Thunder Rolls: The World of Blind Baseball

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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I’ve heard baseball coaches shout at an umpire when he makes an unpopular call, asking if he’s blind. But I’d never heard of a whole team being blind. In fact, both teams.

Turns out, there is a type of baseball designed for blind and visually impaired players. Called “Beep Baseball,” it relies on oversized softballs that emit a sound to let the player keep track of them, and has five-foot-high bases that buzz to help players find them. Coaches get to call out cues to their players, too.

Beep Baseball was invented in 1964 to allow the blind to enjoy playing the game. There are two bases instead of three, fielders spread out to catch the ball, and the pitcher is on the same side as the batter.

“Once you get past the different rules,” we’re told, “watching a game of Beep is much like any other baseball pitch. The players beef at umpires, cheer encouragement for their own and sing praise to their opponents, win or lose. The only key difference is fans are expected to keep quiet until after the play is over, since those on the field need to hear the beeps.”

The sport is aptly captured in “Thunder Rolls: The World of Blind Baseball,” the new documentary that’s playing at Tropic Cinema.

Directed by filmmaker Susanne Schwibs and Indiana University Bloomington’s Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus Robert Arnove, this 97-minute film focuses on the Indy Thunder team’s quest to win its second World Championship.

“When you tell people you’re making a film about people who are blind playing baseball, they said how is this possible? It is possible, as we tried to illuminate in the film. When you open up opportunities, people with disabilities can compete at Olympic levels,” Arnove says.

“Thunder Rolls” is narrated by the familiar voice of Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”), himself a big sports fan and a sometimes resident of Indiana.

This feel-good story follows “the classic sports story arc involving changes to the team, challenges, setbacks, and (no spoiler needed) ultimate sports glory.” A big segment of the film allows us to watch the Beep Baseball World Series, a three-time matchup with the Thunder’s arch challengers from Taiwan.

Along with the story’s telling, we get to know Coach Darnell Booker, a former baseball player himself. “Now retired, he lives and breathes Beep Baseball, waking up at the crack of dawn, arranging practices, interviewing potential new players, chasing sponsors and willing his team to excellence, year in and year out.”

We also meet a number of the Thunder’s players, some completely blind, others legally blind. (Those with some vision wear masks to level the playing field.)

Adam is a powerful player who is a software developer when not playing. A team of volunteers watch his (and other’s) seeing eye dog during the games.

A young Pakistani struggles to adapt from years of playing cricket. Some are playing a sport for the first time ever.

Jared, the team’s pitcher, is actually a sighted man who is taking lessons in orientation mobility in order to become a teacher for the newly blind. He wears a mask, of course. Fair’s fair.

“Thunder Rolls” is an unusual sports movie. But you’ll be rooting, “Play ball!”

There will be a Q&A following the Tropic’s screening.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com