Other firsts in baseball/Event 3
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| Spread project: Home -> Other firsts -> Other firsts in baseball/Event 3 |
| Year | 1964 |
|---|---|
| Country | US |
| Description | First Games Played by Unsighted Players |
"But then, in 1964, an apparent solution to the frustration of not being able to play baseball because of being blind was discovered. Charley Fairbanks, an engineer with Mountain Bell Telephone, presented the blind community with a momentous gift, the first beep baseball. He implanted a small beeping sound module inside a normal sized softball. Some basic playing rules were devised by a group of service oriented telephone employees who have a nationwide organization known as the Telephone Pioneers of America. The Pioneers also devised a set of knee- high, cone shaped, rubber bases that contained electrically powered sounding units that emitted a high pitched whistle. That laid the foundation for the initial experimentations with beep baseball.
Various schools for the blind introduced this newest form the baseball for the unsighted."
Website of the National Beep-Ball Association, accessed 3/8/2010.
