Special Needs Accommodations for Children with running or walking difficulties
If your child has special needs, our league welcomes your child to participate in our baseball program.  Because of conditions such as muscular dystrophy, some children have difficulty walking or running. 

It is our policy to make appropriate accommodations to allow these children to safely participate in our baseball program.  Neil Bonner has developed these guidelines to allow all children to play baseball. The diagram below illustrates how a special needs child may bat, and have a teammate act as a "pinch runner" for him.

If the pinch runner reaches first base safely for the batter, the batter may take the "pinch runners" place on the bases at any time (typically at 3rd or 1st base).

Guidelines

1. The adult coach should hold the pinch runner by the shoulders. Place a hand on each shoulder to restrain the pinch runner from running before the ball is struck or before the area around home plate is clear. The pinch runner should be in a direct line down the base path as indicated by the blue line, yet far enough back to be safely out of harms way. The pinch runner must wear a batting helmet with a face cage.

2. After the batter hits the ball, he should move back away from the plate– in the direction of the red arrow in the diagram.

3. If the pinch runner reaches base safely the batter has the option of taking the "pinch runners" place on the bases at any time. Typically, this will be third base as the child feels great if he is able to score a run for his team. There's nothing like the feeling of crossing home plate yourself!