Beep Ball World Series Being Held In Eau Claire

Athletes from around the world are in Eau Claire this week competing in the Beep Ball World Series. It’s a take on baseball for the blind featuring beeping balls, buzzing bases and a close knit family of players.

There are 22 teams competing at the 2018 Beep Ball World Series. They hail from across the United States, Canada and from as far away as Taiwan. The game is baseball to its core, though with a number of tweaks for the blind players.

The first difference is the ball. It’s the size of a softball with a built-in speaker that emits a constant series of beeps. Also, there are only two bases and instead of the traditional white bag these bases are four-foot-tall foam cylinders, also with speakers, that emit a constant buzzing sound that runners home in on.

Kevin Miller of Austin, Texas, has been a batting coach and Beep Ball umpire for 30 years. He said pitching, hitting and fielding are also a little different than in baseball.

“Your pitcher is on your team. You pitch to your own people,” said Miller. “I can strike out a blind person all day long. The skill is being able to get them to hit the ball.”

Miller said timing and consistency is key to getting hits.

“So it’s set, ready, ball, bang,” said Miller. “And they teach them to swing in the same place all the time, try to get an upper cut because a ball in the air is hard to catch and it takes a lot of timing and work, a lot of pitched balls and a lot of swinging to get to where they have that timing down right.”

In the field there are six players and two sighted spotters. When a ball is hit the spotters are only allowed to shout a number, which corresponds to a segment of the infield or outfield. The way they shout that number, the pitch and the cadence give players more information to help them home in on the beeping ball.

The game gives players a sense of family, said Miller, and the World Series is like a family reunion. He said the athletes play very hard and take the game seriously because it gives them a chance to participate in America’s Pastime despite their blindness.

“I’ve been working with them for 30 years and you see a blind person when he’s off the field, he’s got his cane, he’s walking heel toe, he’s very aware of where he’s going but it looks not quite natural and when they walk onto the field you can’t tell them from any other athlete,” said Miller. “They’re in their element, they know exactly where they are and they get to play a game with a team that they would never be able to play any other way.“

Joey Cabral started playing Beep Ball four years ago and is now the team captain for the Tornoto Blind Jays. He said his blindness kept him from being able to play many sports as a kid. Cabral said Beep Ball makes him feel like just another athlete.

“It’s all a big family, it’s camaraderie and it just gets us out here to play and be free, like be free on the field and be able to run like any other people would play baseball where there’s no limitations. You know what I mean?” said Cabral.

Visit Eau Claire, the city’s tourism organization, won the bid to host the Beep Ball World Series in 2015. It’s estimated that the tournament will have a $406,000 impact on the city.