Origins of Baseball for the blind & visually impaired

Baseball for the blind and visually impaired is a sport similar to baseball structured in such a way as to allow blind people, through sound systems present on the ball, to be able to play baseball.

Blind and visually impaired players can play baseball for the blind; all, without distinction play with a blindfold. The equipment consists of a normal baseball bat, a baseball ball inside which rattles are inserted to make the blind athletes come and therefore understand the position of the ball, and a very normal baseball glove, used by players to collect the sound ball.

Each game is made up of five or seven innings, depending on the competition, and each inning is divided into an attack and a defense phase. The teams on the field field five blind players and a sighted second baseman, and the two teams alternate within an inning in the attack and defense phases. A team's goal is obviously to score more points than the opposing team.

The players of the offensive team are deployed, in turn, on home plate and produces a valid serve that crosses an imaginary line that goes from second to third base and then runs to conquer the four bases, earning a point at the completion of the entire round. and returning home. The goal of the defense is to block the ball hit by the batter on duty and throw it to second base where there will be a sighted assistant defender who will pick up the ball; if the ball reaches him before the batter-runner has reached the base, assisted by a sighted attacking assistant, he will be eliminated, otherwise he will have conquered the base and will be able to continue in the attack game, towards third base and then home plate, for the conquest of the point.

The first Italian championship for the blind was organized by AIBXC Onlus in collaboration with FIBS in 1997 even if it was played in amateur form since 1994. Since then the championship has included a regular season, an Italian Cup and an end-of-season tournament. . Since 2019, the result of the partnership between AIBXC and FIBS with the first baseball league for the blind and visually impaired (LIBCI).