 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
A Whole New Ball Game Ten-year-old Billy Colliton’s favorite song is “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” But his parents, Paul and Jackie, never expected to see their strapping, curly-headed autistic son on a ballfield.
One of the first at bat was 9-year-old Simon Portelli, who is both autistic and deaf. Asked just before play began how he felt, Simon signed and said, “Happy.” “They can’t throw. They can’t hit. They can’t run. We don’t really know what’s going to happen,” said Rose Portelli, Simon’s mother, when they arrived. Autistic children have difficulty communicating and understanding conceptual ideas like sports, so no one knew what these kids could do; not Billy’s father, who had volunteered to be the team’s manager, nor Little League president Mark Costello, nor the children’s parents. But there were surprises in store. With the help of a volunteer special education teacher, Simon swung and got a hit. He was guided to first base, his arms flying.
The team was aided by P.S. 234 4th graders who helped the Challenger kids get around the bases and cheered them on. “I don’t think they should be left out of things,” said Sofia Agnifilo, 10, who was one of the buddies. “Why let us have all the fun? They can have fun, too.” The smallest Challenger, Paolo Migliaccio, a slim blond 5-year-old, stood on the baseline watching. “Usually he sits in a corner and plays with a stick. It’s good that he’s staying here,” said his mother, Frederique Migliaccio. Then it was Paolo’s turn to bat. With help, Paolo swung and the ball dribbled toward the pitcher. Three batters later Paolo ambled from third base and found home plate. Looking a little bewildered, he staggered slowly over to Costello who was crouched nearby and put his arms around his neck in a hug. “I didn’t know what to expect,” Costello said later. “It’s pretty powerful.”
For Colliton, a life-long baseball fan with a Yankees season ticket, it was another example of how life can throw curve balls. The Collitons had an older son who died. Years later they adopted Billy at birth. At age 2, he was diagnosed with autism. He was 8-years-old before he spoke. “I always thought I was going to have the next Yankees 3rd baseman. Then one died and the other was autistic,” Colliton said. The first time Billy batted, he barely knew which way to face. His last at bat, nearly two hours later, he swung the bat by himself, hit the ball and ran the bases on his own to cheers of “Run, Billy, Run!” “That was the thing that was so great. In just a couple of hours the progress was really kind of cool,” said Colliton. A few minutes later, as 9-year-old Cole Kiebert-Boss crossed home plate he was cheered loudly by the parents and helpers. It was the kind of scene that would sometimes scare him, said his mother Christine. At that moment he had an expression she has only seen a couple of times before; he looked proud. “You can see he feels accomplished,” she said, “There’s not a lot of opportunity for that.”
|
