Britt Apgar was born with a limb difference. She had a small right forearm, half of a palm and no fingers on her right hand. On her way to 12 surgeries by the age of 4, she was taught two lessons by her parents that never left her.
Two principles that she carried all the way to the Women’s Professional Baseball League. “My mom said I am never allowed to use my hand as an excuse,” Apgar said. “Like if I wanted to do the monkey bars, we were out there figuring out how to do the monkey bars, and they taught me how to tie my shoes before I even went to preschool.
So that way I was never, like I never felt weird or different around the kids. And my dad … if I wanted to do anything, he wanted me to put my heart into it like 100 percent.” Family is at the center of Apgar’s journey to the WPBL’s inaugural season this summer in Springfield, Illinois, pitching and playing the outfield for the Los Angeles Queens. The family she was born into — her parents, Tommie and Tom, and her older brother, Zach — and the family she picked up along the way.
“I have always and will probably forever describe her like this: She is sunshine,” said Courtney Jamison, one of Apgar’s closest friends. Baseball, softball and dropping out of college Apgar bats right-handed, resting the bat on the flat part of the nub on her right arm. She uses her left hand and arm to pull the bat on a swing while the nub guides it through the zone.
When she pitches, Apgar rests her glove on her nub and keeps it down near her waist so she can quickly move it to her left hand after she finishes her motion. When she catches a ball in the outfield, she turns her glove inside before taking it off and grabbing the ball to throw it. “It sounds like a lot, but it’s really quick, I swear,” Apgar said.
It’s a process she practiced and perfected in the sunshine of North Carolina. Apgar, 22, was born in Farmville near East Carolina University, and she grew up playing in the fields near her home. Her father and brother would throw in the yard, and she fell in love with the pop of the baseball landing in their gloves.
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