Bob Collins
In two weeks, Reggie Deal will plop down in a seat at Target Field at Minneapolis and be generally unimpressed by the skyline, the giant Target ad on Target Center, or the big light pole beyond the rightfield bleachers. Deal won’t see any of those things, but despite being blind, he’ll drink the scene in with other senses.
“There are a lot of things you’re able to experience,” he tells MLB.com, “when your faculties take over and supplement what’s not there.”
Deal has started a mission to visit 30 baseball parks in 30 days. He’s sandwiching Minneapolis in between Boston and Phoenix.
“I want people to have a different visual of what blindness entails,” the Wyoming man said. “People get caught up in the negative, but there are ways to work around it.”
He’s documenting his trip on his Facebook page (he’s also on Twitter), where it’s obvious one of his biggest challenges will be how to fit in all the fans who want to meet him into what must surely be a hectic schedule to make the ballgames and the airline connections.
“People ask me, ‘How can you enjoy the game without seeing it?'” he said. “I say, ‘You don’t realize how much of the game you can pick up on until you close your eyes.'”
