Beep baseball is a sport for blind or visually impaired athletes. Seventeen teams from the United States and Taiwan are competing in the World Series this week. Two teams are from Indianapolis. The World Series is being held in Indianapolis and began on Tuesday, August 2. The championship game is Saturday, August 6, 2011.
Beep baseball is similar to traditional baseball but has many differences. Batters hit a ball, fielders field a beeping ball and batters run to a sounding base. Once a ball is hit, one of the bases will sound and the runner tries to beat the defense to the base. Batters don’t know which base will sound until after they have hit the ball. A major difference between beep baseball and traditional baseball is that if a runner is safe after a hit, the runner scores. There’s no “running the bases” like traditional baseball. Here’s some other rules of the game:
- 6 innings
- 3 outs per inning
- 6 players on the field at once
- there’s no second base, only first and third bases
- bases are 4 foot padded cylinders
- batters are allowed 4 strikes and 1 passed ball
- teams have sighted pitchers and catchers
- pitchers say the words “ready” and “pitch” before and after they pitch the ball
- a hit ball must travel at least 40 feet to be consider fair
- a hit ball that travels 180 feet in the air is considered an automatic homerun
Spectators of the sport witness blind athletes with determination, teamwork and competition. You can check out videos of the sport here.