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Everyone Wins: Welcome To The Miracle League

The 1A Northview Chiefs will take on the 4A Tate Aggies at noon Saturday at Tate with proceeds benefiting the Miracle League.

The Miracle League of  Northwest Florida, a baseball league for disabled and special needs persons that plays spring and fall at the Mitchell Homes Miracle League Park on Nine Mile Road.

The following is a NorthEscambia.com feature about the Miracle League from earlier this year.

Every game ends in a tie. Every player hits; every player scores. There are no strikeouts, no errors. Everybody wins.

Welcome to the Miracle League.

It’s a baseball league for disabled and special needs persons. With players from ages 3 to 63, there are 14 teams that play on the two fields at the Mitchell Homes Miracle League Park on Nine Mile Road.

“Abigail rounds second! She looks good this year, all decked out and playing some ball,” announcer Crystal Martinez says during an afternoon game at the Miracle League. “Loooook at her go! She’s headed home! She scores! Yeah Abi!”

That’s just the way a Miracle League game goes — always.

The players are in wheelchairs and walkers. Some handicaps are mental, some are physical.

Joshua heads toward the batter’s box  in his walker to take a swing at the ball with his “buddy”. Each player has a “buddy” assigned to them to help them hitch, catch, throw or run the field.

“Go Joshua!” Martinez announces. “Good job!”

In the end, the game between the Orioles and the Twins was tied, just as every game has ended in a tie for the past nine seasons.  The stats for each of the 150 players will be the same at the end of the season — perfect.

“It’s a wonderful thing for these kids,” Martinez told NorthEscambia.com after the game. “It’s about them getting to play a sport that otherwise they could not play…it’s about the smiles. I love to say that they are all stars when I am announcing.”

“I think it is a great thing,” said Stephen Gruenwald of Pensacola. His son James, 5, plays Miracle League ball from his wheelchair. “He enjoys it very, very much. And he loves the people; the volunteers are one of the best things.”

Players and volunteers come from not just Pensacola, but Mobile, Crestview, Brewton and points in between. Everybody is a volunteer that participates with the Miracle League. The are paid only in smiles.

“It’s a beautiful thing. Everybody here does it for one reason” volunteer Larry Powell said, placing his hand over his heart. “It’s here, in your heart, for these kids.”

“We have a guy that was a Marine for 32 years,” Powell said. “He will sit on that field with the smallest child and help them. It really gets to you.”

Each of the two Pensacola Miracle League fields is made up of 180,000 pounds of rec ycled tires formed into tiles painted to match a regular field. It provides a softer landing spot for a hard fall, while still providing a good bounce for the hollow core ball that is also designed to lesson injury potential. There are two seasons at the park, spring and fall. The rubber surface gets too hot to play in the summer.

The Miracle League needs more volunteers to serve as buddies, work the concession booth, pickup trash and many more tasks around their area of the Nine Mile Road ballpark.

The public is always welcome and encouraged to cheer on the players.

“It’s a special place here,” Powell said. “Everyone should watch one of these games. It will touch you.”

For a NorthEscambia.com photo gallery from a Twin versus Orioles tie at the Miracle League, click here.

For more information on Miracle League, or to volunteer, visit www.miracleleaguepensacola.org.

Pictured top: Abigail gets a high five after a base hit during a Miracle League game in Pensacola. Pictured top inset: James takes a swing: Pictured bottom inset: Headed for home. NorthEscambia.com  file photos, click to enlarge.