MONROE — The sun shone brightly overhead, the kids on the ballfield waited for the play, and parents watched from the sidelines.
Then came the pitch, a slow lob toward home plate. The batter swung and connected, and the ball hit the ground and rolled through the infield.
The kid playing second base couldn’t stop it; the ball rolled under his wheelchair.
Saturday was the final day of the season for the Miracle League, a Monroe YMCA project that organizes baseball games for kids with special needs.
About 60 kids took part in the program this year, its largest since the league was started by the Monroe Rotary Club. Rotary Field was built for the Miracle League in 2009 at a cost of about $1 million, said Patsy Cudaback, the branch executive of the Monroe/Sky Valley YMCA.
The games are open to any kid who shows up, Cudaback said.
“We never refuse anyone. Every kid gets a uniform,” she said.
The kids are buddied up with volunteers from the YMCA — their disabilities range from mild to profound, physical and developmental.
The volunteers help the kids through the game, and also allow the parents to sit back, relax and enjoy being a spectator.
The rules are a bit stripped down, said Jody Rose, the special-needs coordinator for the YMCA: “Everyone hits, no one gets out, everyone scores,” Rose said.
And everyone gets a trophy at the end of the game.
Curtis Reynolds came up from Brier with his 7-year-old daughter, Grace.
The Reynoldses had Grace enrolled in bowling and basketball programs, and wanted to get her into a more social environment, he said.
“That’s where we see the most change, to get her into a social environment where she doesn’t feel as different,” he said.
Diane Nelson of Snohomish, sought out the same kind of social exposure for her son Thor, 9, who was in his first year of playing group sports.
“It’s not so odd if he runs off and wants to do something else,” Nelson said, as Thor ran from third base to home.
The first game of the day was reserved for the youngest kids, or for those with more pronounced disabilities.
One young woman playing alongside them was in it just for the fun of it, however: Kayla Wheeler, 18, a Paralympic swimmer who holds several dozen national and world records and who plans to compete in the Parapan American Games in Toronto in August.
Wheeler, who was born without legs and just one functional arm, said she had to attend a cousin’s dance recital later in the day and therefore couldn’t play along with the teenagers.
“The kids are so cute!” she said. Then she left her wheelchair to pick up the bat.
She took a bit of ribbing, however, and when the a coach pitched two balls at her at once, she shot him a look, as if to say “Really?”
She hit the next pitch and pulled herself to first base with her left arm.
“She’d play all three games if I’d let her,” said Joyce Wheeler, Kayla’s mother, watching behind the backstop.
The Wheelers have been involved in the Miracle League since before it was founded, helping to raise the money necessary to build the park.
Kayla Wheeler thinks she was about seven years old when she first got involved with YMCA programs. She just finished her freshman year at the University of Washington, and plans to become a disability-rights attorney.
But Saturday was a day for play in a program she grew up in.
Nodding toward the adults as well as the kids, Joyce Wheeler said, “She’s developed relationships with all of them.”
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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