Real life miracles happen on this field

Roy Weidner coached a Tallahassee team to the Babe Ruth baseball World Series championship two years ago. If your child ever gets to play on his team, consider yourself lucky: He is as good as they come at teaching kids the game of baseball.

On this particular Thursday night, on a magical synthetic field built for players with disabilities, the game he was helping to teach was only incidentally baseball. The true lesson for his talented Babe Ruth players was real life. And he was gaining a new perspective himself. Click here to view our photo gallery.

"The (Miracle League) players said many times how great it is something was made for them to get to play baseball," Weidner said. "One older player even said he wanted to play all his life and this was his first chance."

Welcome to the Miracle League Field, nestled between the Skate Park and Leon County Jail at Messer Park off Jackson Bluff on Tallahassee’s south side, a place where real dreams come true.

"All of our players are success stories," said Stephanie Rehberg, recreation leisure specialist with the Florida Disabled Outdoors Association, who also served as a pitcher in Thursday’s game between the Braves and Rays until Tallahassee Community College President Bill Law came on in relief.

Coaching third base was former state director of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities Jane Johnson.
It takes a whole lot of caring people to create miracles. I heard about another Miracle League player who called his grandmother after a game to tell her how he was playing real baseball, on a real team with real uniforms.

Trust me on this, as a parent of a child with multiple disabilities who had watched her siblings play baseball for all of her 16 years from a wheelchair, it doesn't get any more real than this.

Want to talk about miracles? Just look at the smile as Miracle League player Tyrone Jackson crosses home plate or Lacey Lowery high-fives her Babe Ruth player "buddy" Robert Robbins.

Or how about this from Rehberg:

"Some of the players did not even know what the game of baseball was, and now they are playing and they don’t want to leave the field. I have seen our players’ hand-eye coordination improve from week to week."

Weidner was with a group of Babe Ruth players – among the best 13- to 15-year-old players in the region – who came out to "buddy" the Miracle League players. The interaction between the players from the two leagues, well, that’s the greatest miracle of them all.

Another group of Babe Ruth players will be out at the Miracle League field this Thursday night. Come out at 6 p.m. to watch if you want a treat.

"Since the league was formed, the local Babe Ruth league has played a significant role through fundraisers and having teams serve as buddies," Rehberg said. "We (also) have had people who have no affiliation with baseball come out and volunteer, and they gain as much or more than our players do."

Unquestionably.

That was the universal feeling among Babe Ruth players and coaches after the game. They didn’t have to say so; you could just see it in the players’ faces.

It took a huge effort just to get the field built, with many groups – including both the city of Tallahassee and Leon County governments – coming together. Genesis, Sandco and Roberts Asphalt Paving donated services, and the Kiwanis of the Big Bend raised more than $200,000 from businesses and individual donations.

To maintain the league, funding still is needed, Rehberg said, for ongoing administration and support costs, including franchise fees. "Assistance from our community is essential and much appreciated," she said.

In return, the Miracle League players will warm your heart and make you smile. This is no imaginary Iowa cornfield, but you still might think it's heaven.

"Some players that struggled with hitting the ball at the beginning now do not have to use the tee," Rehberg said. "More importantly, these players are learning social skills and what being part of a team really means. Players who are normally shy around other people have completely come out of their shell and try and talk to everybody. This league is so much more than the game of baseball."

To volunteer or make a donation, or just to find out more about the Miracle League and other programs that FDOA offers, go to www.fdoa.org, e-mail Rehberg or call (850) 201-2944.

Go to Tallahassee.com to read all of my blogs and to comment on this one:

Twitter on this link.

Blogger.com on this link.

Tumblr.com on this link.

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

Is this an FSU student protest or study hall?

This generation is so lame.

I mean really.

FSU students are going to march on the Capitol this morning and stage a “read in.”

With respect, students, that’s not a protest. That’s more like an outdoor study hall.

Back in the 1970s, we took over the administration building at my college for, well, I don’t remember the reason. The why is not important. Besides, it was a long time ago. But I’ll tell you what: Whatever the cause, it was probably something important.

I do remember students sitting down in the hallway and along the steps, blocking the entrance.

And we had a band. I sure remember the band. It was a loud band with lots of metallic sounds. It sure was loud.

We wanted to change the world. Make a difference. Seek justice. The band helped get everyone’s attention. Got the juices flowing. Gave me a headache, quite frankly. Did I mention that it was loud?

This generation wants to make the Dean’s List.

Changing the world and making the Dean’s List are both noble ambitions but are absolutely not to be mixed. Never, never, never study and protest at the same time. You see, these are completely different things. Important, yes. Together, no.

Sure, I know, exams are coming up. We had them, too.

But isn’t that just another way of the man putting us down?

Don’t you think lawmakers waited until exam week on purpose so students would be too busy to notice the deep cuts to their universities?

I mean, you have got to have a band to get people fired up. A loud one.

And somebody’s got to burn something.

Somebody did at my school. I think it was a multi-colored T-shirt, some country’s flag or, most likely, a bra.

Somebody was always burning one of those, back before Victoria Secret’s Pink line. Bras today probably don’t burn; they probably just melt. And they are way too expensive to burn.
See the full blog on this link.
You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Fla. Legislature needs to rethink its rethinking

Don’t let anybody fool you.
What is happening in over the budget in the state Legislature is not simply about bringing revenues and expenses into balance.
Our lawmakers and political leaders are rethinking government, retooling it and re-engineering.
I’m not sure exactly what that means – except that perhaps it means that raising taxes on the cancer-causing cigarettes that place a burden on our health-care system is bad and cutting funding for our centers of research known as universities is good.
Anyway, whatever they mean exactly, those terms keep coming up in my conversations with people in government and those who know them best: lobbyists.
The problem is there needs to be a bigger conversation first, before we re-engineer. That way everyone, including the people to whom the government is supposed to belong, gets a say in the outcome.
Let’s take higher education as an example.
If the Legislature wants to rethink, retool and re-engineer what it looks like by putting fewer public dollars into it, then it needs to rethink, retool and re-engineer its own control of it. Meaning, the state needs to give up its say over tuition and fees and the programs the colleges and universities offer.
If you want public education and government to work as businesses, by all means, but then get out of the way.
Otherwise, with all due respect to the rethinkers, retoolers and re-engineerers, all you are doing is dismantling.
And you are being deceitful in the process.
See the full blog on this link.
You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Holocaust Remembrance: Learning to civilize man

You can see the photographs from the month-long Holocaust Remembrance project on Tallahassee.com/holocaust, and I hope you will. But that is not enough.

Watch the videos of the survivors, listen to their words and read more about their history on the site, too. It is all so very powerful.

But that is not enough, either.

Get in your car, drive around town to the places pinpointed on our interactive map and view the poster-sized photographs.

And then talk about the Holocaust, the extermination of 6 million Jews during the Nazi regime in Germany. You can do that on our forums and within your families. That is two of every three European Jews who were living at the start of Adolph Hitler’s rule in 1933.

These are things that the human mind can barely comprehend.

Others were targeted for destruction, too, of course: gays, Gypsies, the disabled. But it was the Jew who was blamed for Germany’s worst failings and thus the Jew who Hitler loathed the most.

How much the rest of the world knew and when it knew it has been a matter of scholarly debate. But we know it now, and though this horror can never be undone, it cannot be allowed to simply fade into ancient history.

Man has long been the worst of human beings’ natural predators.

Thus, it is not just the killing of 6 million people that must be remembered, nor even the brutality of the methods of the murders. We must ask why and how, of course; but we must also ask how we can continue to see genocide throughout the world and what we can do to civilize man.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Extreme thanks to Tallahassee and EMHE's Kadzis family

It was something watching Tallahassee on national TV during “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Sunday night. Dozens of my Facebook friends posted their emotions during the show, all speaking pretty much as one in being proud of this community and in awe of the courage of the Kadzis family.

In this one case, our community came together to support this family. What an incredible story of strength and values, by this family and our community.

George and Barbara Kadzis’ story is now well known in our community. They had seven children, including 16-year-old Chris and six adopted from Asia; five children had special needs.

They wanted a home that met their children’s needs, both for health and safety reasons. For a gallery of photos of the home click here.

George, who had worked as a dentist for the Department of Corrections, died of cancer three days after the house was completed.

It was all very moving. My wife, who knows what it is like to raise a large family (five children, including our special-needs child), said of Barbara Kadzis: “I don’t know how she does it.”

A few posters on our story chats and forums have said the same thing. Others have questioned why. Why adopt so many children. Why adopt from China. Why this and why that. Some have even disparaged George and Barbara, as if their private family decisions were a matter for public debate and agreement.

More than 700 people of this community volunteered in one way or another for this build. They did so because they wanted to. No one compelled them. No one begged them. They did it because they understand the Kadzis family’s love.

Many businesses supported the project, especially MyddletonParker Builders, which risked the most in tough financial times.

They understand the love, too.

In many ways, this community owes that family the greater thanks.

They allowed us to see their spirit, their love and their courage. They allowed us to make a gift to them that provided greater rewards for us. They provided an inspirational moment at a time when we all need greater inspiration.

They reminded us of who we are and what we stand for and that we cannot be defined by balance sheets or stock prices.

Rest in peace, George Kadzis. We've got it from here.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Monster Truck Tix winner announced

Our ticket-winning Tweeter is a hero.

ReignOfTheTec: I want the monster truck tickets so that me and my heroic friends can block flying debris from women and children.

I’ve just Tweeted a direct message to him to let him know of the win. Anyway, I think he is a male based on his photo.

These were the finalists, as selected by the judges (me and Julia Thompson):

Second Place: You would get the tickets if for some reason ReignOfTheTec doesn’t pick them up:

eye1der: I need those monster truck tickets. I am trying to punish my 2 fighting teenage sons by forcing them to do something fun together

Other finalists:

lockmomma: I am sending this tweet because it would be oh so sweet to get 4 tickets to the monster truck show. Please tweetmaster.

ASE2006: My nine year old daughter will kill me if I don't come home with these tickets.

Umm. Sorry ASE. Good luck, though.

We had lots of great Tweets, including poetic Tweeters and creative-writing Tweets.

But alas, we had to pick only one, and I’ve always been a sucker for a hero.

ReignOfTheTec gets four VIP tickets to the Monster Truck Show Sunday, April 26, at the North Florida Fairgrounds. Included in that package is the following:

Admission to the show

Preferred seating

Pre-show pit party

A chance to meeting the drivers and get autographs

A chance to take pictures of the trucks

A chance to meet Batman Dark Knight and get a free Batman toy.

Thanks for playing and for your Tweets everyone.

Here’s how to follow this blog:

Twitter on this link.

Blogger.com on this link.

Tumblr.com on this link.

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

Note to Google: It takes money to create our news content

Earlier this week, the American Society of Newspaper Editors became paperless. Members voted to change its name to the American Society of News Editors.

That’s the same move the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors made earlier this year.

I’m a member of both groups and on the board of FSNE.

I support the change, and voted in favor during the FSNE roll call, but am not in love with it.

Surprised?

The editor who has been writing a blog for nearly three year, who has pushed the use of social networks as reporting tools and who can Tweet with the best of them, cast a “yes” vote on the FSNE move with reluctance.

The reason is simple: The medium doesn’t matter; ink on paper or digital, who cares?

What matters is the quality of the journalism. That’s the bottom line.

And there is still a fundamental difference in the type of journalism done by newspaper organizations and others on the Web. And the reason for that has nothing to do with the medium and everything to do with money.

We're certainly willing to fight for space on the Internet. Just yesterday, we moved our monthly Business Matters news magazine to an online-only publication and now have an extensive list of digital products.

But for most of the last hundred years or so, printed newspapers have provided a business model to support quality journalism. Right now, only the great search-engine companies and a few aggregators of other people’s content create that kind of revenue.

That’s what makes the remarks by Eric Schmidt, CEO and chairman of Google, at least suspect, if not ironic.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Tweet dreams of Monster Truck Show

Someone said what I’m about to do is a shameless promotion of my blog.

And her point was what?

Some of you have been reading this blog since it started in September 2006. You already know I don’t mind bribing you if that’s what it takes to expand our digital networking. My motto, as you well know, is whatever it takes.

OK, let’s get down to business. I have FOUR tickets to the Monster Truck Show at the North Florida Fairgrounds Sunday, April 26. Not just any tickets. I have four VIP tickets, which gets you insider access. I’ll give you more details should you win.

These are (according to the tickets) the Baddest Trucks on the Planet. Now the editor in me must tell you there is no such word, technically, as baddest; it is slang for great and tough, as in “Bad, bad Leroy Brown, the baddest man in the whole damn town.”

Loved that Jim Croce, if not his grammar.

Nonetheless, I’m willing to give you all four tickets. All you have to do to get the tickets is follow me on Twitter.

If you just said “what?” let me explain what you need to do.

Go to Twitter.com and sign up.

Then go to Twitter.com/bgabordi and click "Follow."

Then send a message (called a Tweet) starting with “@bgabordi” to reply to me explaining why you want the tickets. Remember, Tweets are no more than 140 characters.

“But Bob,” you ask, “what if I’m already following you on Twitter? Can I still get those great tickets?”

Yes, you are eligible. You simply must send that Tweet explaining why you want them.

Two final steps whether you are a Twitter veteran or newbie:

Cut and paste your Tweet and come back here and post it in the comments section.

It would be nice if you would also send a Tweet to all of your followers saying follow Bob at @bgabordi, but it’s not necessary to win. You just have to have the best Tweet.

The DEADLINE to submit your Tweet is midnight tomorrow, April 8.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Let's outthink violence, Tallahassee

If you were out of town last week, you missed a lot.

The Legislature continues to look at ways to cut the budget, including how to cut state workers’ pay. It rained and rained and rained some more, causing Fay-like floods in isolated areas of the region.

And we were hit with another outbreak of violence. This one resulted in one man being shot to death and six others wounded when people started shooting each other in a crowded parking lot. The man who was killed, 26-year-old Curtis Brown, a father, was not involved in the dispute that resulted in the shooting.

Leon County Sheriff’s Office deputies called Brown “an innocent bystander” to the gang-related violence. You can see photos of the shooting scene here.

Well, we can’t do anything about how much it rains, and the Legislature, like the Divinity, moves in mysterious ways.

But can we think – and write – our way to creating a safer and better community?

We think it is time to give a democratic approach – one in which everyone has a voice – a try.

We’re experimenting with a new social-media tool on Tallahassee.com called MixedInk, a collaborative writing tool. The topic we’ve chosen to start with is community violence.

The question is: Can we figure out a way, working together, to curb violence?

While the approach is a fresh and novel way to seek community agreement on an approach to combating violent behavior in our community, the concept is not, and it can be used on a number of topics.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.

Latest on finding my grandfather

About 9:30 last night, a message popped into my Facebook inbox telling me when and how my grandfather died.

“He was walking along Landis Avenue, and a car hit him. The man in the car was arrested, and he told police that a light from another car blinded his vision momentarily, and he heard a noise, and stopped, and went back and saw your grandfather on the street. He was rushed to the hospital, but he had a skull fracture.”

The date was Dec. 26, 1930, in Vineland, N.J. He and his 16-year-old bride had a 6-month-old baby boy at home, my father.

I’ve learned a lot about my family’s history since writing a blog about the mysterious death of my grandfather. There were several family versions of his death, and none of us had ever found his grave.

The message I got last night was from a Facebook friend. Her mother-in-law and I share a distant relative, a great aunt.

My friend works for the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society. She was able to find a newspaper story about my grandfather’s death.

My friend ended her e-mail with this:

“I'm sorry you never got to meet him. :(”

I’m sorry, too.

See the full blog on this link.

You also can follow my blog at Twitter.com or Tumblr.com on this link. You can follow my blog by sending me a friend request on Facebook.