It’s the day he recorded his first huge league hit and launched himself to the baseball world.
“My first Main League hit — a two-run double in opposition to the Phillies — was in the midst of the pennant race,” stated Satisfaction. “I used to be standing at second base. There have been 45,000 individuals cheering, and I didn’t know they had been cheering for me.”
Satisfaction, who was born deaf, didn’t understand all the stadium was roaring for him till his third-base coach signaled for him to tip his cap to the followers.
“And that’s what I did,” Satisfaction stated. “It was very emotional. I attempted to maintain a straight face to let individuals know that I’m severe, I’m not a one-hit surprise or a charity case. I’m right here to remain within the Main Leagues for a very long time.”
Satisfaction’s story of perseverance is likely one of the nice fashionable tales of our beloved recreation. He’s certainly one of seven deaf gamers to play Main League Baseball, and arguably the one with essentially the most profitable (fashionable) profession. Dummy Hoy additionally had a protracted Main League run, having logged greater than 2,000 hits over a profession spanning 14 years, from 1888-1902.
The opposite deaf gamers on file are Ed Dundon (1883-84), Tom Lynch (1887), Reuben Stephenson (1892), Luther Taylor (1900-08), George Leitner (1901-02), William Deegan (1901), Herbert Murphy (1914) and Dick Sipek (1945).
Satisfaction discovered extra success on the Main League degree than lots of his totally hearing-abled friends. He performed for 11 years within the Majors, showing in over 400 video games and hitting 20 complete residence runs with six completely different groups (Montreal Expos, Boston Pink Sox, Detroit Tigers, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankeesand Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) throughout his profession.
It didn’t take lengthy for the baseball world to appreciate simply how particular a participant and individual Satisfaction really is. He was persistently inspired to jot down a e-book about his life, an autobiography to share his story with the world.
“They’d inform me they wished to know extra about my life,” stated Satisfaction. “What I went by way of, how I discovered learn how to discuss and battle, learn how to cope with dismissiveness.”
His path is chronicled in “I Felt the Cheers: The Outstanding Silent Lifetime of Curtis Satisfaction.” Doug Ward, a author and former publications supervisor with the Los Angeles Angels, co-authored the e-book, which was revealed in February. Ward and Satisfaction know one another from his time enjoying in Anaheim.
“The e-book got here collectively superbly, and we have had so many nice critiques,” stated Satisfaction. “I’m simply very grateful for having so many great individuals in my life who helped me make that story, which is an incredible dream.”
However Satisfaction’s inspirational story is one that just about didn’t occur.
Again in 1992, a 23-year-old Satisfaction was a then-prospect within the New York Mets Minor League system. After fast promotions from Single-A and Excessive-A, he was struggling in his first season at Double-A Binghamton. On high of that, his first girlfriend had damaged up with him earlier that yr, and he had additionally discovered himself on the receiving finish of a few of his teammates’ tasteless jokes within the clubhouse.
“It type of snowballed, and it type of put loads on my plate,” stated Satisfaction, throughout an interview with MLB.com. “I began to doubt myself. … I went by way of the worst season ever, and it obtained so dangerous that I wished to give up … stroll away from the sport in the midst of the season.”
It was this avalanche of non-public occasions that led Satisfaction’s mother and father to make the journey to Binghamton for a cathartic and, unbeknownst to Satisfaction on the time, life-changing discuss.
“We had a protracted dialog within the resort room the place my dad was telling me that he didn’t increase me to be a quitter, and that he anticipated me to honor my dedication to complete the season,” Satisfaction recalled.
Satisfaction and his mother and father agreed that he would end the season and take the offseason to resolve whether or not to proceed enjoying or discover different profession avenues. On the time, he was a volunteer at his former highschool in Silver Spring, Maryland.
“It was in the course of the offseason once I labored as the educational assistant for the particular training program in my previous highschool,” stated Satisfaction. “I labored with plenty of the children with studying disabilities.”
These youngsters had been unaware that Satisfaction was an expert athlete, not to mention just a few steps away from the Main Leagues. That’s, till at some point, certainly one of his fellow academics let slip that not solely was he a former highschool star but in addition an expert baseball participant.
“And so they had been asking me, ‘How will you play skilled baseball? You are deaf,” Satisfaction stated. “And in order that’s why I needed to clarify it to those youngsters. It doesn’t matter what type of disabilities we now have, all of us have targets and desires that we hope to perform, and we must always not enable different individuals to inform us what we will or can’t do.”
Satisfaction remembers asking his mom, “What sort of a message would I be sending to those youngsters if I might give up baseball?”
“And they also form of impressed me to really feel like, ‘Wow, these youngsters are wanting as much as me. Man, I’ve to set the lead by instance. I’ve to make an instance of myself to indicate that something is feasible.’”
Certain sufficient, the subsequent season, Satisfaction shortly superior by way of the Minors, finally making his Main League debut with the Montreal Expos on Sept. 14, 1993.
Making it to the large leagues, nonetheless, was only the start of a protracted baseball journey for Satisfaction.
“[When] I obtained to an expert degree, I might by no means have anticipated grown males to be making enjoyable of me the way in which the children again in my elementary college did,” stated Satisfaction.
“However there’ll all the time be merciless individuals on this world, and I needed to be taught to place my head down, keep centered, and never trigger any waves within the clubhouse. I surrounded myself with good teammates, centered on the constructive issues. That’s what obtained me by way of.”
Satisfaction’s message nonetheless resonates on and off the sphere, and it’s why he has cemented his identify in baseball historical past.
“I used to be this near quitting,” stated Satisfaction. “So I am so grateful that I didn’t hand over and that I used to be in a position to bear right down to type of be myself and work exhausting, and that is the message that I need to get to different individuals.”
