FOSTORIA, Ohio— A rare cancer surgery is the only way Dugan Smith, 13, could play baseball again. That is all the teenager needed to hear. Nearly three years ago, when Smith was 10, he noticed soreness in his right knee after sliding. "When I was ten years old I realized I was limping a lot and I broke my leg and realized I had cancer," Dugan said. What he thought was just a limp turned out to be a malignant tumor on the thigh bone. The brave young athlete could have chosen several methods of recovery, but only one would allow full leg growth....Instead of using a full prosthetic or an artificial bone, doctors removed the middle part of Smith's leg, rotated the bottom half 180 degrees, moved it up and connected his blood vessels...His positive attitude paid off when Dugan toed the rubber as the starting pitcher for his Fostoria baseball team. His dad, and head coach, said there is no better feeling than seeing him on the mound. Unlike what many may think, Dugan's father Dustin does not give his son any easy outs. "When parents try to come up and say let's help him out... no. I want him to be treated like every other kid playing baseball," Dustin said confidently. Dugan is an inspiration because he is not given any special treatment. He believes he can still live out his dream of becoming a Major League Baseball player. The only difference now, he said, is he will be the first pitcher in the league with a prosthetic leg.
So apparently you can't embed this video so you'll have to visit the link above, everyone should do it though, its worth it because this kid is the biggest inspirational story in baseball since Jim Abbot.
Kid's foot is on backwards and he's mowing down kids like the Big Unit, phenomenal. I do wonder why kids aren't laying down bunts to test him out, but I'm guessing the first kid that did that caught a fastball to the knee cap the next time up.
And Holy Shit! I just watched the video again, not only is his leg on backwards, but his foot is where his knee cap should be. Kid legit has a prosthetic leg attached to his big toe! Picture having a foot where your knee-pit is. How fucked is that?
So even more props to this kid for figuring out how to pitch with that going on. I had a hard enough time as a 12 year old with two straight feet. I legit once was asked to intentionally walk a kid and had him down in the count 0-2 before I knew it. Probably the only two strikes I threw that inning. Nevermind if I was trying to balance myself with a foot for a knee.
