Blake Phillips, No. 13, throws to first in this 2012 file photo.VARNELL, Ga. – Blake Phillips has lived his entire life wanting to avoid special attention. For now, the recent Coahulla Creek High School graduate will just have to live with it.
In a few weeks Phillips, deaf since early childhood due to nerve damage, will be one of 500 or so freshmen entering the halls of Gallaudet University for the first time. He’ll also be one of a handful of new recruits for former major leaguer Curtis Pride’s baseball team at the private Washington, D.C., school for the hearing impaired.
For the shortstop/pitcher and his family, it’s validation that not allowing the potentially devastating handicap to dictate a young life was the right thing to do. From the moment the Phillips’ found out their son was deaf they decided he would have as normal a childhood as possible.
“We wanted him to know that he could do anything every other child could do,” mom Freda Phillips said. “We decided to do total communication, which is where he would talk as much as possible and sign at the same time. He picked up on signing very quickly and we learned how to sign as well, so it was nice to be able to communicate with our child.
“And,” she added with a quick glance at her son, “he just loved baseball because his father loved it. He got involved in a lot of things, but baseball was the thing he loved.”