Preparations are underway for a very special baseball tournament beginning Sunday, July 30, involving both kids and adults with special needs. Ball players from Joe Nuxhall's Miracle League Fields in Hamilton, Sean Casey's Miracle League of the South Hills, as well as Sioux City, Iowa, and Hampton, N.J. will leave this week for Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to play one another.
Saturday at Joe Nuxhall's complex, players got a special send-off with new jerseys and Reds backpacks.
Thomas Long is on the adult team and loves playing "outfield and running bases." WVXU asked him what he's been saying to friends and family. "I tell them I'm going!"
This is the first time players from Miracle League Fields in Hamilton will travel for a tournament. They will play at the Cal Ripkin Experience. Here's the story behind the trip.
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The challenge is the ball is smaller at this tournament and it will be pitched overhand, different from the softball and underhand pitch in Hamilton.
Coach Jim Wolpert says his teams have been practicing extra hard because of this. He says support from family and friends is helping. "There's going to be a huge fan base. So, with the jerseys they're going to look and feel great and just a wonderful experience," he says.
Teddy Kremer, of Cincinnati Reds batboy fame, is the manager. "They're going to get pumped up," he says. The strategy is "to win!"
Fifteen-year-old Abigail Carangi has been playing at Miracle League Fields since she was four. It even helped her regain use of her legs after a spinal injury. She says she's really excited about what's happening and told WVXU, "I like baseball because my family is here to support me."
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The stadium was filled July 22 as the Joe Nuxhall complex hosted a celebrity game. Carangi, 15-year-old Ann Schwartz, and other members of the traveling team were announced before the game.
This is Schwartz's tenth season. Her parents Steve Schwartz and Johanna Braciack are looking forward to the trip just as much as Ann is.
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"We'll get to talk to other parents who are living the same life we are," Braciack says. "It's amazing. It's exciting because she loves playing here but traveling to a tournament isn't something we expected to do with her."
