{"id":4269,"date":"2007-07-24T09:55:12","date_gmt":"2007-07-24T13:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/v3\/?p=4269"},"modified":"2008-09-19T10:02:09","modified_gmt":"2008-09-19T14:02:09","slug":"kids-with-accessories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/?p=4269","title":{"rendered":"Kids with accessories!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n
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State Senator John Eichelberger called the Miracle League Field a \u201cvery special place that provides children with an opportunity to work at something on a team level.\u201d Eichelberger lauded the Altoona Kiwanis for undertaking the project and \u201cbeing one of the first 100 communities in the nation to step up.\u201d Senator Eichelberger is shown with Pirate player 7-year-old Dasha Kirby of Summerhill and her 11-year-old player-buddy Samantha Stalter of Altoona. Saturday\\’s game was the first ever game played by Dasha.<\/td>\nJay Fry, 12, of Williamsburg, met up with his friend and fellow ball player Adam Chesney, 15, of Altoona at the Blair County Miracle League\\’s opening day. Although the boys played on opposing teams, their friendship remained in tact! Everyone wins in the Miracle League!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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The teams lined up for the traditional “Good Game” handslap at the conclusion of the Miracle League’s first game. Games are played Saturday mornings at the Miracle League Field, located at Ellenberger Drive and California Avenue. The league is accepting new players. For more information or to volunteer, check out link at Welcome to the Miracle League Of Blair County.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Did you hear the news \u2013 27 kids played baseball Saturday morning, July 21, on Blair County\u2019s newest baseball field.
\nThere were umpires, coaches, players, and cheering parents. So what, you might ask \u2013 kids play baseball all the time.
\nYes, but in this game, besides having 27-players, there were 27-player-helpers who guided the players in everything from fielding to batting to \u201crunning\u201d the bases. The coaches cheer everyone; umpires help stabilize a walker or give a start-off push to a wheelchair; and the play-by-play announcer is never critical of a batter\u2019s efforts. This also is one league where the parents don\u2019t badmouth an umpire\u2019s call or a coach\u2019s choice of batters.
\nThe Blair County Miracle League began their inaugural game with a ribbon cutting ceremony, a few speeches, happy tears from overjoyed parents, and miles and miles of smiles from kids who up until Saturday\u2019s game, never had the thrill of playing baseball. Lauren Gunder, the teenager who has appeared in many Miracle League Association national news stories said during the ribbon cutting that watching the Miracle League get started in Blair County would be miraculous.
\n\u201cIt will be amazing to see how this field and these games affect not only the players, but their parents and other adults too,\u201d Gunder said from her wheelchair. \u201cWe\u2019re no different than others who play baseball . . . we\u2019re just kids with accessories!\u201d
\nDiane Alford, Executive Director of the Miracle League Association, located in Conyers, GA, said the Altoona field is the 76th field to be completed. \u201cThere are a total of 100 under construction,\u201d Ms. Alford said.\u201cHowever, with 6.1 million American children with disabilities, this is only the beginning.\u201d
\nJoe Reed, President of the Miracle League of Blair County threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the season, following the playing of the national anthem. The home team for the day was the Pirates with the Orioles sitting as visitors. From the Orioles\u2019 team, Maggie Weyandt, age 7, of Williamsburg was the first batter and coincidentally scored the Miracle League\u2019s first run. In the second inning, the Orioles Becky Frew of Newry stole the first base in the league\u2019s history!
\nThere was a solid offensive effort put forth by the home team, The Pirates. Player-Coach (and Miracle League Board of Directors member) Dan Burkhart was proud of his team for coming back to tie the game. \u201cWe played great!\u201d Burkhart beamed. \u201cBeing down by 13 runs at the middle of the third inning looked hopeless. Our guys and girls managed to catch the Orioles by the end of the game.\u201d
\nAfter the game, exhausted League President Reed could not have been more pleased. \u201cToday was awesome!\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone had a job to do and they did \u2013 I can\u2019t believe the number of smiles there were on that field, today. This was an all volunteer effort and it was just awesome.\u201d
\nThe Pirates and the Orioles play again Saturday at the Miracle League Field, located at Ellenberger Drive and California Avenue. The league is accepting new players. For more information or to volunteer, check out link at Welcome to the Miracle League Of Blair County.
\nOh, by the way, the final score of the three-inning game was 37 to 37. The teams each celebrated their victories \u2013 but only after the traditional \u201cGood Game\u201d hand-slap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Senator John Eichelberger called the Miracle League Field a \u201cvery special place that provides children with an opportunity to work at something on a team level.\u201d Eichelberger lauded the Altoona Kiwanis for undertaking the project and \u201cbeing one of the first 100 communities in the nation to step up.\u201d Senator Eichelberger is shown with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}