[Sportsandrec] Beep Baseball Regs

[Peter Donahue]

Good afternoon Jennifer and everyone,

    Several of the beep baseball regs trouble me as they assume that blind 
people are incapable of playing on the same terms as the sighted beyond 
modifications directly related to blindness. Whatever happened to four 
balls, three strikes,  9 innings, 3 outs per inning, and why not blind 
catchers and pitchers?

    It's these troubling regulations which have turned me off to blind 
sports whose rules of play enforce old attitudes and stereotypes about our 
ability to compete on the same terms and play by the same rules of the game 
as the sighted. I believe this is an issue to be addressed by this division. 
Just a rant for a Saturday afternoon.

Peter Donahue


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jennifer Boylan" <jaboylan at gmail.com>
To: <sportsandrec at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 3:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Sportsandrec] New Member


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, all!

Welcome, Andrew!

Let me tell you a little about my favorite blind team sport, beep baseball.
All players are blindfolded, regardless of vision, and bat a beeping
softball into play so they can run full-speed through a buzzing 4 ft. foam
post better known as 1st or 3rd base.  Fielders run, slide, body-block and
communicate to come up with an out.  The pitcher and catcher are sighted and
do their best to ensure you smack the ball.  Sighted field spotters watch
for major collisions and give you an idea of where the ball will land in the
outfield.  4 strikes, 1 ball, 3 outs and 6 innings.  All you need to have a
great Saturday or season.  Our season runs Jan-August so I'm going through
withdrawals right now but staying in shape walking, jump-roping and working
out to music at home with weights and push-ups/crunches.  You've got to
check it out--maybe there's a team in your area.  Visit the National Beep
Baseball Association's website at www.nbba.org to find out more or ask me
anything!  We're hosting the NBBA World Series in Stockton, California July
26-August 2, 2009 and are really pumped!  We're also trying to get a Western
Regional tournament going in late April in Las Vegas.  But enough about
that...for now!

I really enjoy bowling and dancing with or without friends.  Beeping frisbee
can be played with blind or sighted, especially the kids who love throwing
anything at you (but this time you can hear it coming! Smile.)  Swimming is
great, spinning is great and I'm anxious to get into tandem biking.

On lazy days, you can always surf the net!  LOL

Jennifer
"Put me in Coach...I'm ready to play, today!"
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