Buddy Baseball - building friendships, breaking barriers & an opportunity to play

Buddy Baseball, Executive Director, Russ Oberbroeckling, shares the history & joyful stories of the Buddy Baseball League, a league for children with special needs

• Dave Wills' contributions to Buddy Baseball
• A non-competitive, recreational sport experience
• Players age range: 8-22, Buddies age range: 10-22

Establishment of Buddy Baseball 

• 16 years of Buddy Baseball in Temple Terrace
• Current participation: 20 teams, 160-180 players, similar number of buddies
• First year Buddy Baseball had 6 teams, 36 players, 38 buddies
• Support from Temple Terrace Parks and Rec department 

Growth and Facilities

• Expansion from 1 to 3 fields, with plans for another synthetic turf field
• Synthetic turf fields to accommodate wheelchairs & walkers
• Registration fees: $30 for players, $15 for buddies,
• Games include Announcers, walk-up music, national anthem

Community Involvement

• Game day volunteers for setup and support
• Annual background checks of coaches
• Off-season events: bowling, bingo, end-of-season parties
• Scholarship program available for some Buddies

.Memorable Moments:

• Everyone cheers for everyone, it's non-competitive & aimed at ensuring kids have fun
• Dave Wills Positive announcing - created special moments for players
• Emphasis on fun: if the ball reaches the outfield grass, it's a home run, and any hit is a fair ball
• Kids with various disabilities, including blind players and those with cerebral palsy, enjoying and participating in games.
• Special moments, a blind child hitting the ball or a girl with cerebral palsy "running" to home plate.

More than baseball:

• Buddy Baseball isn't just about baseball games.
• Upcoming activities: Bowling event before school starts, with prizes, face painting, balloon twisters, and more.
• End of season parties and additional summer activities like bingo.

Tampa Bay Rays:

• Rays support: hosting 100 kids and families at games, baseball magic clinics at Tropicana Field
• Special Magic Mondays: Kids invited on the field before games for a unique experience.
• Rays' events include field activities and meeting players like Shane McClanahan and Randy Arozarena

Tampa Baseball Museum will offer free admission to anyone in Buddy Baseball program who visits & states that they are part of Buddy Baseball 

Importance of Community and Inclusion:

• Creates a sense of community & inclusion for kids with special needs.
• Camaraderie extends beyond the field to birthday parties, graduation parties, and other social events.
• Register your child at buddybaseball.org.
• Games are no more than an hour long, everyone bats and is safe, 
• Need for volunteers: announcers, game day setup, and breakdown help.
• Encouraging the community to support through volunteering or donations.
• The importance of Buddy Baseball and the impact it has on the children and their families.
• Encouragement for listeners to get involved, volunteer, and support this fantastic initiative.

Contact Information:

• Learn more at: buddybaseball.org for registration, deadlines and volunteer opportunities.

Florida BaseballBiz can be found on Apple, Itunes, Spotify, Iheartradio & https://floridabaseballbiz.buzzsprout.com/
Special Thanks to Williams Ross Chernoff's Nomads for the music Makie Elkino
Notes generated in part by DeScript

Transcript

Buddy Baseball on BaseballBiz

[00:00:00] Mark Corbett: Welcome to Florida BaseballBiz I am Mark Corbett, your host. And with me today, I have Mr. Russ Oberbroeckling and man, I am glad to have you here. He is the executive director of Buddy Baseball. And you know, Russ, I first discovered you guys because of a legend by the name of Dave Wills, and it wasn't until his passing that I saw other reports about Buddy Baseball and how much he had done with the program and endorsed the program.

[00:00:41] Mark Corbett: And before we get too, too much about the, about the program, I just want to give a tip of the hat to Dave because he meant a lot to the community. And I know he did with you all as well. 

[00:00:54] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Yeah, there's no doubt, you know, Dave Wills was the Rays radio broadcaster for like 17 or 18 years. And just a great guy.

[00:01:01] Russ Oberbroeckling,: And he came to announce our games for like probably nine years or so. So it's great to have a professional announcer at your baseball game and, uh, just a great guy, a great family. 

[00:01:12] Mark Corbett: Well, I know that he and all of you have done a lot. So let's talk about what Buddy Baseball is. I know it started with you in, uh, Temple Terrace in the Tampa Bay area.

[00:01:22] Mark Corbett: Is that correct? 

[00:01:24] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Yeah, that's correct. You know, Buddy Baseball, it's, it's a baseball league for children with special needs. The kids don't have an opportunity to play in a regular team because their disability holds them back, but now they can play a competitive, excuse me, a noncompetitive recreational sport, uh, that's organized.

[00:01:42] Russ Oberbroeckling,: And they have a buddy there to help them. And, uh, our player, her age is eight to 22 and our buddies are ages, uh, 10 to 22. So we try to match the buddies of players up at a similar age. We possibly can doesn't always work out that way, but, uh, there's a buddy there to help these kids at field, throw, pay attention, and just, uh, have fun in the dugout.

[00:02:03] Mark Corbett: I've seen the videos of this and to see two players working together. You know, in tandem, if you will add the, the excitement there with the young people, one of the things I like to see is recreational baseball. Non competitive is great. Uh, but I understand there's different levels for different folks.

[00:02:22] Mark Corbett: For instance, years ago, I coached a team within the YMCA and we're talking about six, seven, eight-year-olds kids. But the one thing I liked in that aspect is I try to stress. It was about having fun with the game. It was not about walking away with anything, but that participant, not a participation trophy at the year, but anyway, so with what you've been doing with this, about how many, uh, how many players do you get each year?

[00:02:48] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Uh, this year we'll probably have between, um, 160 to 180 players. Uh, that's about 20 teams and we'll have almost as many buddies. Uh, some of these players, um, are pretty, um, self-sufficient and they may not need a buddy. Some of our buddies, our players need two buddies just because of their disability.

[00:03:08] Russ Oberbroeckling,: We'll probably have like probably around 170 or so, 170 players. 

[00:03:12] Mark Corbett: Good gravy, man. That's fantastic. What was the first year like? 

[00:03:17] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Well, the very first year, you We just want to see what was going on. And we had six teams, we had 36 players and 38 buddies. I think this is like before, you know, Facebook and stuff.

[00:03:28] Russ Oberbroeckling,: So, you know, we, there wasn't a whole lot of publicity, but I had a friend, the local newspaper here in Tampa, and she wrote an article. In the paper and that kind of got things going, also I had help from my local recreation center. Uh, you got a parks and rec league behind your program. Uh, that, that's a bonus.

[00:03:46] Russ Oberbroeckling,: You just can't have some guy coming off the street, starting a baseball league. Uh, this is sponsored by the Temple Terrace Parks and Rec department. And that gave our league instant credibility. 

[00:03:56] Mark Corbett: Well, I'm glad to hear that because so many times I've seen some, um, some recreational centers become basically a rental agency for travel ball and sometimes forget the recreational part for the community itself.

[00:04:10] Mark Corbett: So I'm really glad to see that involvement was there from the beginning and just curious because you guys have, have been so successful. How do you put this together as far as fields and, and schedules, good gravy, man. 

[00:04:26] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Well, you know, it all kind of started with my sister. She lives outside of Chicago area.

[00:04:30] Russ Oberbroeckling,: She has a child with special needs. And then my brother had read about a Buddy Baseball league and he told her about it. She goes, this is, I need something for my son to do. Because he can't be successful at anything because there's just nothing there for him. So she started her league in Rockford, Illinois, which is outside of Chicago.

[00:04:49] Russ Oberbroeckling,: And I saw the, um, the local news footage, they came out and the articles of gratitude from the parents. And I go, Oh my God, we need to have this in Tampa. Yeah. And I figured, you know, this is awesome. I have two daughters. They're typical kids, but it just touched me so much. The emails you'd read from the parents of gratitude, they make you cry.

[00:05:08] Russ Oberbroeckling,: It was just amazing. So I went to my local rec center. I told them what I wanted to do. And after five minutes, they said, we're on board, but here's the thing. I know what to do. I knew I could do it. Does that make any sense?

[00:05:21] Mark Corbett: Yes. Yes. I think a passion kind of leads to understanding sometimes to digging in and figuring it out too when there isn't.

[00:05:31] Russ Oberbroeckling,: well, absolutely. You know, it wasn't too hard to figure things out. You know, I've seen how Hurley gets a baseball. You gotta get a kid, help another kid. How tough is that? Okay. But, luckily we had fields available. We had two fields available, uh, for us to play on the local girl's softball league had the fields.

[00:05:48] Russ Oberbroeckling,: We had to wait until they were done before we could play. 

[00:05:51] Mark Corbett: Right. 

[00:05:51] Russ Oberbroeckling,: So as years gone on, uh, that, that league just kind of fizzled out and we were able to take over, um, uh, Both of the fields in one of our fields has a synthetic turf. We've got funding from the county and from the state. So all of our kids that are in wheelchairs and walkers, uh, it's a safe environment for them to play on.

[00:06:11] Russ Oberbroeckling,: the other field's a dirt field, and sometimes it's hard and packed, and sometimes it's a little mushy., it's hard to push a wheelchair through, you know, kind of rough dirt. So, um, we try to get all of our kids on the field with special needs, and we're in the process of having another field built next summer, the summer of 25.

[00:06:30] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Both of our fields will be, uh, synthetic turf, and we've gotten so big, now we're, we got a makeshift field on a soccer field right next to it because we can't handle all the 20 teams on two fields. So, we got a third field we're working on. 

[00:06:44] Mark Corbett: Oh man, well, that's great. I mean, you see the kind of growth, because obviously, you know, the need and the love of the game is there for folks and see you to be able to bring it.

[00:06:52] Mark Corbett: Wow. I was wondering about because I was one as far as the, um, continual growth of what you have to do, meaning buddy baseball. And. The ability to help kids, like you said, with the wheelchairs, where are you, is there sponsors or is there somebody who's coming out and said, you know, Russ, I definitely wanted to participate and I want to see something about bringing more turf to that new field.

[00:07:18] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Yeah, well, you know, that, that's just it, it, it, it, it does cost a bit to get the league going right. And originally, um, I, I, Figured out what the cost of a shirt, a hat and a ball and a trophy would be. And back then it was like 30. 

[00:07:35] Russ Oberbroeckling,: That's all there was to it. And that's our registration fee for our kids, the players, 30.

[00:07:42] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Our buddies are 15. It doesn't even cover the cost of our shirt anymore, but back then it did. But since then we've had. A lot of local folks and sponsors make team donations. You know, our donations start from two 50, they go to 500, they go to 1, 005. And, you know, every now and then I've moved, we'll make it a 10, 000 donation from somebody.

[00:08:03] Russ Oberbroeckling,: So that's what keeps our league running all of our sponsorships and individual donors, uh, people sent in $25, $50 and up. And that's, that's wonderful because we put out a top quality product for our kids. I mean, we have announcers for our game. Like I mentioned, Dave Wills came out. Uh, now we've added a walk up music for the kids too.

[00:08:26] Russ Oberbroeckling,: When they come to bat, they think it's the best thing. We stand on the first baseline and third baseline for the national anthem. It's, it's a real baseball game. Yeah. On our very first day, 16 years ago, one of the guys, one of the dads was saying, man, how many guys have been doing this? This is awesome. So organized to go start first day and they just couldn't believe it.

[00:08:50] Russ Oberbroeckling,: So, you know, that that's where, where my skills come in. Okay. I know baseball, I'm a big sports fan and so on, but I have the skills to get this thing going and keep it going the way it's at. And we've got a number of game day volunteers that come, come to the fields and set up the dugouts and the water coolers, the PA system and the signs.

[00:09:09] Russ Oberbroeckling,: And we've got to chalk the other field. It's, it's a lot of folks. It's not just me. 

[00:09:15] Mark Corbett: Wow. You know, I'm glad you get that much participation. Cause one thing I see anytime with recreational sports is there has to be community involvement. And, um, the donations are great, but the people who are willing to come out there and work on the field, the people who are willing to be the coaches and the buddies, all of those things are important.

[00:09:33] Mark Corbett: And while they're, I imagine most of that's being done out of the goodness of their heart. I also see that you're supporting some of those folks. Isn't there a, uh, a scholarship offered to some of the buddies? 

[00:09:43] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Yeah, in the spring, uh, the very first year we did, I was probably 13 years ago, we gave a 500, uh, to graduating senior, but they had to play at least three seasons of buddy baseball.

[00:09:56] Russ Oberbroeckling,: We wanted to have them some, get some skin in the game. So we just can't have a first season buddy come in here. It's got all this great community service, a great kid. And when our. Scholarship, you know, we want kids that participate at least three seasons. So as years go on and more sponsors came in and now we're on the track where every spring we give three graduating seniors, a thousand dollars each, and, uh, that's decent money.

[00:10:22] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Yeah, get yourself a nice, nice laptop for college and all the other kids that apply. Uh, they're all were mentioned and they get 100 bucks. So, uh, you know, we've given away. Oh, shoot. Thousands and thousands of dollars. I think over 50, 000 into all these buddies over the years. It's just been amazing to us.

[00:10:40] Mark Corbett: Well, the good news is I don't think anybody's doing it for the scholarship. Anybody who's going to be staying with three years with the program has to have some heart in it, 

[00:10:49] Russ Oberbroeckling,: you know, and I think there's no doubt about it. We've, we've got kids that have been playing their whole, uh, high school career, even through middle school.

[00:10:57] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Uh, we play two seasons a year. We play in Florida, we play in the spring and then we play in the fall. It's just too hot to play in the summertime, you know, so our fall season starting the end of September in our spring season starts like late February, early March. So, uh, I'll play two scenes a year. 

[00:11:14] Mark Corbett: I love that because goodness knows we live in Florida.

[00:11:15] Mark Corbett: Okay. No, if we had the opportunity to give kids to play more than once per year, I'm glad that you guys are able to do that. I wanted to ask you to about the, um, Selection of coaches and players so that if, you know, I came up to you tomorrow and say, Hey, yeah, I'd like to coach team, uh, that's just, Oh, sure.

[00:11:38] Mark Corbett: Mark here, here, here's the lanyard and here's a cap and go right ahead. So, so what is the process?

[00:11:43] Russ Oberbroeckling,: It's not quite that simple. We do background checks on our coaches, uh, every year. Um, you know, simple, simple is that because we want to make sure our volunteers are, you know, don't have a terminal record of any kind.

[00:11:59] Russ Oberbroeckling,: So they get, um, say, um, background checks every year. Uh, just because they've coached them five years in a row, we still give them a background check. Just, you know, things can happen. And things have happened, but, uh, it's not much harder than that. These folks that want to come in, they really want to get involved.

[00:12:16] Russ Oberbroeckling,: They've heard about it. A lot of our coaches are just do other goodness to their heart because their kids may have been, are grown, but they still like to coach. Uh, some have kids on the team. Uh, some don't, they just like to volunteer their time. And, um, I'm telling you there are smiles all around from everybody at every game.

[00:12:35] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Everybody's cheering for everybody since it's not competitive. We just want the kids to have fun. 

[00:12:40] Mark Corbett: Yeah. Hit the ball, run the base. 

[00:12:44] Russ Oberbroeckling,:  you know, sometimes Dave Wills announcing a game and the kid hit the ball and it went to the fence by the third base dugout and the kids started running.

[00:12:54] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Okay. And Dave goes, that went all the way to the fence. You know, it was hysterical. And if the kid hits the ball, it's a fair ball. You know, that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter where it goes, but it gets to the outfield, to the grass, that's a home run. But you know, it's a foul ball and the kid runs.

[00:13:11] Russ Oberbroeckling,: That's fine. That's fine. 

[00:13:13] Mark Corbett: You are there to make sure they're able to enjoy the game, to participate with the game. And I mean, I'm glad Dave Wills was able to, to build that kind of excitement for him, uh, as well. But, I was curious too, with all this, you got two seasons now and What are you looking at as far as do is, are there activities beyond the field that buddy baseball is able to participate with?

[00:13:43] Mark Corbett: Are you able to take some of the members and players out to events, et cetera? What are, what are some of those things? 

[00:13:49] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Well, I'm glad you asked, in a couple of weeks, uh, we're going bowling. We are having a back-to-school bowling. So it's something to kind of break up the summer. It's a week before school starts.

[00:14:01] Russ Oberbroeckling,: We go to a local bowling alley and we have, you know, fun prizes and things like that. We have our end of season party there. Um, and then we'll have like a face painter and balloon twisters and a photo booth. door prizes, things like that. But this is, this is something in between. So it's going to be, uh, you know, just bowling and pizza, get ready to go back to school, see their friends.

[00:14:23] Russ Oberbroeckling,: A lot of these kids don't get it, you know, haven't seen their teammates since, since the previous season. Uh, one year in the summertime, we did bingo, just something. In the summertime to do in the rays. Tepid Bay Rays have been fantastic to us. We were taking a hundred kids to a game. Um, actually a hundred kids, a hundred tickets, probably 30 families or so, uh, to the game this week, we have, um, like the 200 party section where it has the suite amenities, uh, It's past, uh, just two weeks ago or so, the Tampa Bay Rays put on a baseball magic clinic at Tropicana field.

[00:14:57] Russ Oberbroeckling,: We had 60 of our player players and 40 of our player, our buddies and coaches there to help them. And we were on Tropicana field. Uh, we had like Four or five stations. We'd play a 20 minute baseball game and then we'd go out to a pitching station. Then we'd go out to a fielding station and a batting station and things like that.

[00:15:15] Russ Oberbroeckling,: And you know, being coached by the local colleges. Yeah. And it's like that it's, it's in the summertime. The kids love it. We, they treat us to a game that afternoon. Uh, you know, working with the Rays have just been fantastic because those are our extracurricular activities through the summertime, right? By getting free tickets.

[00:15:33] Russ Oberbroeckling,: I mean, it's, It's, you know, it still costs a little bit of money, but a baseball game, you know, uh, you know, snacks and drinks, it adds up, uh, parking and everything else. It, you know, it, it, it adds up. So it's, it's some, for some of these folks, this is their vacation. You know, families that have children, special needs, they have higher expenses than you and I do.

[00:15:55] Mark Corbett: Oh yeah. 

[00:15:55] Russ Oberbroeckling,: And there's not a lot of expendable money to do these things, but the Rays have come through and given us free tickets, uh, to events like this. So it's been, been, been wonderful. 

[00:16:05] Mark Corbett: Well, I'm glad to hear that because I always wonder too, you know, when you've got the season at a certain time of the year, what happens during those interims in between and to be able to get some sports, something like that with a raise and give the opportunity to go out to that

and that has to be a completely different and exciting environment to those players and buddies out there. I mean, to be, to be out on the field of the drop. Come on, man. I would, I think. I think it's really, really cool

[00:16:32] Russ Oberbroeckling,:  And, you know, occasionally we'll have some of the Rays players come out to be with the kids, uh, Shane McClanahan, especially for the Rays.

[00:16:40] Russ Oberbroeckling,: He's been one of our biggest supporters. Uh, he was out last time taking pictures and signing autographs. The Rays do this Magic Mondays for us, so Monday home games they have me invite a team to come. We're down on the field before batting practice and uh, the players come over and talk with the kids and take pictures or Randy Arozarena, Jason Adam, all these guys.

[00:17:00] Russ Oberbroeckling,: They come over and just, they just enjoy. Seeing these kids smile, it's just been a wonderful time for them. And in the off season, between our spring and our summer, that's the longest time. So our, our between seasons, so people are getting anxious. They're ready to go. 

[00:17:19] Mark Corbett: Well, let's talk about that for a minute because you do have a season up and coming.

[00:17:25] Mark Corbett: Now, you know, if I have a child who wants to play this game, where, how do I register them? How do I get them involved? 

[00:17:32] Russ Oberbroeckling,: It's pretty simple. Just go to www.buddybaseball. org. Uh, and that's our site. And uh, there's a registration tab. Uh, we got a registration closing in about three or four weeks. And once we reach our limit for players who have special needs, we need to cut it off because we just can't handle as many players as, we'd like sometimes.

[00:17:52] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Um, but the registration has all the information on there. It's got a, you know, a frequently asked questions. And what time our games, our games are just an hour long. Okay. That's it. If you're not out there for three and a half hours, no, no, no, no. You're you're in and out an hour and a half. You're there 15 minutes ahead of time to kind of throw the ball around.

[00:18:10] Russ Oberbroeckling,: You hang out 15 minutes after, you know, for a snack or a drink or something. But with our players, you know, everybody bats, everybody hits, everybody's safe, everybody's happy. 

[00:18:21] Mark Corbett: Oh, man. I tell you, Russ, you have my respect, man. Just the logistics of all this, uh, has to be, has to take a lot of, uh, planning. 

[00:18:31] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Well, it does.

[00:18:31] Russ Oberbroeckling,: It's, it's turned into a part time job. Let me tell you, you know, it used to volunteer position all of a sudden I go, you know what, uh, this is, this is more than, than you just grown. So, but, but now it does take a lot of planning and to do it, but, uh, I enjoy it and it's a personal satisfaction for me to see all these kids playing baseball because I enjoyed playing baseball when I was a kid, my kids enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching my kids play and everybody should have that opportunity.

[00:19:01] Russ Oberbroeckling,: To see their kid play baseball and make friends. Some kids love it. I talked to one mother. I said, well, how does your daughter like playing buddy baseball? She goes, well, she really doesn't like playing, but she likes to hang out in the dugout with all of her friends. That's what it's all about. Oh, yeah.

[00:19:20] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Hang out in the deck out with all of her friends, you know, you know, when you got friends, you know, we've been invited to plays, um, you know, birthday parties and graduation parties and things like that, my sister told me, if you have a child with special needs and if you can invite more of an immediate family to your kid's party, that's a big deal.

[00:19:42] Mark Corbett: Oh yeah. 

[00:19:42] Russ Oberbroeckling,: And that's what it is now. You know, if kids are going to birthday parties and maybe having a sleepover going to Bush gardens, going to, you know, you know, a movie or something like that, it's brought, there's so much more than buddy baseball than baseball. Okay. It's about the camaraderie. It's about these kids being accepted and about these kids being included.

[00:20:04] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Those are the big three things in the parents. That's what they want their kid to feel like everybody else. 

[00:20:11] Mark Corbett: Well, that's great. I mean, you give them that opportunity with the game and in the, like you said, with the camaraderie, I know even with my kids early on, it's like, if they weren't completely into the sport that they were playing with, I could tell with the time they spent with those friends and above and beyond whatever that sport was, that socialization meant a lot.

[00:20:28] Mark Corbett: So absolutely kudos. All right. Oh, I know what I wanted to do. I was talking to our Arminda Mata. She's the executive director of the Tampa baseball museum. And she may have had this conversation with you before or not. But I said, Hey, can we do something for Buddy Baseball? And she says, yeah. 
I said, well, what 
she said, how about anybody who comes into the Tampa baseball museum and says, Hey, I'm with buddy baseball, we'll get free admission.

[00:20:55] Mark Corbett: I said, it's a start, right? That's great. That anyway, that the museum's actually open Thursday through Saturday, 10 to four, most of the time. But if you would like to do something like that, I'll give you our Arminda’s contact info after the show. That'd be awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So no, man, I look at that with the kids, anything that can make a kid smile.

[00:21:16] Mark Corbett: I love it. I love the camaraderie. I love the support with the buddy and, and the communication they had there. You know, I mean the, the one. Curiosity was for me was how do you select the coaches and, and, uh, the players, it sounds like players, it's just a cutoff date. 

[00:21:33] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Yeah. The players at the cutoff day, you know, the, the buddy's a little harder because a lot of these have like extracurricular events, uh, whether it's, you know, school related or sports related or, you know, band or what have you, uh, some can only maybe play in the spring or the fall.

[00:21:47] Russ Oberbroeckling,: And, you know, we've got. Probably 20 kids that graduate high school every year, they're going to college. So we need to replace them. Look at, you know, check out the kids and they say, I'm going to play with this, my friend and so on. And we'll kind of pair them up. And, and I tell the parents to go, if things aren't working with your buddy, you know, let me know.

[00:22:05] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Um, we'll, we'll get you a new buddy, but that rarely happens, but we have found out that when the parents register their request, the same buddy season after season, because they get so attached to them, you know, early on after two or three seasons, we thought, you know, it'd be a good idea. Let's mix these teams up.

[00:22:22] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Let's put these kids on different teams. Let's get these kids more friends. We all agree. That's a great idea. It was terrible. I'm telling you, they were screaming and yelling it. We, we, we quickly went back to the old way because they liked having their own, their old friends, you know, but it's a great idea on paper, but it didn't work.

[00:22:42] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Like I say, the parents, even the buddies say, I want to be Joey's buddy. I want to make sure he's my buddy again, because you get to know the kid, you know, they're what they can do, you know, they can't do in the, in the limitations. Um, But, uh, it's, it's been wonderful. I mean, the kids we have, we have everything.

[00:22:59] Russ Oberbroeckling,: We have kids on the spectrum and down syndrome and nonverbal, uh, cerebral palsy, disability, just dwarfism, everything. If you name it, we've got it. We have kids that have been blind that played buddy baseball, geez. And we have a, a beat ball form. So in a beeps, they can hit it and eventually they'll hit it.

[00:23:20] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Mark, let me tell you when a kid who's blind hits a ball, crowd goes wild. It's just great. And we had one boy who was blind. He, he eventually lost his sight. So he knows how to slide. Okay. But he gradually lost his slush. He was like, so he's rounding third and he told his buddy, the buddy's telling me this, he wanted to know when home plate was because he wanted to slide.

[00:23:46] Russ Oberbroeckling,: So just before home plate came, the buddy says, slide, slide. So he had slide and oh my God, that kid was so dirty. It was just, just hysterical at the end of the day. We've got a girl with cerebral palsy. She's got a little Walker and she gets near home plate and she leaves the Walker by herself. And she runs quote, runs to home plate and that's her own slide.

[00:24:08] Russ Oberbroeckling,: And it's just, just something. It's so cool. 

[00:24:13] Russ Oberbroeckling,: You got me jazzed up, Mark. I'm ready for the baseball season to start tomorrow.

[00:24:15] Mark Corbett: Alright. Right brother. Let's get it, man. Oh man. We're talking with Russ Oberbroeckling. Okay, one more time. You say it right, Russ? We're talking with Russ. 

[00:24:23] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Oberbroeckling. 

[00:24:25] Mark Corbett: Thank you, brother. I mean, I, I'm, I'm so impressed with all you're doing and those buddies and you've got me excited about it. So, can I come out and watch a game or is there, uh, 

[00:24:36] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Anytime. You know, we've got. Games that start at 9 15 and they go like to 2 30 and they're staggered times.

[00:24:44] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Uh, so you come out anytime you're going to see some live action. And if you're lucky enough, you're going to be out there the day we have a cookout, we've got some local folks that come out and do a hamburger and cookout, hamburger and hotdog cookout at the first game every season, and we'll probably have two or three more cookouts throughout the season.

[00:25:03] Russ Oberbroeckling,: You know, we've got a covered court with tables and chairs and a grill and hotdogs and hamburgers. Uh, It's, it's a fun time. It's a great vibe. 

[00:25:11] Mark Corbett: I definitely want to get out there and see that in person. I mean, I've seen some of the video and, uh, guys, I got to tell you, check it out. It's www.BuddyBaseball.org is that right? Correct. Okay. I got that. Hey Russ. And, and you'll meet, I'm still hearing that there's still some needs. I mean, whether it's taking care of the fields, getting uniforms, or maybe subsidizing some of that, and how can folks help out with that? 

[00:25:36] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Well, you know, you can go to our website and you can register as a volunteer. www.BuddyBaseball.org

[00:25:40] Russ Oberbroeckling,: If you want to be a game day set up, it's maybe a couple hours in the morning, maybe an hour and a half or come in the afternoon to break down. But, um, if you want to be an announcer, if you've got, you know, some ability to be an announcer, come on out. We could always use an announcer to call all the plays.

[00:25:55] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Um, all the parents, when we sign up, they put in fun facts about their kids. What's their favorite restaurant and you know, what's their favorite, you know, thing for breakfast. If you had a thousand dollars, what would you do? And then that's what the announcer does. He calls a plate, no experience is needed.

[00:26:08] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Okay. Let me tell you, it's not that hard to do, but in between innings, we have announcements and during the, when the kid comes up to bad after the walkup music, you know, the announcer gives a fun fact about the kid, but we need announcers, we always need coaches. Uh, some say, well, I'm going to be a buddy.

[00:26:24] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Well, you know, you're, you're 35 years old. Uh, you'd be a coach and you can be a buddy to all the kids. Oh, okay. That sounds great to me too, but we always need extra help. 

[00:26:34] Mark Corbett: Okay. Totally random question. What's the most interesting walk up music you've heard since doing this? 

[00:26:43] Russ Oberbroeckling,: We have default templates for it.

[00:26:46] Russ Oberbroeckling,: They don't select their walk up music. We use this DJ ballpark app that one of Dave Will's friends told me about. And, uh, you know, so they, I don't even know what the music is. It's just default rock and roll music. I love the kids will come up and start jamming on their bat. Like it's an air guitar or something and getting their hands up in the air, getting the crowd going and things.

[00:27:10] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Some of these kids love the attention. Uh, you know, years ago, um, one boy told me, he goes, Russ, he goes, I'm not going to be here next week. So tell the announcer that I'll be back the week after that. I go, okay, Matthew, I will. So Matthew comes up, the announcer says, Matthew is not going to be here next week, he's going to, he's going to SeaWorld then Matthew turned around the home plate and throws his arms in the air and yells, you know, cause he, he, he thought he was the star of the show. And all these kids, like they are the star of the show and they are. 

[00:27:44] Mark Corbett: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, man. Oh, man. Well, to see that much excitement in any kids faces is well worth doing it.

[00:27:52] Mark Corbett: But my gosh, Russ, I can't thank you enough for you and for everybody else what they're doing with with Buddy Baseball with the kids. And I want to hope and continue to see you guys thrive and I'm definitely making it up there at Temple Terrace, live in Plant City. It's not that long of a drive. No, no, no, no.

[00:28:09] Russ Oberbroeckling,: You're quick Saturday morning. That's easy to do. Definitely want to come up and see you guys., 

Mark Corbett: But as far as, registering for the season. When, when's that start again? 

[00:28:20] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Registration is going on right now, and the registration is going to close probably more likely for our buddies on Friday, August 16th.

[00:28:29] Russ Oberbroeckling,: Um, we'll start the end of September 1st game, September 28th. Uh, we closed registration because I've got to order 300 to 400 uniforms. And each one is individual. Okay. They've got sponsors on the back. They got a name on the back. They got a number on the back and it takes time to do all this stuff. So we cut registration off.

[00:28:51] Russ Oberbroeckling,: If they've had plenty enough time to learn, but there's always the guys that come in late and we try to fit them in, if we can. It, the worst thing about buddy baseball is telling a parent that I'm sorry, it's, it's too late. I mean, registration closed a month ago and where are you? I'm sorry. But we put them on the waiting list and they could play the next season.

[00:29:09] Mark Corbett: But it's, we'll be opening soon. So that's fantastic for this season, man. Oh, man. Well, Russ, I can't thank you enough again for joining us here on baseball biz on deck and talking about buddy baseball. And it puts a joy in my heart to see what those, I mean, just hearing what those kids are, are enjoying with the game.

[00:29:27] Mark Corbett: And like I said, you've sold me. I will be there and I will talk with you after this about the Tampa baseball museum, if you guys are interested in doing something with them. That sounds great. Thank you. All right. Have me on. It's been a pleasure.

[00:29:48] Mark Corbett: Russ, thank you enough for joining us here today on Florida Baseball Biz. and telling us about Buddy Baseball. 

Buddy Baseball Notes

Buddy Baseball is a non-competitive recreational league serving the Tampa Bay community for boys and girls ages 8 to 22 with special needs.  Each player is paired with a buddy to assist the player as needed on the field and in the dugout.  The league fosters friendships and breaks down barriers giving special needs children the opportunity to play an organized sport.  Not only do the players experience the thrill of participating in a baseball game, they also experience team play and camaraderie.

Tags: Buddy Baseball,Dave Wills,Tampa Bay Rays,Special Needs,Volunteers,Temple Terrace,ball fields,Shane McClanahan,Tampa Baseball Museum,turf,community,bowling,birthdays,camaraderie,volunteers,donations,blind,cerebal palsy,announcing,running home,registration,season