By: Aaron Robinson
On the afternoon of March 3, Coppin State first - year pitcher Timmy Ruffino had just finished his sixth inning of work against the Georgetown Hoyas in his first career start, and only his third appearance of the season. Coppin State was locked into a 1-1 game where Ruffino had tallied eight strikeouts and allowed only five hits.
As a flyball floated into the glove of Justin Oakley and Ruffino headed to the dugout, he screamed “Let’s f*****g go!” with a fiery passion often expressed in hyper competitive athletes.
But Ruffino is far from typical. Born with an underdeveloped right hand as a result of Amniotic Band Syndrome, a disorder that occurs when limb growth is stunted in the womb, Ruffino had much to overcome.
“What won me over was not only how he competed out there, but the fact that he didn’t let his shortcomings physically get in the way of him making plays,” Coppin State head coach Sherman Reed said when asked why he chose to recruit Ruffino.
But Ruffino has never tried to explain away or mask his physical distinction, preferring instead to acknowledge it and work to overcome its impact on his life.
“I know I have one hand, I know it’s not going to change anytime soon so why not embrace it, why not play around and joke about it and use it to inspire other people,” Ruffino said.
Ruffino teases his teammates by clawing at them with his nub. He even takes it a step further with his Instagram account, describing himself as “The one handed pitcher.”
“Timmy doesn’t take things too serious, and some of that is because he has been asked to mature quicker than your typical 18 year old,” Reed said.
Ruffino’s courage is also evident in another challenge he confronted. He and his family are from Chalmette, Louisiana, a city right outside New Orleans that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“It ruined the entire house, I think I have about four or five baby pictures, we barely had any clothes because the flood carried so much stuff out of the house,” Ruffino said.
Ruffino, along with his parents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives, moved to Tupelo, Mississippi where they stayed for three months before returning to Louisiana.
Upon returning, Ruffino recalls living with his aunt and uncle for an extended period of time while the family pulled it’s life back together.
“I remember this one time I was able to go back with my parents to the house and there was a pinball machine sitting in the living room that we did not own at all so it was kind of crazy,” Ruffino said.
Yet, that experience only served to make Ruffino stronger.
“I can’t complain because I don’t know what my future would have held if I would have stayed there (Chalmette, Louisiana) and Katrina would have never happened,” Ruffino said. “ So I can only be grateful, not that it did happen, but that I was put in the opportunities that I was once I left and moved to where we are located now.”
Once settled in Bogalusa, Louisiana, which lies about 75 miles northeast of Chalmette, Ruffino decided to learn how to play baseball, a challenging game to learn for any child.
Ruffino’s underdeveloped hand made learning the game that much harder.
Ruffino recalled a book that his parents would read to him about Jim Abott, a former Major League Baseball player born without a right hand.
“When I was younger I would think ‘if Jim Abott can do it, I can do it’ there was never really a doubt in my mind when I was younger that this was too hard for me,” Ruffino said. “It was just me putting my mind to it and telling myself that I could figure it out.”
So Ruffino did just that. He began to forge new ways to approach everyday tasks such as tying his shoes, brushing his teeth, and hitting a baseball.
All proved difficult to do. He finally learned to tie his shoes at 12 years old, and NCAA Division 1 college coaches showed little interest in him during his high school career.
“There were times in high school where I thought to myself maybe I won’t get to that next level because of my hand, and I felt hopeless a little bit,” Ruffino said.
The support of his parents though, proved to help him throughout the tough times.
“I was lucky enough to have good parents who told me that I could do anything I set my mind to and just to stick with the process,” Ruffino said.
On November 8, 2018 Ruffino committed to Louisiana State University Eunice, a local junior college, where he planned to go in hopes of eventually earning a Division 1 scholarship.
But a few months later, just two weeks before he was set to start school at LSUE, Ruffino received an unexpected phone call.
“When (Coppin State associate head coach Matthew) Greely called me and gave me that Division 1 offer, immediately I was like this has been my dream my whole life. I don’t know if I'll ever get another chance to play division 1 baseball even if I go to Juco, so why not take it?” Ruffino explained.
“When I saw the video on Timmy, what immediately came across to me, as a head coach looking for talent, was that he was talented enough to play Division 1 baseball and perform well in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC),” Reed explained.
After a number of conference calls and phone conversations between the coaching staff at Coppin State and his family, Ruffino decided to walk away from his commitment to LSUE to pursue his lifelong dream of playing Division 1 baseball, and he enrolled at Coppin State University.
Ruffino showed up at Coppin State for the first time on the first day of classes. No visit needed, just an opportunity.
Throughout the fall, Ruffino began to make his presence felt in the teams intrasquad scrimmages. Reed noted the freshman’s competitiveness and ferociousness in these games, and some of Timmy’s teammates also began to take note.
“I always talk about ‘dog mentality’ and he is ‘dog mentality’ like he reminds me of myself on the mound,” Aaron Rae, a senior preseason All - MEAC selection, said. “It’s like when you’re on the mound and you’re like, I don’t care who this hitter is, but at the end of the day you aren’t going to beat me. And that is what I see when he is on the mound.”
Reed agreed.
“When you put him on the mound, 60 ft, six inches away from that batter the kid just becomes a highly competitive guy and you just know you’re going to get the very best that Timmy has to give you,” Coach Reed added.
This was never more apparent than in last week’s battle with Georgetown when Reed handed Timmy Ruffino the ball after the national anthem and sent him onto the mound for his first career start. The freshman pitcher did not disappoint, fanning eight batters over six innings and only allowing one run en route to his second victory of the season. The first of which came in a relief appearance against Richmond where Ruffino threw two and a third scoreless innings in an 11-1 victory.
Ruffino has already tallied two victories early on in his freshman season, a far cry from the kid who once did not even have a Division 1 baseball offer less than a year ago. His hot start has a number of people speculating what the future could hold for him in terms of possibly one day playing at the highest level.
Others though are skeptical because of Ruffino’s slight 5-foot-10 inch frame, which is short for your typical major league pitcher, which will normally run you around 6-foot-3 or 6-foot-4.
“There is a saying ‘heart over height’ and that is the mentality that he has, he doesn’t care what anybody says, he is going to try to play this game forever,” Rae Said. “And if he doesn’t play, I know he is going to have an impact on a lot of people.”
For Ruffino, though, he chooses to focus on the present, and how he can impact the lives that he comes in contact with on a daily basis.
“My whole mindset is if this is my last four years of baseball, I want to play it at the highest level, I want to show people that even with disabilities they can make it to the highest levels of college baseball,” Ruffino said.
Ruffino has inspired many on his long journey to Coppin State, a journey that according to him, is far from over.
“In the end I just want to be remembered as a leader on and off the field, a good teammate, a good student, a good friend to many, and a great pitcher.”
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