Joey Upchurch, the closer for the Polk Community College Vikings, has a fastball in the mid-80s, a curveball that dips on command and more saves than any other junior-college reliever in Florida.
Which isn't bad, considering Upchurch has only one leg."I came into a game the other day," Upchurch says. "I walk with a limp. So between innings the umpire asked me if I was OK. I told him yeah, except I have an artificial leg."
If you get the sense Upchurch, 21, has a sense of humor about his disability, you're right. If you get the sense Upchurch is something of a remarkable tale, you're right there, too.
"If I didn't see him every day, I wouldn't believe it myself," says Bing Tyus, his coach at the Winter Haven school. "He hasn't blown a save in 11 chances. He throws strikes. He fields his position. He has an odd kind of motion out on the mound, but other than that you can't tell he's any different than any other pitcher. But he's better than most."
Upchurch was born with one leg. He wears a fiberglass prosthesis where his right leg would be. He pitches righthanded.
All this makes it impossible for Upchurch to put much drive behind his pitches. Instead, he balances on his prosthesis while stepping forward with his left leg. He lets himself fall forward. And then he whips the ball toward the plate, depending almost entirely on his upper-body strength for velocity.
"It's completely upper body," Tyus says. "He is really strong. He's only 5-foot-9 but he's really built. I think he compensates for his disability by being stronger in other areas."
There is his left leg, for instance. Upchurch and his teammates recently had a contest in the weight room. The object was to see which Polk player could lift the most weight in the leg press. Upchurch's teammates each used two legs. Upchurch used one. And Upchurch lifted more weight (550 pounds) than anybody else.
"It wasn't really very close," Upchurch says. "The next best guy did something like 390 pounds."
For Upchurch, this is the sort of thing he's been doing all his life. Taking on skeptics. And then proving them wrong. When he was five, Upchurch was the best T-ball player in his neighborhood. When he hit Lake Wales High School, he was the best pitcher and first baseman on the team. Now that he's in junior college, it's no surprise to him that he's the best reliever in the state.
"I know what I can do," Upchurch says. "Everybody has some kind of disability. It so happens that you can see mine."
Upchurch talks about his disability in just this way. He's relaxed, confident, often funny.
"I remember when one of the other players came into the dugout complaining of a pulled hamstring," Tyus says. "Joey looked at him and said, `Hey, you want to borrow mine?'
"He's a really good pitcher, but he's a really good person, too. Everybody wants to see him do well. It's a great story. We'd like to see it continue."
Upchurch will exhaust his junior-college eligibility this year. But he'd like to keep pitching, first for a four-year college, then in the pros. He draws on Jim Abbott, the Yankees' pitcher with one arm, as a source of inspiration.
"I first heard about him when I was in the ninth grade," Upchurch says. "I remember thinking then that if he could do it, so could I. My goal is to pitch in the pros."
For now, Upchurch is happy to be pitching for Polk, and even getting the occasional turn at-bat.
"That's a story in itself," Tyus says. "We were beating Hillsborough (Community College) 8-1 late in the game. Joey turns to me and tells me he'd like to have one at-bat this season. I figured I might as well give him his shot."
Upchurch borrowed a bat. He walked up to the plate. Looked at the first pitch, a fastball. And then he took a swing at the second.
"It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen," Tyus says. "He hit it over the fence and it was still climbing. It hit a flag pole midway up and rang, just like a bell. It was just like something out of a movie."
The fans went nuts. His teammates went nuts. And Upchurch slowly circled the bases, smiling.
"My teammates got on me about that, too," he says. "Some people have a home run trot. I guess I have a home run skip.
"Whatever works, I told them. Whatever works."