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Letter to the editor

Special field would let disabled kids play

By PAUL SWIDER
Published June 1, 2005

Baseball lore is full of miraculous feats - Babe Ruth's called shot, Willie Mays' over-the-shoulder catch, Hack Wilson's RBI record - but for some people, just getting to play would be a miracle.

"These kids want the same things out of life as other kids," said Diane Alford, the executive director of the Miracle League, an organization that supports baseball fields for mentally or physically disabled children.

"We need to educate society not about disabilities, but about what are these children's abilities."

The league's slogan is "Every Child Deserves a Chance to Play Baseball."

Alford will be in Pinellas Park this week to unveil a new partnership to build a Miracle League field in Pinellas County. At a fundraising dinner Thursday, Alford will join Eddie Lee of the Kiwanis Club of the Gulf Beaches and Paul Cozzi of the Pinellas County Department of Recreation to announce the effort. Lee and his organization started work on the idea last September and hope to begin play this October.

The partners hope to build a special baseball field made of rubber, like the surfaces of many track and field venues. The rubber is soft enough to prevent injuries but firm enough for wheelchairs. It also must be seamless for walkers and other mobility aids children might use. Consequently, the field alone can cost up to $125,000, Lee said, before one considers other facilities for the league. But Lee and the Kiwanis group he leads are undaunted.

"We've got some details to work out still, and we're looking for additional partners," Lee said, "but this is real special."

Lee, a construction management consultant from Madeira Beach, said he expects the complex to cost about $300,000, including a field, stadium, dugouts, concessions, restrooms, a scoreboard and possibly lights. Kiwanis has started a fundraising campaign but hopes the county and others can assist.

"The more partners we have involved, the more successful it will be," said Cozzi, who says the county is encouraging Kiwanis to apply for a county recreation grant. A field for Pinellas' roughly 60,000 special-needs children would be only the third in Florida, the others being in Orlando and Pensacola. Cozzi is also helping Kiwanis find a place for the field, by far the highest hurdle. "The trouble is finding the land to put it on," said Stephen Fairchild, a real estate specialist with Pinellas County schools. Cozzi has been talking to Fairchild about putting the field at an existing school as a joint-use facility. But Fairchild said there are "a lot of competing demands." He said the School Board would ultimately have to decide on such an agreement.

None of the 18 fields around the country have had to buy land since the league started in Georgia in 1999, Alford said. She said there are many local corporate sponsors, though no national ones, that help build fields. Alford just opened a field in Chicago that the White Sox helped fund with $1-million for an entire complex. The Cubs sponsor another field in that city.

Lee said he approached the Devil Rays but found them unreceptive to the program.

The Kiwanis dinner, which is sold out, is at 6:30 p.m. at Banquet Masters, 8100 Park Blvd. in Pinellas Park. For questions about the Pinellas Miracle League efforts, Lee can be reached at (727) 244-2171.

[Last modified June 1, 2005, 00:38:18]