TEMPLE TERRACE \u2014 Players can expect a smoother season this spring when Buddy Baseball kicks off its 18th year.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 5, the Buddy Baseball community gathered for a dedication ceremony, marking the unveiling of a state-of-the-art synthetic turf field designed to create new, and better, opportunities for athletes with mobility challenges.<\/p>\n
Buddy Baseball is a league for players ages 5-22 with special needs. They are assisted by their volunteer buddies, who help them get around the bases and play the field.<\/p>\n
Organizers of the ceremony paid tribute to Russ Oberbroeckling, who founded the Temple Terrace Buddy Baseball league in 2009, and Dennis Mueller, who runs A League Of Their Own, which picks up players who age out of Buddy Baseball.<\/p>\n
Oberbroeckling thanked Temple Terrace Leisure Services Director Karl Langefeld for the idea to build the first turf field in 2019 and praised the team effort it took to get the second field completed.<\/p>\n
The Hillsborough County School Board owns the land, which is right behind Lewis Elementary, where the fields are but agreed to approve Temple Terrace\u2019s plans to convert the two baseball fields into artificial turf.<\/p>\n
The new field\u2019s costs, roughly $660,000, were shared by Temple Terrace and Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n
Temple Terrace Mayor Andy Ross applauded the synergy it took to get the fields done.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these people work together really kind of seamlessly to make stuff like this happen,\u201d Ross said. \u201cAnd this doesn’t happen everywhere, folks. \u2026 So really, this is a very special and unique place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, a longtime proponent of sports facilities, helped secure the funds to make the field a reality. He said years ago, a friend encouraged him to check the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018It’s in your district, being a Parks and Rec and a sports guy, I think you’ll like it,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSo, a couple of weekends later, I popped in unannounced, and I was incredibly moved. I was blown away by the joy and excitement of the athletes, of the buddies and really everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new field is named Ken Hagan Field.<\/p>\n
It will provide several benefits to the league, which has provided opportunities for thousands of players from all over Tampa Bay for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n
It will provide a second safe playing surface, which will allow for more teams and players to take part. And the smooth surface is preferable to dirt and grass \u2014 whose condition is dependent on the most recent weather \u2014 considering some of the players compete in wheelchairs and other devices that help them get around.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a very special moment,\u201d Oberbroeckling said. \u201cThe kids with wheelchairs or walkers can play on any turf field. It’s a big game changer for us. I can’t believe it. We’re so grateful to the city’s partnership and support, and we look forward to another great season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEMPLE TERRACE \u2014 Players can expect a smoother season this spring when Buddy Baseball kicks off its 18th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[58260,28,276,58261,110,135,137,136,8609,58262],"class_list":{"0":"post-115271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-buddy-baseball","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-hillsborough-county","11":"tag-russ-oberbroeckling","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-headlines","15":"tag-tampa-news","16":"tag-temple-terrace","17":"tag-temple-terrace-leisure-services"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}