The Lighthouse Guild has been assisting visually impaired individuals achieve their goals for more than 100 years.
The nonprofit was founded in 1906 as The New York Association for the Blind. It now offers healthcare, support, and training services to blind and visually impaired people. And, now, it offers baseball, too.
Lighthouse Guild held a clinic this past weekend to teach an adaptive version of baseball. More than 100 people took to a baseball diamond in New York’s Central Park to learn and play our national pastime.
Blind baseball uses a ball with a bell inside it so players can hear where it travels. Sound queues also allow players to run the bases. All players wear masks over they eyes so that those with partial sight don’t have an advantage.
“Our goal is to get our runners to make it from home plate to first, running full speed with a mask on, in 11 seconds,” says Ed Plumacher, President of the U.S. Blind Baseball Association (USBBA), in an interview with CBS New York.
Plumacher, who lost his eyesight at age 49, was a volunteer coach at the clinic. Last year, he coached the U.S. national team to a third place finish at the Blind Baseball International Cup.
Players from that team provided Lighthouse Guild the inspiration to form a new blind baseball team. The Lighthouse Guild Lightning are the newest members of the USBBA. Plumacher and hall-of-fame college baseball coach Donald Landolphi started the new league earlier this year. It is “dedicated to the development, management, regulation and promotion of Blind Baseball teams, players, coaches, volunteers, and umpires in the United States.”