Beep: Inside the Unseen World of Baseball for the Blind

2017 | Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences

In Beep, David Wanczyk illuminates the sport of blind baseball to show us a remarkable version of America's pastime. With balls tricked out to beep three times per second like a troubling EKG and with bases that buzz, beep baseball is both innovative and intensely competitive. And when the best beep baseball team in America, the Austin Blackhawks, takes on its international rival, Taiwan Homerun, no one's thinking about disability. What we find are athletes playing their hearts out for a championship. Wanczyk follows teams around the world and even joins them on the field to produce a riveting inside narrative about the game and its players. Can Austin's Lupe Perez overcome his temper and lead his team to victory? Can Ethan Johnston, kidnapped and intentionally blinded as a child in Ethiopia, find a new home in beep baseball? Will Taiwan's MVP Ching-kai Chen-"the looker" who is suspected of having better vision than he claims-keep up his incredible play as he fights legal troubles at home? Do players come to terms with their blindness through the game, or does it inflame their close-to-the-surface frustration about their disability? Beep is the first book about blind baseball.

David Wanczyk (Author)