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<\/a>Wright State film student and baseball fan William Crotty, who has cerebral palsy, inspired the creation of Dayton’s Miracle League baseball field for children and young adults with disabilities.<\/p><\/div>\n
The field, located on the grounds of Springboro Junior High School, opened in September 2009.<\/p>\n
Attending the grand opening were former Cincinnati Reds stars, including George Foster, Tom Browning, Aaron Harang and Sean Casey. (Casey has since built a Miracle Field near his home in Pittsburgh.)\u00a0George Grande and Kim Nuxhall also attended.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grand opening was a day I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d Crotty said. \u201cI threw out the first pitch. Sean was catching, and the other players took the infield positions and threw the ball around the horn. It was just a really cool moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The field enables children and adults with disabilities to play organized baseball on a team.<\/p>\n
Most Miracle Leagues play on custom-designed fields that feature cushioned, rubberized surfaces to help prevent injuries. Flat surfaces (no raised bases or pitching mounds) and no infield dirt eliminate barriers to players in wheelchairs or who are visually impaired.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no restrictions on what they can do because the field is made for them,\u201d Crotty said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great thing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Springboro field also features dugouts, bleachers, a concession stand and even Homer the Mascot.<\/p>\n
As many as 10 teams use the field and play on Saturdays. Each player has a \u201cbuddy,\u201d who helps him or her bat and get around the bases if necessary. The players range in age from 4 through adult. For young kids, there are plastic bats and oversized balls.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Located on the Springboro Junior High School grounds, the Miracle League field features cushioned, rubberized surfaces to eliminate barriers to players in wheelchairs or who are visually impaired.<\/p><\/div>\n
Crotty\u2019s father, Brian, said he first heard about Miracle Fields on an HBO television special. The concept was developed in Conyers, Ga., in 2000. Today, there are more than 200 Miracle League organizations around the world serving more than 200,000 children and young adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to see a group of teams come from Wright State,\u201d Brian Crotty said. \u201cIf you can make good use of the field, you\u2019re more than welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Crotty grew up in the Dayton area, attended Miami Valley School and moved to Hilton Head, S.C., when he was in eighth grade. He came back to Ohio to attend Wright State and is currently a sophomore.<\/p>\n
Crotty says he decided to attend Wright State because it has a great Motion Pictures program<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like other film programs,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re watching a lot of art-house films, independent films. At other schools, you\u2019re not going to learn as much about underground cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n Wright State\u2019s national reputation for accessibility was the other reason Crotty came to the university.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is probably no other school in the country that has as much accessibility as Wright State \u2014 from the tunnels that ease mobility in bad weather to assistance with meals in the cafeterias,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s in the game together.\u201d<\/p>\n Crotty\u2019s father would frequently take his son to the movies when Crotty was a boy, and he became interested in how they were made. Today, Crotty says, he actually enjoys DVD special features more than the movies themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cToy Story\u201d \u2014 a 1995 computer-animated, buddy-comedy adventure film released by Walt Disney Pictures \u2014 has Crotty\u2019s vote as the best movie of all time. It was the first film he saw in the theater and moved him in way he finds hard to describe.<\/p>\n William Crotty was attracted to Wright State because of the university’s motion pictures program and its accessible campus.<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cIt triggers an emotional feeling that no other movie does,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is technologically groundbreaking; it\u2019s clever in its writing.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2008, Crotty began writing movie reviews, analyzing the acting, writing and technical aspects of films.<\/p>\n \u201cI started posting them on Facebook and got a really nice response, which I wasn\u2019t expecting and was really cool,\u201d he said. \u201cI have over 100 reviews on there.\u201d<\/p>\n Crotty\u2019s career goal is to combine his love of movies with that of baseball.<\/p>\n He said he has noticed that radio and television interviews of both baseball players and movie stars often involve the same tired questions that result in the same predictable answers. Crotty wants to switch that up.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dream job is to do a show where I interview movie stars about baseball and baseball stars about movies,\u201d he said. “For example, asking Tom Hanks about his favorite baseball memories and Joey Votto about his favorite movies.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wright State motion pictures student William Crotty inspired the creation of Dayton’s Miracle League baseball field for children and young adults with disabilities. Continue reading ![\"William](\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2015\/06\/william-crotty-15702-001-508x338.jpg\")
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