From the Pensacola News Journal, March 24, 2005

"If we can give these parents memories to go on forever everything else you can lose, but you cannot lose the memories."

- Larry Thompson , who helped to bring Miracle League to Pensacola

Making Diamond Miracles
League gives disabled youth chance to be baseball stars
Lynette Wilson
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

Los Angeles Angels team mom Christie Fine choked back tears as she watched her 8-year-old son, Zach, run the bases Saturday at Mitchell Homes Miracle League Park .

Born with muscular dystrophy, Zach, a second-grader at Lipscomb Elementary School , never had been part of a baseball team before.

"The emotion of seeing him doing something we've been wanting him to do for a long time is amazing," Christie Fine said as tears then rolled down her face. "He just feels successful."

Saturday's doubleheader between the Angels and the Atlanta Braves, and the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays -- Miracle League of Pensacola teams wearing the same colors and insignias as players in the majors -- launched the 2005 spring baseball season.

The Miracle League provides children and young adults who have mental and/or physical challenges an opportunity to play baseball on an organized team.

"There are no outs. Everybody bats. Everybody scores, and the game ends in a tie," said Donna Thompson, one of the league's 12 directors.

The league has four teams, averaging 10 players of all ages. Each player takes one "at bat" before the side retires. Games last 90 minutes, and each player has a volunteer buddy who helps them bat, run the bases and play the field.

Each time a batter entered the box Saturday, whether for T-ball or slow-pitch, the crowd went wild.

Terrie Langham, a league director, shook Mardi Gras beads inside a plastic soda bottle and cheered for each batter. Her son, Adam Langham, 20, would play for the Devil Rays during the second game.

"I've waited 21 years," said Adam Langham, who turns 21 in July. "I'm very ecstatic to be on a team."

Adam Langham was born with cerebral palsy and wasn't kidding when he said he'd waited 21 years to play.

"When he was little, he had friends who played, but he couldn't," said Terrie Langham, who, at first, feared Adam would be too old to play in the Miracle League.

It was the memory of baseball as well as Donna and Larry Thompson 's son, Brad, who died 11 years ago April 22 at age 16, that got the Miracle League started in Pensacola . The couple first saw a Miracle League game in Moody, Ala. , and Donna Thompson wanted to bring the league to Pensacola . Three years and tens of thousands of dollars later, the Miracle League had its opening day.

"If we can give these parents memories to go on forever -- everything else you can lose, but you cannot lose the memories," Larry Thompson said.

He said he is thrilled that Mitchell Homes Miracle League Park shares the John R. Jones Athletic Complex with mainstream baseball diamonds.

"We're not separated," he said. "Most of these children have mainstream brothers and sisters. They can all play in the same place."

The players on Saturday were overjoyed. They hopped, skipped, ran, walked and wheeled themselves -- alone or sometimes with help -- up and down the baselines. A smile creased the face of every player who touched home plate.

Curtis Glassberg, 24, played No. 5 for the Angels, and was the first batter to knock the ball over the field's chain-link fence.

"It felt good," Glassberg said, "to hit it out of the park."