MLB Scouts Are Drooling Over Six Fingered Baby

Total Pro Sports – Earlier this week baseball scouts have been drooling over the fact that a potential MLB pitching star was born. A California couple gave birth to a new baby boy, but the parents got a little more then they expected; the baby was born with 6 fingers on each hand and 6 toes on each feet.

“The presence of extra appendages, known as polydactyly, is reported in about 2 per 1000 children. Usually, polydactylism presents as an extra piece of non-functional tissue, typically occurring as an extra finger with no bone. Most of these cases are easily treated at birth by tying a string tightly around the base. This causes the extra appendage to eventually fall off over time.”

The news of the baby boys rare extra fingers reached the media like wild fire. The boy has already been compared to relief pitcher Antonio Alfonseca. Alfonseca won the 2000 National League reliever of the year award and in 1997 he helped the Florida Marlins win the World Series closing their games for them.

“When Antonio Alfonseca was born in the Dominican Republic, in 1972, with 6 fingers on each hand, no effort was made to remove the extra appendage. While some professional scouts joked about Alfonseca’s “six-finger sinker,” and teammates nicknamed him El Pulpo (The Octopus), his success pitching in the majors speaks for itself.” [HealthGuru]

“Antonio’s 6th finger is quite small in comparison to his other digits (it looks much like a stump), it doesn’t actually touch the baseball when he’s pitching – and therefore his sinker is really just a conventional – albeit very effective – pitch.”

The only problem is that doctors are unsure if the fingers will actually develop and become fully functional. If the tissue does develop into functional fingers and not just an extra piece of non-functional tissue it would be scary to think of the potential this child may have.

But we raise the question if steroids are a banned substance is having an extra functional finger a legal advantage for a pitcher in Major League Baseball? I guess were just gonna have to wait about 16 years to find out.



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