Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Wednesday, May 07, 2008
One-armed wonder: Baseball comes natural to SMU’s Sam Levisen
 SMU pitcher Sam Levisen delivers a pitch during the second game of the Cardinals' MIAC doubleheader against Bethel April 30 at Loughrey Field in Winona. (Photo by Andrew Link/Winona Daily News) |
Sam Levisen has done it all his life. He doesn’t even remember how it came about.
He tucks his glove under his left shoulder, throws the pitch, puts his right hand back in his glove and gets ready to play defense.
If he has to field the ball, he gets it in his glove, tucks it back under his left shoulder and pulls the ball back out to throw.
Levisen was born without a left arm. It’s never stopped him from doing what he
loves — playing sports,
any sport. Basketball, baseball, golf, soccer, it doesn’t matter.
Levisen has never thought of himself as disabled. He’s just had to do things differently.
“It hasn’t really affected anything,” Levisen said.
Today, Levisen will wrap up his freshman season pitching for the Saint Mary’s University baseball team.
The Cardinals finish up the year at 2:30 p.m. at Loughrey Field in a doubleheader against Concordia.
Playing college sports for any aspiring athlete is quite an accomplishment. For Levisen, though, it’s an incredible one.
About his junior season at Rochester Mayo High School, Levisen got that desire to continue playing baseball.
“I didn’t want to stop playing baseball after senior year,” Levisen said.
He got his chance at SMU.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity to play college baseball,” Levisen said. “Not many people get to do this. Going through what I’ve had to go through, I’m kind of amazed at how far I’ve come along.”
So are his teammates, especially long-time friend David Timmons, who has played baseball with Levisen since the fourth grade.
“The first time I saw him, I was amazed out of my mind,” Timmons said. “He goes out there and works almost twice as hard as everyone else.”
None of his teammates have really attempted what Levisen does on the field. It just wouldn’t be safe. The speed at which Levisen goes from hand to glove and glove to ball is fast to say the least.
“It comes natural,” Levisen said. “Sometimes, I even surprise myself how fast because a ball can come pretty fast. That happened one time this year; a one-hopper came pretty fast and I got my glove on it.”
In all his years playing baseball, where he’s been a shortstop, an outfielder and a pitcher, he’s never been hit. He’s never taken that comebacker defenseless.
“He showed us how he gets the glove out and gets balls that are flying at him off the bat,” Timmons said. “Sometimes, he shows us how his hand isn’t even in the glove and he still grabs it.”
Levisen never really expected to be on the mound as a freshman, but SMU coach Nick Whaley called on him during the Florida trip.
“I told him this was a learning process,” SMU pitching coach Benji Huegel said, “and he’d be in there by junior year. Midseason, he got his chance because of the weather, and he’s been performing ever since.”
Levisen entered his first game in relief against nationally ranked Trinity. He made it a memorable one. He beaned his first batter.
“After the game, we joked with him, because his first college pitch was right in a guy’s back,” Timmons said with a laugh. “I rip on him a bit for that.”
Despite the beanball, Levisen got out unscathed, striking out two in 12/3 innings.
As a person, Levisen is shy and quiet. When he gets on the mound, however, he changes.
“He’s a really pleasant, nice kid,” Whaley said, “He’s quiet, but when he gets the ball, he bears down. He executes and doesn’t get rattled. That type of competitiveness is a value. You don’t have to talk; you just bring it out there.”
Talk wouldn’t help Levisen much. He’s not exactly intimidating. He’s listed at 5-feet tall and 150 pounds. He has one arm. And his fastball is modest at best.
Still, he gets it done. He’s gotten it done at times this season when nobody else has.
“He doesn’t throw too hard,” Timmons said. “One of our games, most of our pitchers were struggling and Sam went out there and went after them. After, coach said, “Ok, not to knock you, but you have a mid-70s fastball and you’re going after everyone.’”
It’s just the way Levisen is when he’s on the mound. He may not be intimidating, but he won’t be intimidated, either.
“I remember that game,” Levisen said. “Benji was talking about my 76 mile-per-hour fastball, how I was taking it to them and how that’s what they wanted to see.
“I have never thrown the hardest, but I’ve usually been the most accurate. That’s what’s been the most successful for me.”
Growing up, Levisen always loved sports, and his parents, Mark and Marna, never held him back.
“He always enjoyed just being involved with the other kids,” Mark said. “I didn’t shy away from giving him a baseball glove, a golf club or anything.”
What he does, how he does it, it’s all second nature to him now. Where anyone has learned how to shoot a basketball or catch a baseball the way they do, Levisen just learned it his own way, and he’s perfected it.
The inspiration isn’t the fact that Levisen has done what he does with what he has, it’s that he’s never given up on what he’s wanted and he never made his having one arm an excuse.
The inspiration is his work ethic, his attitude and his ability, not his ’disability.’
“I do step back and see him on the field with all these other guys, and I know he’s pretty happy,” Mark said. “My wife and I are used to seeing him play sports all these years, we don’t think about it too much, but we are proud.”
We all are.
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