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'Beep Ball' Gets Blind in the Game

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 18, 2009 8:20 AM CDT

(Newser) – Baseball isn’t the national pastime only for those lucky stiffs who can see the ball. The blind have their own version of baseball, the Wall Street Journal reports, played with a beeping softball. Players use that beeping to time their swings and dive for balls. Some aspects are simplified—batters need only run to a single base before a fielder touches the ball to score a run—but its competitors play just as hard as their sighted counterparts.

“People don’t think it’s serious until they see a game,” says a National Beep Baseball Association VP. “They have a perception of what a blind person can do, and this shows them we can do a hell of a lot.”

[Images (2)]

[Videos (3)]

Two Boston Renegades players play the field during the 2008 Beep Baseball World Series. (John Lykowski jr./NBBA)

A player connects with the ball during the 2007 Beep Baseball World Series. (John Lykowski/NBBA)

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This video shows beep baseball, an adaptive form of baseball for the blind. This is the 6th and final inning of a game played between the Renegades and the Wolfpack on June 28, 2008 in Watertown, Mass. (robweis62)

A beep ball web gem. (kschief32)

A home run. (kschief32)

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