The Miracle League, a Pinellas County baseball league for kids with disabilities was ready to cancel its next season.
The field they had been using was run down and the playing conditions were not safe.
“It was individual tiles, small tiles, and, after a while, they became separated and they popped up,” said George Stone, the field’s general manager.
Stone needed thousands of dollars to replace the field and was ready to pull the plug on the season. Then, two home run-hitting foundations stepped up to the plate.
“Joe Maddon’s foundation, the Respect 90 Foundation and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation out of Baltimore each gave us half and half for this,” said Stone.
Both of the foundations are connected to Major League Baseball.
The new field costs around $110,000 and will be fully constructed by Saturday, April 14, which is opening day for the Miracle League.
Twenty-six athletes will play on a new diamond that is welcome to all of the sights and to all of the sounds of America’s pastime, and they can call it home field.
“It gives me great pleasure when I sit behind home plate and I see all of the smiling faces cross the plate,” said Matthew Walker, who has been on the team since 2006.
“Every kid at this league, I love it to death, they are just here to be a ball player,” said Rusty Morris whose 15-year-old son is on the team. “Sometimes [these children] are looked down on and they are not seen as normal but, here, they are just like any other kid.”
Now, like any other kid, they can safely play ball.
