Just Between Us

Play Ball!

Making America's Favorite Pastime Accessible to All Alamedans

by Gina Jaber

THERE ARE SOME THINGS-Little League games, bleachers full of cheering parents, end-of-season team parties-that so many of us take for granted. But for a lot of physically or mentally handicapped kids in our city, the experience of joining a baseball team, suiting up and spending nine innings in the field is far out of reach. Hopefully, with the help of two Alameda parents, that will soon change.
When Roberta Rockwell and John Newton first discovered the Miracle League, a Georgia-based national nonprofit that gives disabled kids the opportunity to play baseball, they were euphoric. Seeing the need for such a league in our area, the good friends, who have long been involved with Alameda's public education system, were ready to fight a new battle for a very underrepresented group of kids. And with an outpouring of support, excitement and enthusiasm from our community, the dream is now in progress.


With their help, Alameda may have its own chapter of the Miracle League and, one day, a specialized rubber playing field accessible to all kids, no matter what their disability.
Roberta put it simply, "Every child and every parent should get to experience the simple joy of playing a sport and sitting on a bleacher. There are so many kids trapped in their bodies with the same enthusiasm, desires and curiosities for sports as every other child, but the opportunities for them aren't always the same."
In Alameda alone, there are 300 kids with significant disabilities. For many of us-other than occasionally seeing the yellow school buses around town-we cannot begin to imagine what life is like, day in and day out, for the kids who board those buses and their families. While I doubt there is a lack of compassion for the disabled in our community or anywhere else, the fact is, for most of us, it's just not our world. We are more familiar with the stress that comes from juggling our kids' many extracurricular activities and worrying about the amount of playing time our kids get in a game. Though these are natural (albeit sometimes excessive) concerns of life with children, suddenly, much of this anxiety seems petty by comparison.
But when an idea like the Miracle League comes along, we are all given an opportunity to think outside of our own boxes and help. Roberta says that she has already seen a ripple effect of good deeds and is witnessing volunteer work taken to a whole new level. In her own words, "People are sprouting wings before our eyes. The good sides of everybody are coming out, and there's a passion in what they are doing."
When I asked Helen Simpson, a mother of a local disabled boy, what she thinks of the Miracle League coming to town, she said, "I think it's a very much needed program and wonderful idea. I like that it's not just for kids in wheelchairs and walkers but also for kids who have disabilities that hold them back."
What's happening here is very exciting. Though a location for the special rubberized field has yet to be determined and additional funds and volunteers are still needed, the ball is rolling. All Alameda kids could soon have a chance to participate in America's favorite pastime. It sounds like a win-win situation to me.
For more information about the league and how to participate in the cause, visit www.miracleleague.com or write to alameda_miracleleague@yahoo.com.  _
E-mail Gina Jaber at ginajab@yahoo.com.