East Carolina University baseball player Parker Byrd’s first collegiate hit may have generated a bigger reaction than any other. When Byrd hit the ball in the sixth inning of a March 14 game against William & Mary, the crowd in the stands jumped to their feet, his teammates rushed onto the field to congratulate him — and Byrd became one of the only Division I players to get a hit with a prosthetic leg.
“I got my first hit, and that was everything I’ve worked for,” 21-year-old Byrd said in an interview with Nice News. “Just to put it in real life was amazing.”
The accomplishment was years in the making. When he was just a freshman in high school, Byrd was offered a scholarship to play baseball for ECU. For the next four years, he eagerly anticipated living out his family’s legacy by playing for the college his parents went to, and taking the next step toward fulfilling his lifelong dream of playing for the MLB. In his senior year, he was ranked the second-best shortstop in North Carolina.
“I’ve loved baseball ever since I knew what things were,” Byrd said, adding: “So baseball has always been my dream. It’s always been what I knew I wanted to do. There’s never really been a doubt in that aspect of life.”
Then on July 23, 2022, the summer before Byrd was set to start at ECU, his parents got a call: Their son had been in a boating accident in Bath Creek and was in critical condition. Byrd’s parents, Jeff and Mitzi, who were in his hometown two and half hours away, sped to the hospital he’d been airlifted to in Greenville so quickly that they blew out a tire — but despite the delay, they made it before Byrd emerged from surgery.
Thankfully, the doctors were able to save Byrd’s life. But 12 days after the accident, he had to make a heartwrenching decision — continue with the medicine he was receiving, and risk his infection spreading to his kidneys and lungs, or allow the doctors to amputate his right leg below the knee. His initial thoughts went to baseball, but quickly turned to the bigger picture.
“That’s something that no kid ever wants to hear,” Byrd said, adding, “But I realized at that moment that it was more than just baseball. It was about life.”
The big question, though, still remained: Would he ever play his beloved sport again? At first, Byrd and his dad thought the answer was no — but his mom had a different opinion. “I said, ‘Look at me,’” she told the Challenged Athletes Foundation. “I said, ‘No one can define what you can and cannot do. And no one can tell you what you can and cannot do.’”
Byrd wasn’t entirely convinced at first. “I said, ‘I don’t know if you know this or not, but there’s never been a Division I player to ever play baseball with a prosthetic leg,’” Byrd recalled to Nice News of his conversation with his mom. “And she said without hesitation, ‘Why not you? There always has to be a first.’ And that kind of switched my mindset to, ‘I can be the first. I can pave the way for other kids.’ And that’s really what stuck with me throughout the whole entire rehab process.”
While Byrd isn’t actually the first DI baseball player to play with a prosthetic leg — that accolade goes to University of New Mexico alum Greg Dunn — he made it his mission to be one of the few in this inspiring club. More than 20 surgeries later, Byrd began the long road to recovery with one goal in mind: getting back onto the field. While in a wheelchair, he would go to the batting cage to watch pitches go by, “just to see the velocity of the baseball.” Then he progressed to a walker and crutches, and began hitting one-handed off a tee while sitting on a shower stool.
In March 2023, Byrd received a grant from the Challenged Athletes Foundation for an Össur prosthetic. The new device made all the difference in his rehabilitation. It enabled him to walk, run, and hit with two arms without any assistance, partly thanks to the fact that he felt like he had a big toe. A month after he received the prosthetic, Byrd threw the first pitch at a Houston Astros game as part of the grant, an experience he called “the most nerve-wracking thing I’ve ever done” but “pretty phenomenal” at the same time.
Emboldened by his new prosthetic, Byrd built on his running skills in a clinic hosted by the Challenged Athletes Foundation, and began training on the baseball field once again. Fast forward to February 2024, and not only did Byrd make the ECU team, but his story gained national attention. Only days after being featured in a Super Bowl commercial, Byrd played in his first Division I baseball game — a feat that received a shoutout from North Carolina Congressman Don Davis on the House floor.
Now that he’s achieved his ambition of making the ECU team, Byrd has a few other goals he’s looking to accomplish in the future. He hopes to play for the Savannah Bananas, a team that infuses a dance performance element into baseball, and one day compete in the Paralympics.
His journey has also introduced an unexpected element in his life: the opportunity to inspire others. He’s started booking speaking engagements and created a podcast, The Parker Byrd Show, to share his and others’ motivational stories. And so far, Byrd has received a huge outpouring of support, with everyone from his family to the wider Greenville community rallying around him. “It was really easy to see the bigger picture whenever you have people constantly in your corner reminding you that it is bigger than just [baseball],” he said.
When asked if anyone has ever approached him in person to tell him that he has inspired them, Byrd responded: “Oh, yeah. I get it pretty much every day of my life.”
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