Southpaw—The Life and Legacy of Jim Abbott

Someone has to be the first, but that wasn’t all former baseball player Jim Abbott was. Filmmaker Mike Farrell’s Southpaw—The Life and Legacy of Jim Abbott focuses on the September 4, 1993, no-hitter thrown by the Yankees pitcher against the Cleveland Indians, a day that became legendary among Yankees fans who either attended the game at their stadium or watched at home. Abbott was born without a right hand, and his ascension to Major League Baseball was a phenomenal achievement even before the no-hitter happened. But more affectingly, the documentary also zooms backward and forward, using archival footage and photographs to recount Abbott’s childhood and how his family addressed his limb difference, as well as present-day interviews with him about how he approached his increasing fame, making time for children and fans with similar disabilities even when he was tired from the game, worn out by the pressure, or exhausted by the attention. The documentary’s final minutes, in which Abbott tears up at a montage of professional and child athletes thanking him for blazing the trail they now follow, is one of the most moving things you’ll ever watch. For its deeply detailed, deeply human look at what Jim Abbott means to baseball and beyond, Southpaw—The Life and Legacy of Jim Abbott wins a Peabody Award.