Baseball Tournament Celebrates 10 Years of Helping Kids with Special Needs

– Ron Giovino

The Medford Invitational will be celebrating its’ 10th Annual Challenger Day event on August 21st. Challenger Day is a unique one inning baseball game for about seventy-five All-Stars from the Greater Boston area. Challenger all-stars are children with mental and physical disabilities. The athletes are true heroes, who go out on the baseball field and play baseball despite the challenges they face. I have been involved with baseball at all levels for more than thirty years and this is the best baseball I have ever seen. It is the most inspirational baseball you will ever see and I am very proud to be associated with such a great group of volunteers.

A one inning game for these special children would be news worthy enough, but what the over 100 volunteers and fans do on Challenger Day is a one of a kind celebration of our community.

The MIT welcomes these athletes with all the fanfare of a Major League All-Star game. The opening ceremonies welcome the players with hundreds of volunteers, fans, community leaders, and some celebrity appearance by superheroes, Wally the Green Monster & Tessie, Blades the Bruins Bear, Miss Teen Massachusetts, and even the Batmobile. The local business community joins us to feed everyone and local police, fire, EMT, and military are also on hand for the all-stars. If you think it sounds like fun so far, I haven’t even mentioned the mini carnival set up and the moments when the game stops and everyone gets on the field to dance!

Medford Invitational Tournament Challenger Day is taking place on August 21 at Bruce Field in Malden (next to the Malden Irish American Club). Opening Ceremonies begin at 1:00 pm and the event ends around 3:30 pm.