Doug McBrierty grew up on Cape Cod, a die-hard Red Sox fan. So when he returned from the Iraq war with a traumatic brain injury, it was a given that baseball would be part of his recovery, thanks to the Wounded Warrior Project.
Five years ago, the nonprofit gave McBrierty a $3,500 scholarship to attend the Red Sox fantasy camp in Fort Meyers, Florida. Even though he hadn’t played catch in twenty years, McBrierty felt welcome at the camp staffed with former Red Sox players.
“Ability didn’t matter,” McBrierty told Mary E. O’Leary of the New Haven Register. “They greet you with open arms. It’s like a family reunion every year,” he said. McBrierty, who is now a firefighter, struck up a friendship with Gary Allenson, a former Red Sox catcher who currently manages the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, a minor league baseball team.
Today, McBrierty attends the camp every year to help other wounded veterans play ball. “There are a lot of people there with disabilities, but they take the time to teach them,” McBrierty said. Rico Petrocelli, a former Red Sox shortstop and third baseman who helps at the camp, recalls a veteran who’d lost an arm in combat and learned to hit again, and another vet who walked with a cane, but “made a diving catch in right field.”
Now McBrierty, Petrocelli and others are working to raise money to send more veterans to baseball camp. Many former Red Sox pitched in autographed items for a silent auction that was held a couple of weeks ago in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Wounded Warrior Project funds a variety of adaptive sports experiences for injured veterans — from skiing to skydiving to scuba diving.
For those veterans who grew up dreaming of being on the baseball diamond, the chance to join the boys of summer at a fantasy camp can’t be beat.
MORE: This Amazing Nonprofit Helps Injured Vets Rebuild Their Lives
Tag: baseball
The Nation’s Pastime Motivated This Disabled Teenager to Walk Again
A stiff-brimmed baseball cap. A bag of uncracked peanuts. A field of spring-green grass. Baseball’s opening day always brings a sense of renewed possibility to players and fans alike, even when the chances of winning a championship are stacked against them.
Sixteen-year-old high school baseball player Diego Alvarado has faced longer odds than most. Diagnosed with epilepsy as a baby, doctors finally managed to treat his seizures effectively by the time he was three, but his illness caused him to be developmentally delayed. Then when he was in middle school, aggressive leukemia struck. Doctors treated him with chemotherapy that badly damaged his joints. Alvarado ended up in a wheelchair and underwent two hip replacement surgeries.
Diego’s father, Colorado State Trooper Ivan Alvarado, told Neil H. Devlin of the Denver Post that he noticed Ivan was laying around the house, “being lazy like a teenager…but he had no quality of life.” He and the doctors decided to discontinue Diego’s chemotherapy, because as Ivan explained to Devlin, “We were faced with the decision of quality of life vs. quantity of life.”
They made the right decision: When the chemo ended, Diego transitioned from the wheelchair to a walker, and then told his P.E. teacher he was ready to go out for the Bennett High baseball team.
Coach Joe Stemo welcomed Diego on the team — Ivan didn’t even know his son had talked his way onto the Tigers’ roster. With two games under his belt, Diego has made contact with the ball, walked a few times and scored a run. Teammate Jonathan Cretti told Devlin, “It’s crazy how far he has come. He couldn’t even stand up in P.E. Now he’s playing baseball. And he’s always working his hardest. It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve seen.”
For the Alvarados, who immigrated to Colorado from Guatemala, Diego’s progress is just the thing that (ballpark) dreams are made of.
MORE: This Dad Went to Heroic Lengths to Help His Disabled Sons Finish College
Can Playing an App Enable You to See Better?
To say that your eyes are weary after spending hours battling against the chocolate blocks in Candy Crush Saga is the understatement of the century. But just because squinting at your smartphone’s screen makes your vision feel strained doesn’t mean that all apps are bad for your eyes. In fact, an interactive gaming app developed by University of California, Riverside researchers actually improves your vision.
The app, which is called ULTIMEYES, improves the brain’s ability to process information that it receives from the eyes. To play the app, users are required to complete tasks such as clicking on hard-to-see targets. The more successful you are, the more points you earn. After using it, test subjects walked away with an improved ability to see in dim light and a sharper vision. Researchers used the improved stats to draw the conclusion that this type of technology could improve the quality of life for people with reduced vision as they complete everyday tasks like reading, driving, and watching television.
ULTIMEYES was tested on collegiate baseball players from the University of California who used the technology to better read pitches and improve their ERAs (earned run averages). According to the research recently published in the journal Current Biology, baseball players that used the app for 30 25-minute sessions registered a 31 percent increase in eyesight.
Perhaps players should sing to themselves, “I can see clearly now…”
Check out the video below to learn more:
Get Your Tissues Ready: A Video Mashup Of Good Deeds From Strangers
In honor of World Kindness Day, this video offers a heartwarming compilation of random acts of kindness from strangers that’s aimed at inspiring viewers to pay it forward. From random handouts of cash to a young kid giving another boy a baseball he caught at a game, these small deeds are sure to add a little joy to your day. Just be sure to watch out for any chopped onions that might be lurking nearby.