By Tim Utzig
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The Baltimore Orioles have become the first professional sports team to put Braille on their jersey’s, marking a landmark accomplishment for the Blind community.
Tuesday night’s Baltimore Orioles game celebrated the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), as well as all individuals with low vision. The promotional night came on the 40-year anniversary of the NFB having its headquarters in Baltimore.
“Once we learned that NFB was celebrating 40 years in Baltimore, we knew we had to do something,” said Greg Bade, the vice president of communications and marketing for the Orioles.
“It’s another example of how the Orioles try to extend themselves to the entire community in the Baltimore area,” said Orioles radio broadcaster Jim Hunter.
Hunter said he has received letters over the years from blind individuals who say they appreciate the job he and his broadcast colleagues do for them. People who are blind depend heavily on the audio description of the game and Hunter and his partners say they take pride in painting the picture of the game to those who need it most.
One of the special jerseys will be sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, to be on display, said Bade.
“For us to be the first is really cool to bring awareness to the cause,” said Orioles pitcher Mike Wright, Jr.
For a team that has been anchored to the bottom of the league standings, with a record of 43-107 going into Tuesday’s game, this event had an impact on the organization as well as the blind community.
“I think I would’ve gotten tickets to this game even if it wasn’t part of my package,” said Bill Sciannella, the only blind Orioles season ticket holder.
The NFB was excited to partner with the Orioles when they reached out about doing an event with Braille included on the jerseys.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm in the community,” said Chris Danielsen, the director of public relations for the NFB. “We just want to get the word out there that blind people are capable, and we are baseball fans too.”
The jerseys, which have Braille lettering on the front spelling out the team’s name and lettering on the back for the players name, took approximately seven months to create, Orioles officials said.
“We love the idea of Braille on the jerseys, the players love it, and we have heard from the fans how much they love it,” Bader said.
“Members from the Orioles organization hope that this is the first step of many in the advocation and promotion of blind awareness. The potential goal has been set to get all teams to be inclusive of disability communities and embrace them into sports,” Bader said.
“I think you’re going see almost every major league team trying to support the low-vision or blind community and start to do this in all the sports,” said Kelly MacDonald of Accessible Media Inc, a company that promotes inclusive accessibility to all in media.
As a part of the initiative to spread awareness of Braille and the blind community, NFB and Orioles officials handed out a Braille cheat sheet that included the alphabet and a hidden message in Braille.
The energy of the night didn’t diminish, even after the Orioles lost the game 6-4.
“When I think about the people who are visually handicapped, that want to enjoy baseball, this event is a great way to promote awareness of the community,” said Tim Walbert, the game director of MASN broadcast.
1 Comment
Great article.