Day 18

I planned my own route to 2 places downtown. I had to safely make it to the bank, and then to a restaurant. I crossed 2 streets with lights that were pretty busy without incident. My instructor even bought me breakfast! It was a nice end to a good week.

There are only 4 of us that are staying this weekend, but we managed to stay busy with our campers. After dinner the kids went to the gym and we played beep baseball. I had never played it, or seen it played before, but it is really neat! There are 2 bases, each one makes a different sound so you can distinguish them. The ball beeps repeatedly until it is deactivated, kind of like a bomb. Beep..beep..beep.. The batter is told when to swing by the pitcher, and once the bat makes contact there is a person who is in charge of the mechanism turning on the sound for one of the bases. The runner only has to run toward the base that is activated and touch it before the fielders can catch the ball and hold it above their head (yes, I said RUN--remember all the players cannot see). In order to give the fielders a hand, there are sighted spotters verbally coaching them to the ball (that is still beeping). Let me tell you, the kids that have experience playing do not need any help finding that ball. One kid would zone right in on it every time. Once you get the ball you are supposed to yell out "got it" so that the other fielders do not continue searching for it so you avoid a potentially vicious tackle.
I am going to look into the possibility of forming a team in my region. The kids had so much fun. The cool thing about it was everyone on the team has to be either totally blind or blindfolded. That way it is a level playing field. My fellow O&M classmates played blindfolded and I was a spotter for the fielders giving directions of "5 feet to your left" and such. Very great night.

Beth getting ready to hit the ball.

Barry (an SFA O&M program instructor) getting ready to pitch to Stephen while Beth plays catcher.

Stephen just misses the ball. The man in the corner has control of the bases. He is the one who chooses which base to activate for each runner.

Beth and Stephen practicing their fielding strategy.

This is what I would look like had I played the game. Instead, I was a sighted spotter in the outfield. Maybe next time.