LITHIA, Fla. – If you go to Zavi Gonzalez’s house, you’re likely to find him in the garage making some noise.
“It’s like a normal sound in our house now,” Zavi’s mom, Aleisha Mullinax, said. “I don’t even notice it.”
Hitting baseballs into a backstop has become part of his routine, the15-year-old gives it his all for one reason.
“Baseball is a part of me,” Gonzalez said. “It’s my life.”
However, his life is different from most. He plays with a prosthetic leg.
“I want people to look at my and say, ‘Dang, he’s playing with that, and he’s that good,'” Gonzalez said.
What they’re saying:
His mom feels nothing but butterflies when he takes the field.
“It does something for me as a mom to see my son accomplish so much in life,” Mullinax said. “When I get to watch him play, it just makes me so happy.”
The backstory:
Gonzalez was born without a fibula. At eight months old, he needed to have his foot and ankle amputated. He has used a prosthetic leg ever since.
“I love that he goes out there and doesn’t use his leg as an excuse,” Mullinax said. “He goes out there and tries just as hard as anyone else.”
The Newsome High School sophomore has no excuses, because he’s got some big goals.
“I want to be the first player in the MLB with a prosthetic,” Gonzalez said.
He’s certainly taking the right steps. He’s only 15 and playing for an 18U team. Just like in his garage, he’s making noise on the field.
“If you have a full count, bases loaded, he’s the boy you want up there,” Mullinax said.
However, recently, Gonzalez has not been upright. His bone bowed. The doctors told him if he wanted to continue playing baseball, he would need to have surgery.
Without hesitation, Gonzalez agreed to get the surgery done. The doctors shaved off three centimeters of his stump, which caused him to learn how to walk again. He was in a wheelchair and then on crutches.
He had to miss his freshman season of baseball.
“I’ve just got to keep working,” Gonzalez said.
What’s next:
This weekend, he’ll be back on the field for the first time in a year after the revision surgery in a tournament in Clearwater.
“I am ready to ball out,” Gonzalez said. “I am ready to put all that I have onto the field.”
But most importantly, he wants to give it all he’s got for those watching.
“I want other kids to look up to me too,” Gonzalez said. “You don’t see too many people doing what I am doing with a prosthetic. Even with kids that have a disability, they might doubt themselves. I just want them to look at me and see he’s doing it, why can’t I do it too?”
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Mark Skol, Jr.
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