A league with only winners
Published: September 28, 2006
Brittany Breen took aim and swung away at a baseball perched on a T-ball stand.
Standing at home plate on a perfectly flat, quarter-size baseball diamond at Randol Mill Park on Wednesday, she scored a run.
Brittany, a 6-year-old Pope Elementary School student, is one of three blind children on the Astros team who played in the kickoff game of the Miracle League’s fall season. She had help scoring her run, but the fun she had was all her own.
“I’m ready for T-ball,” Brittany said as she climbed the dugout fencing. “I even like to practice.”
During the six-week season, which starts Saturday, more than 180 children ages 5 to 19 who use wheelchairs, have developmental disabilities or have other adaptive challenges can participate in the great American pastime.
Players are assigned a “buddy” to help them avoid injury and do things they may not be able to otherwise, said Julie Borge, Miracle Field of DFW administrator.
The field has synthetic turf that accommodates wheelchairs and other walking devices.
“Each child is special and unique in their own way,” said Mike Breen, Brittany’s father and the Astros’ coach. “But … they are all here to have fun.”
When they started planning the league, volunteers thought they might have enough children for four teams. But the league had 200 children on 14 teams in its first season, which was in April.
“We don’t turn children away,” Borge said. “Even if a child is unable to sign up for the fall, the spring will be here before they know it. And people can also sign up to be buddies. It’s a great way to be involved.”
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