Viewing Disability Differently

Posts tagged ‘sports’

Disabled Athletes Deserve Regular Respect

Last week, I wrote in defense of a high school coach who cut a disabled player from the baseball team. This week, I’m switching it up, writing in defense of disabled athletes. (Just keeping you on your toes, readers!) Specifically, I’m supporting competitors in the Paralympics, a highly competitive, international sporting event for elite disabled athletes (no, that’s not an oxymoron) that occurs every two years. Like the Olympics, the Paralympics have summer and winter Games, and like Olympians, Paralympians are the best in their field, and they work hard to stay on top.

Someone should explain this to Michael Laws, a politician in New Zealand who also heads a radio broadcast. The Howard-Stern-wannabe took to his radio show to opine about the Halberg Awards (ie: the Kiwi equivalent of the ESPYs), saying that Paralympic athletes should not be eligible for these honors.

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“There’s No Crying In Baseball”

I recently came across an article about a town in an uproar because a boy at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida with two prosthetic legs was cut from his school’s baseball team (thank you, AOL Newsfeed). Anthony Burruto had both of his legs amputated as a baby, but his father is a Yankees fan (damn right!), so he raised Anthony with a love of baseball and a desire to play. There’s really no reason why being an amputee should keep Burruto off the field if he has the drive and the talent to play at the high school level. After all, Jim Abbott threw a no-hitter while wearing the pinstripes—just one of his many athletic accomplishments—and he was born with only one hand.


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