Sometimes a batter has a lock on a particular pitcher. Jim Abott, a pitcher with a decade of major league starts, was no exception. Seattle’s Edgar Martinez personally collected close to 1% of his career hits off of him. Chris Hoiles picked up more than 2% of his lifetime total against Abbott. As an American League pitcher, Abbott didn’t get many chances to bat and only racked up two hits. This didn’t mean that he couldn’t lock onto a particular pitcher. Both hits came off of John Lieber in 1999 and produced all 3 of Abbott’s career RBIs.
Upper Deck foreshadowed this event with its 1991 Jim Abbott card. The American League pitcher, who had never batted in a MLB game, is portrayed at the plate on the front of the card. The back of the card shows him on base as well, so apparently he showed some pop with the bat in a pre-1991 Spring Training contest.
Making it more interesting is the fact that Abbott hit these singles one-handed. Not that he was showing off, he literally had only one hand. Look at the pictures on his ’93 Finest, particularly the back, and it can be seen that he is resting his glove on the end of his right arm. This freed his left hand for pitching and allowed him to quickly put the glove on his left hand in case the batter sent the ball back in his direction.
