Italy’s Take on Baseball for the Blind Fosters ‘Sense of Freedom’

BOLOGNA, Italy — When Eugenio Brivio first started coaching blind baseball players in 2002, getting across one basic tenet had him stumped.

“The first rule they teach you is to keep your eye on the ball,” Mr. Brivio said on the sidelines of a game one sultry Sunday at Bologna’s Leoni ballpark. “You can imagine the challenge I felt.”

Stefano Malaguti, the association’s commissioner, paraphrased a bit from the 1988 film “Bull Durham” to underscore that the blind players are still players. They “throw the ball, catch the ball and hit the ball,” he said. “We try to respect the sense of the sport.”

The twists for blind players were honed through two decades of trials, spearheaded above all by Alfredo Meli, a former Italian baseball champion — as player and coach — who died in 2010. “He thought of everything,” said Alberto Mazzanti, president of Italy’s blind baseball association, A.I.B.X.C., and a founder of the league. “The game was invented here. We have the copyright.”