Improbable Comeback Inspires Baseball World
“I just kind of remember thinking, Really, God, like, you're gonna take this from him now, at this pivotal moment in his life,” says Mitzi Byrd, Parker Byrd’s mother.
In 2022, Parker Byrd was one of the nation’s top high school shortstops. As an eighth grader he committed to play college baseball at Eastern Carolina University, and dreamed of playing in the big leauges.
“He committed when he was 14 years old, he hadn't even played a high school baseball game yet,” says Parker’s Dad, Jeff Byrd. “We didn't know how far he would go in it, but we knew that he was going to play baseball for a very long time.”
Before he was ever born, Parker’s parents committed to raising him in a Godly home.
Jeff: “We prayed so hard for Parker, you know, we had trouble getting pregnant to begin with. And I can just remember, um, praying when I got it. Give us a baby. We will. Always will bring him to you. And we raise him in church, and he would know who you are.”
As Parker’s high school career ended, he signed full scholarship papers, ready for his future at E.C.U.
Jeff: “He did it on home plate. And, you know, surrounded by his family and his teammates and sitting there with his high school baseball hat and his college baseball hat and just thinking about the four years that we waited because he committed so early, it felt like he was committed to ECU forever.”
Will Dawson: Parkers dream of playing high level college baseball was right in front of him. However, just weeks before he stepped onto the ECU campus, something happened that would not only threaten his playing career but change his entire life.
Mitzi: “Four teammates went to the river house.”
Jeff: “Parker's out on the tube that day, and he had fallen off the tube and he was swimming back to the boat. And when he got close to the boat got put into reverse. And the propeller hit both of his legs and his left hand. But the propeller cut one of his main arteries in his right leg.”
With his life hanging in the balance, parker was lIfe-flighted to ECU hospital in Greenville.
Mitzi: “His girlfriend at the time, um, actually called Jeff and said, ‘Jeff, you have to get to Greenville. There's been an accident. Parker's been ran over by the boat, and I think he's dying.’”
Will Dawson: “I'm sure that there was probably a pit in your stomach when you heard that.”
Jeff: “I'm driving so hard down 95 because, you know, I'm like, I got to get there before he dies. And, you know, they're all in the car, like, ‘slow down’. But all I could think about, like, well, if I don't make it? I think the whole way we were just always God to be with him, you know? Please, God save him.”
The Byrds arrived at the hospital and spoke with Parker’s surgeon. The good news was Parker was alive. The bad news, without an amputation of his right leg, Parker could face infection, kidney and pulmonary failure…possibly death. Jeff and Mitzi mourned their son’s future in baseball, but remembered something greater.
Jeff: “I was pretty angry with God. And, you know, he was such a good kid, you know, he never went out, he never caused trouble. He was just a really good kid and this is his reward. I just remember one night just thinking about Jesus hanging on the cross. And that's God’s son. If Jesus can hang on a cross and that's God, son, how can I not expect bad things that have not happened to us. And, you know, that was the moment I realized whatever God's plan is, we're gonna share glory and hope in it.”
Parker: “I just want to keep living. He came in very early that morning today, like we continue on this medicine that we have right now and which isn't working at all and you will end up dying or we can amputate your right lower extremity. And I was like, ‘Hey, I want to keep living life. Definitely a lot of questions because your like, ‘God, why am I here? What are you doing?’ But eventually His plans are always greater than yours.’”
Parker endured twenty-two surgeries and extensive rehab, learning to walk with a prosthetic. Parker’s goal, though ambitious, was to make a comeback and play college baseball.
Jeff: “As soon as he came home from the hospital the very next day, he said, ‘Can we go to the batting cage?’ We just go to the batting cage and he sits there with a bat on his shoulder in a wheelchair and watches balls go by. Eventually he got to a walker and this goes on for weeks and then months, he gets better. He's now on crutches and four months after his amputation, he gets fitted for a prosthetic. And of course, that night we go to the batting cage for the first time with two legs again. It was almost like watching them all for the very first time as a baby. You know, your just so proud.”
On February 16th this year, just nineteen months after losing his leg, Parker became the first division one college baseball player to play a game with a prosthetic leg. A moment, his family will never forget.
Jeff: “I just burst into tears, like you could just see from the very first time he sat in a wheelchair to that moment running to first base that no one ever thought he was going to walk again. To see him walk to first base…It was a miracle.”
Parker: “I mean, it was just a powerful moment. Just to prove people that I'm still here. I'm still Parker. I'm still a baseball player. Just, even though difficult things happen in life and adversity hits you doesn't mean just to give up cause if you just continue to work hard then His plan is greater than ours.”
Mitzi: “First of all, God never leaves us. He's always with us. Even when you feel that he's not there and you feel, he's still there, he's still working. He's carrying you through it.”
Parker: “I realize that His plan is greater than mine because I thought I had my whole life planned out, go to college and go to MLB and just be a great baseball player. But life's so much bigger than just baseball. God's always there, that even in your darkest times or in the valley that he's still working, You may not see it at the time and it may be very foggy to you at the time, but His mercy is still there, that he still has a plan for you, that He's giving you that trial just so you can lean closer to Him.”