Larry With Springfield College President Richard B. Flynn...So What's it Got To Do With Advocacy???

 

Photo courtesy of Springfield College

 The movie "Field of Dreams" asks the question: "So what's it got to do with baseball?" And you might ask the question "What does baseball have to do with advocacy?" The answer is simple, for me, baseball has become a key which has opened many doors. When I was laid off from my job in the textile industry, all I wanted to do was get another job. I had an opportunity, along with other laid-off textile workers, to take advantage of the Trade Adjustment Act (TAA), a government program designed to retrain workers who lost jobs as a result of various government Trade Acts.  One of the retraining options was completing one's education. 

It had been 40 years since I had flunked out of college, but I had recently discovered my learning disabilities, and now there are ways to deal with them. I was not seeking any fame or notoriety, I just needed a job. Even when I started school, all I want to do was "pass," I just wanted a college diploma. My success in school academically was immediate. For the first time in my life I actually enjoyed school. I ended my first semester with all "A"s, and found myself on the Dean's List. I mentioned the irony of the situation; that I was for the first time in my life academically eligible to play sports, but was too old, to my advisor and English literature professor, who offered the quote from Albert Einstein "Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible." 

The next thing I knew I found myself sitting in the baseball coach's office, asking if I could tryout for the team. While making no guarantees, he said that I would be given the same opportunities as any other student. At 58 years old I was working out with kids ranging in age from 18 to 23, and ended up making the Junior Varsity Baseball Team at Springfield College. A deluge of publicity followed these events, including newspaper articles, an ESPN story, radio interviews from Boston to San Francisco to Canada, TV spots on Channel 22 Springfield, Fox 6, Channel 7 Boston, and ABC 40, and an extensive video and story on Boston.com in association with a lavish Boston Globe article. President Flynn came to baseball games to watch me pitch, and when we met, we spent most of our time together talking about baseball. 

When I realized that my story was being used as an inspiration for children in reading centers and dyslexic clinics across the country, and that I had been offered opportunities to tell my story at various speaking engagements, I decided to make the most of it, with the idea of advocating for children with learning disabilities, and letting them know, with myself as an example, that with the understanding of their particular disability, and perseverance, that they too could achieve the "impossible,"as long as they never give up.