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Thursday, September 2, 2010   89º

05/02/2010 04:37 PM

Miracle League season kicks off

By: Elaina Athans

A special-type of baseball game was held in Montgomery Sunday that drew in the crowds. Our Elaina Athans shows us why.

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MONTGOMERY, N.Y. -- Special needs children batted up and stood alongside a volunteer to play a little baseball.


"I came out to watch something of a miracle. I think it’s very wonderful that they have something like this," said Irene Moore, a Miracle League player's grandmother.

It's called the Miracle League Team and its activity some parents in the crowd never thought they'd see.

"It's a lot of fun. It's the first time that we're really doing something like this together. I'm just having a ball," said David Short.

"The idea was just that let kids with disabilities and their families enjoy the same things that families who go watch their kids watch t-ball or baseball get to enjoy," said Beautiful People Founder Peter Ladka.

Some of the children don't have the ability to speak, but they certainly knew how to play and then there's 16-year-old Daniel Fratto, who relies on an oxygen tank to live out each day and who couldn't physically get in on the action, but he found another role to play, announcer.

The Miracle League started in 2006. Then there were just 25 players and now about 80 kids participate in the league.

"The name of the organization is beautiful people," said Ladka. "The heart of that message is to say we just want to let these families know we just think them and their children are beautiful people and we want them to be a part of our lives and we want to be a part of their lives."


Family members like Angelina Donoghue will be able to root on her brother from the sidelines until June, when the league ends.

"I watch him and I clap for him," said Donaghue. "I like when he hits the ball."