Curtis Pride made 11 major league seasons, was also deaf
Ahead of his major league debut, the Expos' Curtis Pride talked to a reporter about being a rookie, his impending first big league appearance, as well as his hopes going forward. For Pride, though, his hopes included recognition of his on-the-field talents first and foremost. That he was deaf, the natural topic of so many stories on his career before and after, would be secondary. "I want to be known as 'Curtis Pride, good ballplayer - and by the way, he's deaf," Pride told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in September 1993. "But I'm not going to deny that I'm deaf. I can't, and I shouldn't. It's part of who I am. That's no reason to think I can't be a major-league baseball player, though." It wasn't. From that point, he went on to see the majors over 11 seasons, including 95 games with the Tigers in 1996 and 81 between the Tigers and Red Sox in 1997. By the time he was done, he'd seen 421 major league games , hit 20 ...
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