![]() Not long ago, in an assessment of ''impact rookies'' in baseball history, the weekly Baseball America listed Abbott second to Jackie Robinson, who early in the 1947 season was also a minority of one. But there's never been a minority in baseball quite like this boyishly handsome young man, a minority of one. In baseball, as in every other business these days, the progress of a minority is always being charted. Jim Abbott may not have changed, but baseball has. ![]() ![]() ''He came in the back door and went straight to the cupboards.'' ''Nothing's changed,'' his father said at the time. ![]() And when he returned to his Flint, Mich., home during the Angels' recent stop in Detroit, he proved that he hasn't let all his headlines inflate him. He's proved to be a capable pitcher: before last night's start against the Yankees, he had a 3-3 record with a 3.56 earned-run average. He's proved that the Angels weren't rushing him just to sell tickets as he jumped to the big leagues from the Olympics and college baseball without any minor league seasoning. By now, the 21-year-old left-hander has proved that the Angels knew what they were doing in selecting him with the eighth choice in last year's draft of young talent. ''I get up, run a couple of errands and come to the yard. ''Not much,'' the California Angels' rookie pitcher invariably answers. Almost weekly, another photographer from another magazine will descend on Jim Abbott and ask the same question: What do you do at home? ![]()
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