50 People To Know: Yonkers Pitcher Simon Burgos-Bye On Overcoming Obstacles
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Shooting an intense stare from under the peak of his cap, 17-year-old Simon Burgos-Bye is all business on the pitcher's mound.
"I don't like losing," he tells reporter Sean Adams.
Find more 50th anniversary special features here, and be sure to follow the station on Facebook and Twitter.
Burgos-Bye is an inspiration to other players on the Yonkers High School baseball team.
"You should never really be negative about any situation, because you don't know what's going to happen. And you shouldn't give up on something, just because it's hard," he says. "If you love doing it, keep doing it."
Burgos-Bye is not just talking about baseball. That's his philosophy for life.
On the field, he appears just like all of his teammates – except for a slight limp. But if you remove the uniform, you'll learn he has a prosthetic leg.
"Eighth grade, I had this pain in my knee and it kept bothering me. I just thought it was something from sports, because I'm always playing sports," he recalls.
But doctors found a tumor – osteosarcoma.
Undergoing chemotherapy and surgery was a frightening experience for the 13-year-old. While he recovered, he was thinking about his return to the game he loves.
"Honestly, the thing I was most upset about was that I couldn't play baseball for those nine months," he says.
As Sean Adams reports in this week's 50 People To Know, Burgos-Bye's path back to the pitcher's mound was filled with challenges – for his whole family.
But the future looks bright. Next year, he'll play for Lehman College.