It was the eighth inning of East Carolina's opening game on the evening of Feb. 16, 2024. The crowd in Clark-LeClair stadium stirred at the sight of Parker Byrd walking to the on-deck circle.
Parker was never allowed a walk-up song when he played high school baseball. Following his commitment to ECU baseball in ninth grade, choosing this anthem was a decision that consumed him. He loved rap music. But also liked the idea of the crowd favorite, "Footloose."
By his collegiate debut, though, Parker's walk-up song held a deeper meaning. By then, it had been almost two years since Parker — the second-best shortstop in North Carolina in 2022 (via Perfect Game) — had faced live pitching in a game.
It had also been almost two years since Parker was involved in a life-altering boating accident.
“It was just surreal, seeing everything he has worked for, that we've sacrificed as a family,” Mitzi Byrd, Parker’s mother, said. Mitzi wiped her teary eyes with both hands as she watched her son make history.
As Parker’s prosthetic right leg comfortably alternated with his left cleat on his way to bat, the keyboard plucks of "Still D.R.E." ushered Parker's return to the diamond. He tipped his helmet to the crowd in gratitude before assuming his stance.
"Guess who’s back."
All the feels as the Byrd family watched @parkerbyrd11 step into the batters box for the first time 🥹🤟 pic.twitter.com/G5h3kwR7wG
— ECU Baseball (@ECUBaseball) February 17, 2024
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It was midday on Saturday, July 23, 2022. Parker’s parents Mitzi and Jeff Byrd were in the middle of a summer clean out — Mitzi was organizing her daughter’s closet while Jeff drove a load of garments to their local church for donation. Just two minutes after departing from his house in Laurinburg, North Carolina, Jeff's phone went off. It was Parker’s girlfriend, Alaina.
What Jeff heard on the other line made him veer his 2021 Cadillac Escalade in a U-turn and speed straight back toward his house. Mitzi heard a door slam and immediately knew something was wrong from the tone of her husband’s bellowing voice.
“Mit! Parker’s been in a bad accident. I’m going to Greenville.”
They didn’t grab one thing.
Topping out at 110 mph, Jeff weaved down I-95, flashing his lights to warn others of his urgency. Jeff was driving so recklessly that he popped a tire, delaying their trip as they pulled over and got it replaced. The repair shop employees fixed it as fast as a NASCAR pit crew, Jeff recalled.
“All I'm thinking is, 'Parker’s going down there and I'm never going to see him again.'”
ECU head baseball coach Cliff Godwin was the first person to arrive at the ECU Health Medical Center. During a recruiting visit that afternoon, Godwin’s Apple Watch pinged him nonstop until he finally checked the caller ID. As soon as he saw it was Jeff, Godwin excused himself to take the call, then rushed the five-minute route from the baseball facility to the hospital. There, he was joined by Alaina, Parker’s teammates who had accompanied him on the boat and, eventually, the Byrds themselves.
Parker was in surgery for five hours. As the surgeons emerged from the operating room, Jeff asked the only thing he knew mattered to his son — if baseball was out of the picture. An almost automated response from the surgeon followed:
“Your son is alive and the bleeding stopped, and that's all I can tell you.”
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Parker has always been a competitor. In kindergarten, he called his teacher a cheater when she had stepped in to help the losing team in a playground game. While the teacher was relaying the story to Jeff, she realized the truth in Parker’s statement.
“She said, ‘You know what, Parker's absolutely right. I did cheat, and he did call me out for it,' ” Jeff remembered. “Parker's team was winning really big, which is Parker's mojo. He's gonna not only try to win, he's gonna try to kill you.”
To hold his competitive side accountable, Parker worked out three times a day and articulated his baseball goals on a whiteboard, fixating on his statistics and Perfect Game rating.
“At one point, he was up to 126 in the country, which I thought was great,” Jeff said. “But in his head, there was 125 players better than him, and he was bound to prove that he was the best.”
It was a lifelong goal for Parker to play baseball at East Carolina. After all, his parents both had graduated from the university. His dreams were finally turning into reality as Parker arrived on campus in the summer of 2022 for classes before his freshman season.
After finishing his summer session in late July, Parker and a group of teammates took a lake trip to Bath, North Carolina. That Saturday, Parker and fellow freshman Dixon Williams went tubing in Bath Creek. Dixon had fallen off first, and Parker was sent flying off the inflatable just moments later. The wipeout had shaken him up; Parker had a fear of heights and decided he was done tubing.
“As I got within maybe 10 yards from the boat, the driver accidentally put the boat in reverse. The propeller got caught with the rope and basically sucked me under the boat and hit both of my legs and hit my left hand as well.”
“So he pulled me up on the boat and the guys were tearing off their shirts trying to tie tourniquets around my leg, as they're waving down boats and calling 911.”
Parker was rushed to a local hospital and airlifted to the ECU Medical Center, where he underwent multiple surgeries to save his right leg.
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“Dad, my leg hurts so bad.”
Eleven days after his accident, Parker’s right foot was pale and cold. Despite the catheter inserted in his foot to encourage blood flow, it was clear to Jeff, a pediatrician, that the five Ps of circulation (pain, pallor, pulse, paresthesia, paralysis) indicated that Parker’s foot had lost blood flow.
Eyes heavy from his lack of sleep, Parker was greeted by Dr. Dean J. Yamaguchi, MD, at 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 4. After a minute of examining Parker’s lower extremity, Dr. Yamaguchi turned to Parker.
“'We have two options,' ” Parker recalled him saying. “ 'We can continue you on this medicine we have you on right now, which isn't really working and the infection can spread to your kidneys, your lungs and basically, you'll end up dying. Or option B, we amputate your right lower extremity.'”
To Parker, there was only one option.
I don’t want to die.
And with all the courage that 18-year-old Parker could muster, he replied:
“Yes sir, let’s get rid of the dead part and move on.”
After Dr. Yamaguchi left the room, Parker let go of his emotions. With misty eyes, Jeff remembers the moment that his son came to terms with losing his leg.
“Parker never cries… I just sat there and held him.”
One hundred and sixty miles away at Sunset Beach, Godwin was vacationing with his family when he received the call from Jeff. The coach broke down as the men grieved together.
Struggling to process Parker’s news, Godwin found himself grabbing his stand-up paddle board and began rowing north with vigor. Godwin stopped at the inlet that looked across to Ocean Isle Beach and dealt with the weight he felt.
“I just cried,” Godwin said. “You feel just hopeless as a coach. You feel like you have a lot of control and in that moment, you have no control.”
“You question God sometimes. Why would this happen to a great person?”
That afternoon, Parker underwent the amputation above his right knee.
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Mitzi stayed in Greenville throughout Parker’s recovery and rented a one-bedroom, handicap-accessible apartment to care for him there. Jeff drove the five-hour round trip to see Parker when he could, normally on the days of his 20+ surgeries. But it wasn’t easy to visit Parker; COVID-19 distancing rules were still in place, which limited Parker to just two visitors in the hospital.
Mitzi and Jeff often snuck Godwin into the ECU Medical Center, walking the hallways with Parker during his early days of recovery. Once, a nurse even mistook Godwin for Parker’s pastor.
“We were always trying to break the rules, and it was hard,” Mitzi said. “He was 18. Doesn’t mean he was an adult… he was a kid. A scared kid.”
Support flowed from every direction; a MealTrain and GoFundMe were set up on the Byrds’ behalf and his teammates cheered outside of Parker’s hospital room with get-well posters. Godwin brought Parker Snickers bars during his visits and deliveries of Legos — Parker’s favorite — kept him occupied during his recovery.
Still, Parker’s normally cheerful disposition was replaced by a defeatist mindset. One night, he confessed to Mitzi in his hospital bed:
“Mom, I don't think I'm gonna be able to play baseball anymore.”
Taken aback by Parker’s loss of hope, Mitzi knew she had to instill an objective in her goal-oriented son.
“We’re gonna lose him here, mentally,” Mitzi remembered thinking. “I couldn’t let that happen.”
Thus, the two took time researching and found that Parker would be the first college baseball player with a prosthetic leg. It has since been revealed that he’s second to Greg Dunn, who played for the University of New Mexico in 1988-89 with a prosthetic. Even so, a seed was planted in Parker.
“Ever since then, I've kind of had the mindset of like, 'Why not me?'”
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Parker had lost almost 50 pounds by the time he re-entered the ECU baseball practice facility in fall 2022. He tackled upper-body physical therapy and hand-eye coordination in the grassroots stages of his rehab process.
“I would sit there in my wheelchair and just watch pitches off the machine,” Parker said. “Seeing the velocity of the ball, just seeing the spin.”
Hitting was Parker’s first skill to relearn. He began performing one-handed tee drills while seated on a bath stool before graduating to a walker, leaning on it while swinging the bat with his right hand.
Mitzi and Parker’s two sisters moved into a rental house in Greenville by September, and the Byrds bought a house in Greenville in February 2023. Jeff found a new job just to relocate for his son’s recovery. He knew Parker needed his support.
“If Parker never plays again, then I could accept that,” Jeff said. “But if I wasn’t there and he never plays again, I'd never be able to forgive myself.”
Parker received his first prosthetic in late December 2022. Two months later, he flew up to Chicago with Challenged Athletes Foundation to get fitted for a split toe prosthetic — the difference for Parker being, “Oh my gosh, it feels like I have a big toe.”
Through the spring and summer of 2023, Parker began working on linear movement and fielding with his new leg. During fall ball, Parker mostly hit in cages and took ground balls. During one fall practice, Mitzi observed as Parker fielded a ball, turned and walked towards third base, then flipped around and took four steps backward.
“I almost burst into tears, just seeing that,” Mizti said. “That took months of therapy just for him to be able to do that.”
Parker got his first hit during an ECU spring scrimmage, slamming a line drive to right field. Godwin had coincidentally worn Parker’s branded hat that afternoon — a hat he hadn't worn all spring — and took it as a sign from God that Parker got a base hit.
“I realized, ‘Hey, it’s still the same,'" Parker said, "I’m still seeing the ball the same.”
"When Parker hit that line drive like my eyes immediately went to [outfielder Jacob Jenkins-Coward] and I'm like, 'Lord please don't let him throw that ball to first base,' " Godwin told "The Good Amen" podcast. “I called JC that night and said, ‘Hey man, you made me more proud today than anything you’ve ever done at East Carolina.’ ”
Come February, Godwin delivered the good news: Parker made the 40-man roster.
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Parker was featured in a Super Bowl LVIII commercial in February 2024 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. His story has garnered national attention, even earning a shoutout from Congressman Don Davis on the U.S. House floor: "Parker’s a testament of the resilience of Eastern North Carolina and the Miracles of God. America loves you, Parker. We’re cheering for you, Coach Cliff Godwin and the entire baseball team."
Parker’s athletic goals have changed since his accident. This season, he’s working for his 5-10 at-bats that Godwin has allotted for him — he already drew a walk during his first time at the plate. In his second season, Parker aims to compete for a designated hitter position. He wants to focus on his fielding in his third season.
Ultimately, Parker wants to become a public speaker and Paralympian. But for now, he’s met his goal: a collegiate baseball player.
His first at-bat — the moment that "Still D.R.E." played over the loudspeakers — is even encapsulated on Parker’s own baseball card.
“I feel bad a lot of times because I treat him like our other players,” Godwin said. “But that’s what he wants, that’s what his family wants. He doesn’t want to be pitied. He wants to be one of the baseball players at East Carolina.”
