Pride of the game

Happy 55th birthday today to the remarkable Curtis Pride, a journeyman outfielder who in 1993 becomes the major leagues’ first deaf player since outfielder Dick Sipek joins the Cincinnati Reds for one season in 1945.

Pride reaches the majors in 1993 after seven mostly disappointing seasons from 1987-92 in the New York Mets’ minor league system.

Pride then signs a minor league contract with Montreal and begins to turn around his career in the spring of 1993, when is assigned to the Expos’ Class AA affiliate in Harrisburg.

He quickly becomes a project for Senators manager and former Chicago Cubs outfielder Jim Tracy.

Just a tweak here and a tweak there by Tracy, and Pride finds himself emerging from a fifth outfielder to start the 1993 season into a fulltime player, hitting .356 for Harrisburg before a midseason promotion to Class AAA Ottawa and, finally, a late-season promotion to Montreal.

Pride, born 95 percent deaf, ends up playing parts of 11 seasons in the majors and becomes an international inspiration for overcoming his disability.

“When you have a guy who has some ability and who wants to work, there’s no telling what you can do,” Tracy says. “Makeup and work ethic, if you have some ability, are very important. That’s something that separates Curtis Pride from a lot of guys.”

Today, Pride – also seen here in 1993 with Tracy after a home run on Harrisburg’s City Island – now is in his 15th season as the head coach of Gallaudet University's baseball team in Washington, D.C.

“I’ve had a lot of people doubt my abilities because of my deafness,” says Pride, whose mother during her pregnancy contracts the Rubella that leaves her son deaf.

“I’ve been trying all my life to show people I’m an educated person. I can speak well. I can read lips well. I can communicate with other people. … I don’t want people to treat me different because I’m deaf. I want to be treated the same way as other people.”