Everyone is a star when it comes to Buddy Baseball

Read the story on the Tampa Beacon: Everyone Is a Star When It Comes to Buddy Baseball

---

TEMPLE TERRACE — Baseball has long served as a living metaphor for poets and philosophers who’ve found depth in its elegant simplicity. Walt Whitman called it “the most perfect game ever invented,” – a slow ritual that teaches, connects and quietly binds one soul to another.

This fall, that same spirit will echo across a small field tucked behind Lewis Elementary School. There, pitches come soft and slow, swings are gloriously imperfect and baseball’s sacred unspoken rules are bent to make room for joy and laughter.

This is Buddy Baseball — a non-competitive league for children and young adults with special needs.

A Buddy Baseball player helps a player with special needs bat during a game.

To them, baseball is simply the canvas on which to create a community where every child is seen, celebrated and supported. It’s a space where teenage buddies stretch beyond their comfort zones – and is a sanctuary for parents who’ve spent years navigating life alone, only to find a sense of community.

“I think every parent should have the opportunity to see their kid play baseball — and not be judged, or bullied or made fun of,” said Buddy Baseball founder Russ Oberbroeckling.

It's more than baseball. It’s a masterclass in human connection.

A league rooted in love

Oberbroeckling, a financial adviser by trade, started Buddy Baseball in 2009 after seeing how a similar league in Illinois unlocked a world of joy and possibility for his nephew with special needs.

“It so touched me how special this was for her (his sister) and her family. The gratitude of all the parents, who thought their kids could never play baseball,” he says. “It gives me personal satisfaction to know that I can help these families experience what I watched my kids do when they were little and what I did when I was little.”

Today, the league welcomes more than 300 players and 300 buddies each season. Every child, aged 8 to 22, is paired with a buddy who does more than help them play — they walk beside them, game after game, getting to know one another.

Bigger than baseball

There are no standings, no strikeouts, no scoreboards and everyone is always safe. In that absence of pressure, something has taken shape.

Oberbroeckling recalls one mother told him her daughter “doesn’t like playing, but she likes hanging out in the dugout with all of her friends.”

That, to him, is the heart of it.

Kelly Carpenter, a 20-season veteran of the league with Down syndrome, is a very different story. She heard about Buddy Baseball through a special needs karate class and fell in love from the start.

“They learn a lot from their mentors. She could swing about and stuff, but didn't really know how to play the game or anything,” said her mom, Eileen. “Sometimes I feel like she could probably be somebody’s buddy now because she's learned a lot.”

But what shaped her wasn’t the game — it was the company. For eight seasons, Kelly played alongside Hailey, a buddy who became something more. They picked strawberries in the spring, texted like any pair of teenagers and showed up for each other’s birthdays and plays.

Hailey moved on from Buddy Baseball after getting a job. But their friendship endures.

“Hailey started working at Chuck E Cheese,” Eileen says. “So they have that to talk about and stuff.” And for Kelly? She’s still playing and has quickly formed a friendship with her new buddy.

In the bleachers, parents swap more than small talk. They exchange the names of therapists, trade IEP advice and share the unspoken weight of raising misunderstood children.

“They have a whole new language that we don’t know because we’re not in that environment,” Oberbroeckling said. “The relationships have been strong. I’ve been to plays our kids are in, and I’ll see the parents of the buddies there to watch.”

For Kelly and Eileen, Buddy Baseball has become something rare and essential: community. A place where they’re not just welcomed, but understood.

“It’s a tight-knit group. Russ is like the ultimate connector of people in the community – it's not about him.”

Learning to lead

The buddies — volunteers between the ages of 10 and 22 — often arrive at their first game with fluttering nerves, unsure of what to say or how to connect. For many, it’s their first time interacting with a child who moves, communicates or learns in ways. But as the nerves settle, bonds begin to form — and more often than not, it’s the buddies who leave most changed.

“It’s very common that these kids have a relationship with their buddies,” says Oberbroeckling. “I’ve seen buddies and players go to places like Busch Gardens, birthday parties, the movies or Rays games together.”

The league has awarded more than $40,000 to 216 buddies through the Sarah Otteson Buddy Scholarship, which aims to recognize those who lead with heart, return year after year and become part of the league’s soul. The three winners this year, which each buddy receiving $1,000 funded by the Tampa East Sertoma Club, were Emily Oliver, Noah Sagnip and Trenton Teeling.

Off the field

Behind every joyful inning is the quiet work of many — organizing, fundraising and showing up. Buddy Baseball is powered by donations (56%), sponsorships (36%) and modest registration fees of just $30 per player and $15 per buddy.

“He's (Russell) got super dedicated people on his board,” Eileen said. “He's got a ton of support beyond him, which is good, because if it were just Russ trying to hold up the ship, then it's going to sink sometime.”

That support doesn’t just cover uniforms and fields – it helps create the moments that matter most: parades, Rays games, cookouts, and back-to-school celebrations where friendships grow and joy lingers.

Baseball is just the setting, not the story. The real story is friendship and the sense of belonging to something greater than any one person.

If a child wants to play, Oberbroeckling and Buddy Baseball find a way. Blind, nonverbal, first time on a field – it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they belong. That’s why the league recently built a wheelchair-accessible, synthetic turf field and is already planning a second.

Step up to the plate

As the fall season approaches, registration is open. Players, buddies and community sponsors have until Aug. 18 to get involved. The games begin Sept. 27 and run through Nov. 8.

In a world that too often speeds past difference, Buddy Baseball lingers – with open arms, steady laughter and the quiet, radical act of making everyone feel seen. It reminds us that inclusion isn’t about grand gestures, but about presence – and that sometimes, the smallest moments echo loudest in the heart.

To register a player or buddy, visit https://buddybaseball.org/registration/. For more information on Buddy Baseball, visit https://buddybaseball.org/