It felt like winter would last forever, but it’s spring. Finally, some warmer temperatures, sunshine — and baseball.
This past weekend at Fenway Park, fans didn’t just see the game, but they heard it. For the first time, Beep Baseball came to the iconic ballpark — an adaptive version of the game designed for athletes who are blind or have low vision. Players follow the sounds of beeping balls and bases, turning the game into a fully immersive audio experience and opening up the sport so it’s accessible to all.
On Sunday, the Boston Renegades and Boston Strong took to the famed field, bringing not just competition, but years of dedication, community, and most importantly, joy. Joe Quintanilla, Boston Strong head coach and player, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath for this week’s Joy Beat. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation, which was held two days before the game was played.
Arun Rath: Congratulations on getting the first game of Beep Baseball into Fenway Park! Before we talk about the logistics of the game, tell us what this opportunity means for you and your teammates. It must just feel amazing.
Joe Quintanilla: It is amazing. We are really thrilled to have the opportunity to step on the field and the grass that our childhood heroes played on.
I know — speaking for myself and some of our team members — when we were little, we aspired or hoped that someday, we would be baseball players for the Boston Red Sox. Unfortunately, with our vision impairments, we weren’t able to even play Little League, so having the opportunity, through Beep Baseball, [to] hit a ball that’s actually being pitched to us and run full speed to a buzzing base at the famed Fenway Park is really exciting.
We’re looking to have great memories and a great experience, but also to showcase to all the spectators and other blind people that sports could be a part of their life, or for parents [to show] what their kids would be able to do in the future, showcasing the game, the athleticism and the competitiveness, as well as the camaraderie, fun and inclusiveness of this.
We’re really excited, and we’re really thankful to the Red Sox, Fenway Sports Management and the SAND [Sensory, Ambulatory, and Neuro Diversity] Network, the group of employees who helped bring this game and access to people with disabilities to Fenway Park.
Rath: When I first heard about Beep Baseball, I wasn’t sure how it would work. I’ve seen the videos, and it is, like you said, very athletic. It’s full-on baseball, and it’s really cool to watch. Tell people, though, who may not have had a chance to see it or experience it, how the mechanics of the game work.
Quintanilla: Yeah. So, unlike in baseball, the pitcher and catcher are on the hitting-team side, so they’re throwing a one-pound softball with a beeper in it to the batter, and they’re trying to throw it so the batter can hit it. Because vision impairment is a wide spectrum, everyone wears a blindfold so that we’re on the same level playing field.
When we make contact with the ball and put it in play — and the ball has to travel 40 feet to be fair — we will run to either first base or third base, whichever is buzzing, which is random. The base is 100 feet away; it’s about a four-foot pylon with a totally different sound than the ball. It’s a buzzing sound.
When you get to the base and touch it, tackle it, clothesline it, before the fielders pick up the ball, it’s a run. If the fielders pick it up before you get to the base, it’s an out. We don’t circle the diamond to score.
Just like the fielders [who] don’t know where the ball is going to be hit, the base runner batter does not know which base they’re going to run to. So, as soon as that bat hits the ball, a base operator will trigger either first or third base to turn on, and that’s the base that we’re running to.
Rath: I know that, in the community, there’s some resistance to the stereotype that, say, being blind or vision-impaired gives you super senses in other ways. But I have to say, while watching it, it looks kind of superhuman. It’s really amazing.
Quintanilla: I like to say — you know, you hear about sports that it’s all hand-to-eye coordination. I like to say this is hand-to-ear coordination. For our team — Boston Strong, with Adaptive Sports New England — I had shirts made, and on the back, it says “Listen up,” because it’s about hearing and reacting. While we don’t have supersenses because we’re blind, we do learn to use our other senses and rely on them more than a sighted person would.
For us, it is much easier to move to a sound because we’re used to it. Because we train ourselves to be able to do it. But not everyone who’s blind or visually impaired naturally gravitates to that.
We had a couple of players who, in their first year, never experienced sports in this way before. They were uncomfortable and afraid to get to the base. [At] the first practice, they weren’t able to run to the base. But by the end of the season, they were able to get there in under seven seconds.
It’s a lot of fun, and yeah, sometimes there is a little bit of fear factor, but we hope that through this sport, youth and adults will learn to overcome any fear, push themselves and overcome any perceived obstacles. The only limitations that you know truly exist are what you place on yourself or what you let other people place on you.
Rath: Talk a bit about Beep Baseball, particularly here in Boston, and what it means for community building here.
Quintanilla: In 2001, the Boston Renegades team was formed. I was one of the original members of that team. In 2022, I decided that I wanted to start a new program and include youth. I think it’s important for kids to be involved in our program and have a weekly activity to attend. I think it’s really important for teams or organizations that are for the blind to be led by the blind. We have a completely different way of understanding what is being experienced.
You know, some thought that when I started this team, there weren’t going to be enough people in Massachusetts to play Beep Baseball. We had 21 people on our program last year; the Renegades have a roster of about 18 or 20 people. So, who knows? Maybe two teams are not going to be enough for Boston, because it’s such a great city that loves sports, loves baseball, and it only makes sense that the blind community would want to be a part of that.
Baseball is a passion for people who are blind or visually impaired, and now we have two teams that are allowing kids from eight years old to guys in their 60s to play the sport.
Rath: You’ve got people from a diverse range of backgrounds and ages playing. Tell us a bit about some of those moments of joy you’ve seen with them on the field.
Quintanilla: Yeah. I have a totally different experience now than I did, maybe, 10 years ago, when I was more of just a player and a captain on the Renegades. Now, I’m a coach, so I think the joy that I get as a coach is… we have a young man, Matthew, who is 16 years old. He made the World Series All-Star team last year. His younger brother started experiencing vision problems as well, and his mom came to me two years ago and said, “My son, Finn, is starting to have vision impairment as well. Can I bring him to practice?” And I said, “Absolutely.”
I talked to Jodi, their mom, a couple of days later, and she said, “For my husband and I, it’s a worry to have one visually impaired son. But now, to have two… You know, it’s just additional things to worry about — how we’re going to be able to help them get through school and life — but the only thing that Finn kept talking about that whole weekend was how excited he was to be on Matthew’s team and play baseball. That gave us a light. This is good.”
If you’d like to make a nomination for the Joy Beat, leave us a voicemail at (617)-300-BEAT [2328].
