Sports

For the Love of the Game

I know I've mentioned beep baseball on this blog before but I never told you why I love the game. I'm a lifelong baseball fan. In fact, when I was younger and still had fairly good vision, I played in elementary school. I was a pitcher, and it was my dream to be a baseball star like my idol (I would tell you who, but that would give away my age, so I'll let you guess!). After I lost my vision, I had to stop playing, but that didn't stop my love of the game.

One alternative available to die-hard baseball fans that are visually impaired and still want to play the sport is beep baseball. It's played more like softball and involves a beeping ball and two buzzing bases. About 20 years ago, I tried my hand at it, thinking that since I was a good ball player, I would naturally be good at this sport. Boy, was I wrong! It was one of the most frustrating things I've ever done. I kept striking out, my arms quickly got fatigued, and my enthusiasm to play the game diminished. It's not an easy game, but there are definitely very skilled blind and visually impaired athletes who excel at this sport and I have a huge respect for those who play.

The National Beep Baseball Association has a section on their website with everything you need to know about beep baseball. Check it out to learn more! Also, the 2008 World Series of Beep Baseball is next week—July 29 to August 2—in Houston, Texas. If you're out that way, you should stop in for a game or two and cheer on defending champs the Kansas All-Stars. Or, you can subscribe to their podcast to listen to the games if you can't make it out to watch in person. Good luck to all the teams!

Until then…play ball!

Next Stop…Beijing

Guest Blogger, Marc Grossman, Accessibility Specialist, AFB Consulting

Physical fitness and exercise are an important part of my life. Just because I can't see myself in the mirror doesn't mean that I don't want to look good in my bathing trunks! One way I stay in shape is by training for and racing in triathlons. I entered my first triathlon two years ago. Though the course—consisting of a half-mile swim, sixteen-mile cycle, and three-mile run—may sound terrifying, as far as triathlons go, that one was not too bad. Unfortunately, the tandem bicycle I was riding broke down about halfway and my racing partner and I were unable to finish the race. It left me feeling really deflated, but I knew I would attempt to complete another race again.

So you can imagine the anticipation I felt yesterday as we pulled into the parking lot to get ready to race for the second time. Two years ago, it was about 50 degrees at race time and standing on the beach waiting to jump into the 68-degree water without a wetsuit was a teeth chattering experience. This year, however, race time temperatures were already nearing 80 degrees! As the race starter counted down from ten, my heart began pounding in my chest and when the horn blasted, signaling the start of the race, we made a mad dash to get out front. Matt (my racing partner) kept pushing me left and right to keep me on track to reach the buoy before we turned around to head back for the beach. My legs were still wobbly as we ran for the transition area to get ready for the bike and by the time it came for the run, the temperatures were in the 90s with no shade in sight. If it was not for the amazing fans lining the course cheering for the athletes, I might have packed it in and called it a day. Despite the conditions, Matt and I crossed the finish line in two hours and five minutes (and made a beeline for the water table!).

I would like to say thank you to the Achilles Track Club for all of their support. Thanks to my racing partner Matt, because if it were not for him, I wouldn't have made it very far at all. Finally, thank you to the staff and volunteers at New York Triathlon for putting on an amazing event and working to include athletes with disabilities in their races.

Take Me Out to the Beepgame

Texas may have a World Series title this baseball season. We're not sure about the future of the Texas Rangers or the Houston Astros, but the Tyler Tigers are on their way. The Tyler Tigers are a team in the beep baseball league that mostly consists of players with vision loss. Beep baseball is baseball designed for players who are blind or visually impaired. Plays are made by tracking the sounds of a beeping baseball, and hopefully making contact with that ball. The bases beep as well, making them easier to locate on the field. These are the most obvious differences between a beep game and a regular game. The goals of the game are the same: hit the ball and get on base, which is exactly what the Tigers have been doing. The beep baseball world series, an international tournament, will take place in Cleveland, Ohio, from July 31-August 5. Go Tigers!

Being Sporty

I just read an article about a blind tech executive and world champion water-skier who designed a device that helps water-skiers with vision loss participate in slalom competitions... good stuff. And though it's freezing in New York City on the second day of spring, this article got me thinking about warm weather and outdoor sports. I'm always happy when I read news stories on sports/phyical activity and blindness. Just recently there has been coverage on the world championship for blind sailors coming to Newport, RI this September, and the Junior Blind Olympics that took place in LA last weekend. And let's not forget Rachael Scdoris, who recently became the first legally blind musher to finish the Iditarod.

Physical activity is something we talk a lot about at AFB because obesity rates are high among people with disabilities. We're actually in the midst of working on an interesting research study about how environment impacts exercise for people with disabilities. The study is funded by the the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Active Living Research national program. We'll be releasing results as soon as the study is complete, so please stay tuned. In the meantime, if you read any interesting articles on sports or exercise and vision loss, please send them my way...

Keeping Fit

There's a great article in today's New York Times on working out with disabilities. It features one of our very own, Crista Earl, who is probably the most fit person I know. The article, "Disabled, and Shut Out at the Gym" delves into an important topic that hasn't gotten a lot of attention: physical activity rates among people with disabilities. Research shows that people with disabilities participate in physical activities far less than people without disabilities, which inevitably leads to greater health problems. But as this article points out, working out at the gym can be tough when health clubs don't meet accessibility standards. Gyms rarely, if ever, include braille on their equipment and very few classes are accessible to people with vision loss because instructors don't clearly explain poses or exercises. I hope this article catches the attention of health clubs across the country, so we start to see some positive changes.

Sports Sites Fall Short of the End Zone When It Comes to Accessibility

Super Bowl Sunday is just four days away, and whether you're rooting for the Seahawks or the Steelers, you're probably logging onto the web to read up on the teams. The problem is that sports sites aren't always that easy to read when you're using a screen reader. We started talking about this frustration earlier in the football season, and it prompted a more formal evaluation of the sports sites.

Now here we are, right before Super Bowl weekend, and the rumors are true. Popular sports sites aren't scoring touchdowns for football fans with vision loss. We looked at NFL.com, ESPN.com, and SI.com and found that all three have serious design problems that make them very difficult to navigate. We're hoping the sites will take notice and get back in the access game next season, because there are millions of us who would happily visit their sites if they were more user-friendly! And the truth is, they could be vastly improved with just a few changes in web page design—like properly labeling forms when building web interfaces and providing descriptive alt-text for graphics.

As for Sunday, I'm cheering for Seattle, though I worry Pittsburgh has the edge. But more than anything, we should all be rooting for accessible web design....

Marathon Roundup

The marathon is over for one more year and I can't wait for the next one. This was the best ever. The weather was beautiful, maybe a little warm, and New York turned out to cheer. I got a starting position just behind the "sub elite" runners, so it was much less crowded than in years past. My most experienced guide, Jason, took the tether and got us through the crowd right away going up the starting hill, so by the time we crested the hill we were in the clear and just let gravity take us down the hill with no obstacles. All this put us way ahead of pace by mile three (not a good thing: going out too fast is something you really pay for later), so Clarissa the Metronome took the tether and we knocked out a few miles right on pace. Later, Tom and Anthony took short turns with the tether, but they mainly ran into water and Gatorade stops for the rest of us and did color commentary.

There is a lot going on in the New York Marathon. People wear costumes, and I love hearing about them. Spectators do crazy, fun things like wear bunny ears. Kids pass out water. There are bands all along. Of course there are potholes, hills, and turns to talk about. One thing I didn't know before this week was that the 59th Street Bridge is in plain view well before you start to climb it. So, runners get a disconcerting perspective on the ascent they're about to make. The climb is about two miles, so it's fairly gradual. You feel the climb, but it's more apparent when you're looking at it. I've always been spared this little psychological imposition.

It got very, very crowded in spots, but by and large we were moving pretty freely. The crowd added a little distance to our 26.2 miles, but not as much as in years past.

My finish time? 4:04:10 (my friend is teasing me about a person who does a web site having 404 as a finish time... but you won't get any "page not found errors" here!).

So, what's next? The next big one is Boston, April 17. I had already qualified for it in another marathon, so didn't need to qualify in New York (thank goodness). Training will start in a few weeks. For now, I'm going for pizza with the team.

TV Sportscasters Should Take a Lesson or Two from the Radio Guys...

It's that time of year again when people are talking about apple cider, Halloween and...the World Series.

Yes, that's my favorite topic of the fall season, especially when it involves the New York Yankees. I'm a die-hard Yankees fan and I think they're going to the Series with A-Rod, Giambi, Cano and Mussina on their side. Let's face it, the Red Sox already had their year, the White Sox had a bad late season, and the Angels had their day in the sun earlier this decade.

One really frustrating thing about being an avid sports fan with vision loss is that following games on TV is almost impossible. Back in the "old days," TV sportscasters gave play-by-plays, but now they barely talk about the game, which is pretty maddening when you can't see what's happening on the screen.

The TV guys will be chatting about behind-the-scenes issues or personal information about the players and suddenly they'll throw in...

"Oh what a play!"...

I hear the crowd go wild...

...and I have no idea what's happening on the field...

Once I was listening to a close UConn basketball game on TV and right before they cut to break, they flashed the score across the TV screen (which is obviously not helpful for me) and said something like, "UConn is catching up." Meanwhile, I had no idea what the score was or how far behind they were. For that reason, I avoid watching sports on TV.

A friend of mine who is sighted told me he mutes the TV and listens to sports on the radio because he prefers the commentary. I think I'd do the same if I were him; that's what sports fans want to hear. They want play-by-plays and lively discussion about what's happening on the field. I think the TV guys should take a lesson or two from the radio guys... they know how to talk about a game.

Go Yanks!