A great deal of the coverage given to beep baseball focuses primarily on the blind players, but without our volunteer coaches, pitchers, catchers, and spotters, what we do wouldn’t be possible. For example, thanks to the dedication of two of our volunteers, coach Doug Van Duyne and catcher Kelly Peterson, we were able to turn a canceled event into a successful practice today.

Many people don’t realize that a blind person’s life usually has to be planned further in advance, at least when it comes to arranging transportation. Busses run on schedules, and don’t always go where we need them too. Para transit systems usually require at least a day of advanced notice when scheduling rides. Taxis are, for some, prohibitively expensive. This means that, for a beep baseball team, it can be difficult to arrange last-minute practices or pickup games. Today, though, Doug and Kelly transported four of our six twin cities players so we could do exactly that.

When we arrived at the park, Coach Doug and the players assisted each other in batting practice using a hit stick, a tool for improving swing consistency. This is particularly important in beep ball, where the pitcher and batter must consistently be able to meet each other in a strike zone about four inches wide.

After that, Doug batted, or threw, ball after ball out into the field so we could work on our defense. In beep ball, reaching a hit ball as soon as possible is essential to preventing the offensive team from scoring runs. A good hitter can easily propel the ball over 100 feet before it drops to the ground and can be fielded. Catching a ball in the air is so rare that the defensive team is automatically awarded three outs if they do it.

Many of the most powerful hitters are also fast runners and can reach a base, 100 feet from home plate, in around four seconds. All of this gives the defensive team very little margin for error, so practice is essential.

All of our players would like to thank Doug, Kelly, and all of our volunteers for their dedication. We’d also like to remind our fans that our volunteers don’t just donate their time, they often donate their money as well. Gas, to transport players and themselves, is just one expense volunteers have. Traveling to out-of-state tournaments, like the World Series, is as expensive for a volunteer as it is for a player. This is all tax deductable, but volunteers come from all walks of life and cost presents a problem for some more than others. Two of our newest volunteers, for example, are full time college students. Your donations insure that we can retain the volunteers we need to make beep baseball possible in Minnesota. Please visit www.mnmillers.org and use the donate button or mailing address provided there to help us achieve our $18,000 fund raising goal for 2015. We understand that this isn’t possible for everyone, but it is possible for everyone to spread the word. Please like or share this post so that more of Minnesota can enjoy the amazing sport of beep baseball.