Sutton's baseball hero, the fact that Jim Abbott is a one-armed major league pitcher, also serves as an inspiration.
“I'd like to play college baseball,” Sutton said. “I know that it's a longshot but if I continue to work hard, it could become reality.”
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