Jim Eisenreich

My definition of a hero is a person who inspires me and who I look up to. This is exactly how Jim Eisenreich makes me feel. He has Touretts Syndrome (TS), and so do I. He went through so much. This man went to therapy for years. Not one doctor could diagnose Jim correctly for many years. This very brave soul was diagnosed during his first semi-retirement. This was before he went to play for Philadelphia.

Jim was a pro baseball player for numerous teams during his career. The first team he played for was the Minnesota Twins. He was then traded to the Kansas City Royals. After playing with Kansas City for about 3 seasons, Jim took a semi-retirement. This lasted about 4 years. During this period of time, Jim was diagnosed correctly with TS and was put on medication to help him. Now coming back from 4 years away from baseball, Jim was traded to yet another team, the Philadelphia Phillies. This was where Mr. Eisenreich had his finest years in his entire profession. He hit the game winning homerun in the 1993 World Series. In Philly he also won the "Most Caring Athlete of 1995" award.

Eisenreich has a very caring attitude towards life. He loves his fans, and he loves helping children and adults that have TS. He deals with pressure almost every day. People making fun of him or asking him about his tics puts pressure on him even though the asker may not realize it. Jim is the intensive athletic type. Mr. Eisenreich is very courageous and can cope with things easily. He learns how to cope with TS better every day.

Jim is my hero because he shows me it's possible to cope with TS. That is what I'm learning to do now. He carries the ponderous hardship of having TS. People with TS have it very hard and Jim had it even harder when he was undiagnosable. Jim taught me not to hold back from doing what you want. You're still a normal person even though you have TS.

Now that Jim is retired from baseball he goes to conventions about TS and speaks about his life. That makes me very proud of him. He influences kids' lives every day all over the world. Everyone goes through hardships but not like Jim did.