Miracle League helps fulfill kids' dreams

From the Pensacola News Journal

April 19, 2005
Geoff Watts

Despite a ravenous appetite for sports of any kind, there remains one game that embodies the fabric of American culture more than any other: Baseball. From Babe Ruth and the 1927 New York Yankees to Jackie Robinson and the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers to Curt Schilling and the 2004 Boston Red Sox to little league dreams played out. On ball fields across America, baseball is a gift handed down from generation to generation.

The graceful synchronicity of an infield turning two; the two-out hit in the clutch; hitting the cut-off man perfectly from the outfield for a tension-filled play at the plate.

And perhaps the grand old game has never meant more than to a group of youngsters preparing for Saturday’s Opening Day of the inaugural season of the Miracle League of Pensacola.

For many, it will be their first foray into most American kids’ rite of passage.

The Miracle League of Pensacola is an organization that started up here a couple of years ago,” said 47-year-old retired Marine Rob Doss, one of 10 Miracle League of Pensacola board members. It was founded originally here in Pensacola in February of 2002. The idea was to provide children with the mental and/or physical challenges the opportunity to play baseball as a learn member or in an organized league.

“The whole idea here is that everybody plays, everybody gets on base, everybody scores, everybody wins. And they do this every inning in every game.”

While technology and sheer determination continue to bridge the gap between those with disabilities and their desired activities, Miracle League organizers such as Doss say baseball has never meant more to improving peoples’ lives.

“It’s (baseball) the great American pastime.” Doss said. "It’s the sport that everybody talks about playing – dreams about playing. It’s a genuinely American recreation."

You’ve got. to imagine that a lot of kids who don’t have the means to do this-or-that spend quite a lot of time in self-doubt and self-confidence issues and so forth because they see their friends doing things they’ll never ever do.

“Here you have a success that is on par with any of their able-bodied friends’ successes.”

The idea to bring Miracle League baseball to Pensacola was hatched innocently enough from local couple Larry and Donna Thompson’s chance viewing of HBO’s Real Sports.”

“We were basically doing some work and looking for something to do,” said Larry Thompson, who along with wife Donna founded the Miracle League of Pensacola. Once (Donna Thompson) saw it on HBO we watched it and decided we wanted to go up and learn more about it.”

After observing the league in Conyers, Ga., the Thompsons decided on the drive back to get to work in bringing a similar model back to Pensacola.

“When I went to Moody (Ala.) and watched the game up there, it takes a lot to watch the first game,” Thompson said. It’s very emotional. You see the kids’ faces because they’ve never got to play before.

The buddies who are now helping them do what they can do gives you a good feeling because here’s people helping people who can’t do (baseball) for themselves. It’s just a lot of emotion involved in it.”

Doss said the relationship between the players and the buddy is reciprocal. “It works out real well,” Doss said. “A teenage kid that helps them out … it’s good for both – it’s great for the kid out in the field with them as a buddy.”

According to Doss, the joy these athletes derive from playing the game defies description.

“It’s elation on a scale that you will not find on a normal baseball field,” Doss said. “The kids are excited unlike any baseball player.

“Even if you don’t know any of the kids on the field, it’s extremely touching. It’ll grab you places you’ve not been grabbed before.”

The final step in Miracle League organizers’ three-year journey to Saturday’s Opening Day was the construction of a special rubber field that allows for true bounces and free movement for wheelchairs – and walkers.

“The playing surface they play on is not a normal dirt and grass field,” Doss said. From a distance it looks like just a tightly manicured field. When you get up on it, you’ll see that it’s actually crumb rubber tiles that have been glued down to an asphalt foundation.”

Thanks to huge donations from Ford Motor Company and Mitchell Homes, the finishing touches have been painted on the rubber tiles at the new Mitchell Homes Miracle League Park, located at the John R. Jones Athletic Complex at 555 East Nine Mile Road. One of the many proud parents watching their children play baseball for the first time Saturday will be Terrie Langham.

When her son Adam, who suffers from cerebral palsy, steps into the batter’s box for the first time, emotions will be high.

“I imagine there’s not going to be a dry eye actually,” Langham said. “It’s making me cry now just thinking about it. I think I will be very proud and he will be proud of himself.

“He looked up at me the other day actually and said, ‘I cannot believe I’ve been waiting 21 years almost to play ball and I’m finally getting a chance to do that.’”

Doss said the benefits of the league will go beyond the playing fields.

“It’s going to have a tremendous impact on the community,” he said, “and the community isn’t really even aware just yet what it’s going to mean to them.”

In other words, in the Miracle League, everybody wins.