When Matthew Puvogel was a college junior, doctors diagnosed him with retinitis pigmentosa. He has no night vision, his peripheral sight is steadily diminishing and he walks with a cane.
But he can still hit a line drive.
Puvogel is one of over 200 members of the National Beep Baseball Association, a league in which visually impaired adults play a modified form of the national pastime. Through six innings, they are guided by a beeping ball, buzzing bases and volunteer spotters who steer them in the field.
“I used to play baseball, so this lets me continue with it,” Puvogel says. “The feeling is a little bit different, but I love it now.”
Fifteen official teams from across the U.S. and one in Taiwan are competing now in a series of tournaments that will culminate in August’s World Series of beep baseball in Houston.
Because some players, like Puvogel, are classified as “low vision,” while others are completely sightless, there’s another twist: everyone plays wearing a blindfold. Players rely on volunteer spotters in the field to tell them where the ball is.
“The job in and of itself is actually very challenging,” says field spotter Christopher Mitchell, who got involved because his brother-in-law plays the game. “The thing is that you have to call the right spot, and also because they are blind, they sometimes move out of position when you’re not watching them. So you have to yell out ‘oh wait, move to your right or your left.’”
When Ted Fass founded the Long Island Bombers a decade ago, his team consisted of just three athletes playing in the back of an elementary school. Today, the Bombers have grown to ten players and practice weekly at a local recreation center.
“Each year, we get better and better, and it becomes like a family,” says Fass, who lost his vision at age 11 to a tumor blocking his optic nerve. “To me, the reward is just keeping everyone together.”
Financing, resources and recruitment, however, pose lingering challenges for teams like the Bombers.
New beep balls run $35, nearly three times the cost of a Major League
baseball. It’s not uncommon to go through five to ten balls per game, as the
beep of a ball that’s hit hard and often can weaken, slow or stop entirely. And
at present, no company is making the foam cylinder bases, which cost nearly $500
per set
Because the players can’t drive themselves to games, teams rely on volunteers who are willing to give up their Sunday mornings to provide transportation to and from three-hour practices.
And since there are so few teams nationally, those commutes can be long. “My brother’s team in Texas, I think some people travel an hour and half just to come to practice,” says Andrea Eliason, whose brother plays for the Austin Blackhawks.
Finding enough players to field a team can also be an obstacle.
“Some blind people are fearful of the game,” says Bombers captain and shortstop Jim Hughes. “Some people we’ve gotten involved with, they had never run full speed in their lives.”
For the athletes who do sign up, many say that the most rewarding moments come when observers and sighted teams they play demonstration games against get past the novelty of their impairments and appreciate the sport for itself.
“That’s the beauty,” says Hughes. “When people forget that you’re blind, and they’re just watching an actual sport.”
Dek: How to hit what you cannot see.
(Learn the rules of the game)
1) Throwing Strikes
The catcher and pitcher are sighted players who serve on the same team as the batters, who get four strikes and just one ball before they are called out (though as in regulation baseball, they can’t strike out on a foul). If the pitcher is hit with a batted ball, it’s an automatic out.
2) Sighted Volunteers
Volunteers serve as field spotters, whose keep the defense in position and alert players to where the ball is. Others stand along the baselines and call out commands if runners veer too far left or right.
3) Hitting
The batter listens for the pitcher to yell “ready…pitch!” The command “pitch,” signals that the beeping ball has left the pitchers hand. The batter gets four strikes; he’s allowed to take just one pitch, after which each pitch counts as a strike.
4) Scoring
Once the batter connects with the ball, either third or first base buzzes. The batter must then run to whichever base is buzzing. If they make it before a fielder shows possession of the ball, a run is scored.
5) Playing Defense
To locate the ball, fielders follow the beeping and commands of volunteers, getting on the ground and using their bodies to block it. The runner is out when a fielder gains possession and holds the ball above the ground, away from their bodies.
6) Equipment
The ball is a 16-inch circumference softball implanted with an audio-emitting device. Players can use any regulation softball bat. Bases are buzzing, four-foot tall foam cylinders. Everyone except the pitcher and catcher wears a blindfold; while gloves and mitts are optional for fielders.
Beep baseball was born in 1964, when telephone company engineer Charley Fairbanks embedded a small beeping device inside a regular-sized softball. When members of a group called the Telephone Pioneers of America created whistling, knee-high rubber bases and some basic rules, schools for the blind let their students try the game out.
But beep baseball floundered in its early years. The rules required cumbersome masks and chest pads and prohibited running by either fielders or batters. Batting proved too difficult. On the occasions that batters did connect, the impact often broke the ball’s beeping device.
Fortunately for would-be sluggers, a new, larger ball and modifications to the rules in 1975 allowed for the creation of the National Beep Baseball Association
The National Beep Baseball Association Web Site
and instigation of an annual world series.
Today’s blind athletes also swim, run, wrestle and ski, but options for team competition are limited. Perhaps the most prominent of blind team sports, goalball, is too physically taxing for all but the youngest athletes. Beep baseball teams, by contrast, field players in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
“This is a wonderful opportunity, but it’s the only recreation I really do,” says Bombers captain and shortstop Jim Hughes, who is in his late 30s. “There’s obviously bowling and things of that nature, but this is more active and realistic. If you’re in decent shape, this is what you want to do.”
4) Running Blind: The How-To of Other Visually-Impaired Sports
Goalball: Developed after World War II as a rehabilitation activity for veterans, this physically demanding game involves diving onto a hard wood floor.
Swimming: Most blind swimmers rely on a “tapper.” This is a long pole or stick with a tennis ball on the end that a volunteer uses to pat the swimmer on the head, as a warning that the pool wall is approaching.
Running: For blind runners, competition requires partnership with a sighted guide runner. The two athletes run in unison, joined by a foot-long tether held in each of their fingers.
Alpine Skiing: In competition, a guide skis either in front of or behind the blind athlete, and uses a voice amplification system to send commands such as “Go, go, go, go left turn, go, go."
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