Baseball for the Blind

According to a report on the official site of the International Baseball Federation, baseball is a fast growing sport for visually impaired players in several countries.

The way the game is played varies from country to country: “In Italy, Cuba and Hungary, they use a drilled baseball containing sleighbells. In Chinese Taipei and the USA, they prefer an oversized ball with an implanted electronic beeper. The Japanese play with an air-filled ball with no sounding device at all.”

The beep baseball used in the United States was invented by Charles Fairbanks in 1964. The National Beep Baseball Association was formed a dozen years later, and now there are over 200 teams competing in the sport.

The Wikipedia entry for beep baseball provides a summary of how the game is played.