SAN DIEGO — Friday's Padres game against the Arizona Diamondbacks will start in an unusual way.
The first pitch will be thrown by a 16-year-old boy — but not just any teen in love with baseball.
This amazing athlete, Landis Sims, was born with no hands and no feet.
Nevertheless, he always wanted to play major league baseball and developed a friendship with Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove, who has mentored and coached him.
Landis, from a small town in Indiana, has been blessed with more love and support and experiences than many people have had in a lifetime.
— He has announced a first draft pick for the New York Yankees, attended a Yankees' spring training and signed a one-day contract with the team.
— He has spent time with former Yankees manager Joe Girardi, pitching coach Dom Johnson, and Alex Rodriguez.
— He is touring baseball parks this month to throw the first pitch — for the Yankees, Padres, Giants and the Astros.
— He has won an adaptive surfing event sponsored by the Challenged Athletes Foundation in San Diego.
— He is the star of a 95-minute Taikuli Productions documentary that was eight years in the making.
The documentary, "Landis: Just Watch Me," was released for rental or purchase Tuesday on major digital platforms and cable networks, including Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.
A one-minute compilation of filming highlights will be shown on Petco Park's big screen at the game Friday.
The documentary has been a passion project of filmmaker Eric Cochran who, for 25 years, has traveled the world filming for National Geographic.
"In the first five minutes of talking to Landis and his mom, I just knew this was something special," Cochran recalls. "Kids missing all four limbs just don't play baseball."
That introductory conversation occurred at a softball camp for kids with limb deficiencies from around the country run by a group of wounded warriors in Mission Viejo.
"My dream has been to make a feature documentary — one that would resonate and mean something on a deeper level," Cochran says. He lives in Mission Viejo and stopped by the softball practice with his camera. "Within five minutes, I saw this kid with a bat tucked against his body, and he had prosthetic legs. He was hitting moon shots into the outfield. He stuck out from all the kids."
After observing Landis, Cochran returned the next day and spoke to the boy's mother, Amanda.
Landis was 9, and that was the beginning of an odyssey that had Cochran meeting with the young baseball enthusiast once every month or two for the next eight years. He shot footage of Landis at home, at school, practicing baseball and interacting with his mom, his grandparents and other family members.
Cochran introduced Landis to friends who were professional ball players. They reached out to this determined, good-natured boy with a big heart, big dreams and an indomitable spirit.
Landis didn't focus on his disability but on his ability. He was determined to play MLB baseball.
Cochran also connected the young athlete to the Challenged Athletes Foundation, whose co-founder Bob Babbitt was named executive producer of the documentary.
The foundation awards grants to aspiring athletes with physical challenges who need specialized, custom-fit adaptive equipment, training and mentoring to achieve their sports goals.
Now Landis is helping by handing out CAF awards and grants to others who are missing limbs as he travels around the country this month to ball parks to celebrate the documentary release.
Landis also got to work with David Rotter, an Illinois prosthetics designer, who custom creates equipment for numerous athletes.
Both of Landis' running blades have been adapted to increase balance and lateral movement for baseball. He also wears a special back brace and an adaptive attachment on his arm to hold the bat.
Landis' mom learned that her son would have no hands and feet from an ultrasound picture taken when she was about eight months pregnant. Her doctor couldn't pinpoint a cause.
"It was the worst day of my life," she recalls. "I had all these hopes and dreams of what my child was going to do in life." Instead of joy, she sank into a period of mourning because of the difficulties her child would face.
But once he was born, "he was just a regular baby," she says. "He was a very happy, happy toddler, able to run on his knees. Very mobile and very active. I don't think he even realized he was different. He just went along with everybody else."
While baseball is the storyline of the film, the thread that sews it together is the loving relationship between Landis and his mom, and what she's gone through to get him to be the kid he is today, says Cochran. "She is the heart and soul of this movie."
A high school business teacher, Amanda credits the filmmaker for capturing the importance of love and family, of their support of one another, their hope and their refusal to give up.
"In the beginning," says Landis, "the filming was crazy for me. It was hard to not stare at the camera. But I got used to it over the years."
Landis now realizes he'll never be one of the elite athletes on an MLB team, but he did make his high school varsity baseball team, and he has set his sights on joining the major leagues in another way: by becoming a team manager.
He also looks forward to making motivational speeches. "I really like helping people and if I can deliver a message to inspire people, that's what I love."
As for his advice to others, he suggests making connections with people who are going to help you through adversity. Then, he adds: "Do what you want to do and have fun." Landis admits he got discouraged at times, but he'd hit some extra balls, practice harder and work it out.
He parrots a saying he picked up from Musgrove: "Life rewards those who start."
"If I put in the effort to play baseball, and play at the level I want to play, I'm going to be rewarded. That reminds me to keep on working and not to give up."
