Many people are biding their time with hope that the COVID-19 disruption will soon pass, and things will get back to normal. For players of Trumbull County Adaptive Baseball Inc., there will be no normal this year: the league has canceled its 2020 season.
“Heartbreaking, but unfortunately very necessary,” league president Judy Radachy of Masury said of the decision announced March 26. “It’s just not something safe for our kids.”
The league is for children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities. They play at Brookfield Township Community Park on the only handicapped accessible field in Trumbull County.
promoLast year, about 60 players on six teams took the field, Radachy said. This is the first year since the league formed under the Little League’s Challenger Baseball program in 2003 that it hasn’t played.
Adaptive Baseball was formed as a separate entity in 2015.
In deciding to cancel the season, organizers had considered government estimates as to when the pandemic would peak in Ohio; the fragile health of many players and family members, many of whom take the field with their children under the league’s very loose rules; and the nature of the players.
“They’re huggers,” Radachy said. “These are people who don’t understand social distancing. It’s very hard for them.”
When Radachy contacted sponsors to return their money, five said the league could keep it.
“I can’t express how grateful we are,” she said of the sponsors.
Should the pandemic and government restrictions pass in time this summer, Radachy said the league will have some sort of gathering so the players can at least see each other once.
And, next year, presuming normalcy returns, play will resume.
“We are not going anywhere,” Radachy said. “We’re just saying, not this year.”