Lauren Gunder, 14, is glad to be back on the baseball field. Every new season brings fresh goals and challenges. But Lauren must overcome obstacles that most young athletes will never face. She has a disease that makes her bones so brittle that they break easily. She is also almost blind. She uses a wheelchair to get around.
Lauren, who lives near Atlanta, Georgia, once feared she would have to stay on the sidelines. "I wanted to be a part of a team, but I couldn't because I would get hurt," she told TFK.
These days, Lauren hits the field each spring and fall with the Miracle League (ML), a baseball league for disabled kids. They are paired up with able-bodied buddies who help them hit the ball and run the bases.
In 1998, a youth baseball association in Conyers, Georgia, formed the league. It started with 35 players on four teams. Today, about 10,000 kids play on ML teams in at least 30 states. Over the next 10 years, the ML hopes to build 500 specially designed fields cushioned by a rubber coating.
In 2003, the Chicago White Sox became the first Major League Baseball team to sponsor the ML. The ball club has already built two playing fields in Illinois. Next month, a third Sox-sponsored project, a $1 million four-field complex, will welcome players with disabilities.
The ML has attracted more Major League fans. The Texas Rangers and the Minnesota Twins have recently offered to help build fields in their communities. White Sox second baseman Willie Harris hopes that more teams and players will get involved. "It was fun for me to see how athletic those kids were in wheelchairs," Harris told TFK. "I tried doing it, and I couldn't. They're more athletic than we are."