What is Baseball "Beep Baseball" that you can enjoy even the visually impaired?

It is thought that children with visual impairment and hearing impairment can play without play "Beep Baseball (Beep Baseball)"is. After that, Beep Baseball became a sport that can be enjoyed regardless of age and sex, and now it is said that there are a wide range of players from 12 to 70 years old.

Sound and Fury: Inside the Low-Tech Ballpark of Beep Baseball
http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/sports/a19761/beep-baseball/


What kind of sports it is, a movie that understands briefly is kore.

"A Sight to See: Beep Baseball" by Adam Winkler on 10/31/12 - YouTube


The degree of visual impairment among participating people is varied, ranging from amblyoped people to blind people who do not feel light.


It is only as "Beep" and it got a mechanism from which the sound comes out from the ball.


Depending on this sound, we will explore the direction of the ball and protect it.


When watching a movie, the batter swings exactly like ordinary baseball.


However, the batter is eye masked, so the ball is not visible. It depends on the sound emitted by the ball.


This man is Kevin Sibson who founded Austin · Black Hawks in 1986.


Defense is slightly different from ordinary baseball, six fielder.


The base is also quite different ... ...


Design like a column about 1 m from the foundation stands. It is made of material with cushioning property, and it is emitting sound from the inside to inform the runner of the place.


The field looks like this, the mound is 20 feet from the home base (about 6 m) and the usual baseball is 60.5 feet (about 18.4 m) so the distance is nearly one third. A foul line is drawn at 40 feet (about 12 m), one base on the base at 100 feet (about 30.5 m). There are six fielder in defense and two other people called spotter stand there. Pitchers · catchers · batters are taken out of the same team, and pitchers · catchers · spotters are served by people without vision problems.


After hitting the ball, the batter runs to either first base or third base. If a batter touches the base before the fielder picks up the ball, one point will enter the attacking side. When the hit ball flies out of the left or right base line or does not cross the 40-foot foul line, strike judgment. It will be out with 4 strikes. Even if the fielder picks up the ball before reaching the base of the batter. If the ball gets caught in the air before hitting the ground, base, etc., the inning is over and the defensive change.

Also, if the ball goes far 170 feet (about 51.8 m) or so, it is a home run. When the ball stops producing sound, or when the ball hit the pitcher, "
As ball dead ", reset the number of strikes and try the batting again.

The outfield is divided into areas by "6" in the center, numbers from 5 to 1 are mirrored on the left and right from there, respectively. The spotter can speak only about the events in this numerically divided area. Also, although two people are placed, it is not good for two people to spoil the same play, and if there is a violation, the attack side will score. The spotter is also the person who checks whether the collision of the player occurs or not.

The Beep Baseball game is generally done in 6 innings, and the same extension type rule applies as Major League rule. As an unusual rule, there is what is called "Twelve-run", and if one team took more than 12 points, it means that a team losing team will be in charge of attack for a long time.

Many teams are participating in the league and the "World Series" is also held, which is released to YouTube from what is quite old.

For example this is the 1980 World Series. It was held at Arlington Stadium, home of the Texas Rangers.

1980 Beep Baseball World Series Championship Game - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

This is the world series of 2015.

2015 Beep Baseball Championship Game One - YouTube


By the way, in Japan, the oldest disabled sports competition in the country "Grand Softball"there is. In the sports that there was a record that the students at the school for blind school (special support school) were playing in 1933, once in the high school of special support schools across the country, there was almost the grand softball section is.

As a Grand Softball tournamentAll Japan Grand Softball FederationThe "All Japan Grand Softball Championship Tournament" sponsored by the Organizer has been held since 2001.

However, the nationwide blind school baseball tournament which can be said as "Koshien" of Grand Softball has decided to abolish, as the number of athletes can not be secured due to the weak popularity of baseball and the declining birthrate, and there are also financial difficulties.

The blind baseball, the survival pinch "Koshien" is abolished this summer: Asahi Shimbun Digital
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASJ146RDYJ14UTIL02Q.html

The 31st National Blind School Baseball Tournament to be the last tournament The Hokkaido Competition will be held from 23th (Tue) to 25th (Thursday) from 2016 to the 25th (Tuesday) August 20th, at the Hamanasu National Memorial Ishikari Sports Square softball field.

National Blind School Baseball Tournament Grand Softball | The 31st Hokkaido Tournament
http://grand-softball.com/