AURORA, IL — The National Beep Baseball Association is slated to host its 50th annual World Series Aug. 3-8 in Aurora.
The championship will likely bring more than 600 visually impaired athletes representing 21 teams from across the United States to Aurora's Stuart Sports Complex, 39W585 Jericho Road.
The NBBA is partnering with the DuPage Sports Commission, Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the City of Aurora to host the week of competitions.
Advocates from Minnesota, Kansas, Texas and Arizona established the NBBA in 1976 in Chicago to ensure people who are blind or visually impaired could still play baseball. Beep baseball traces its origins to engineer Charlie Fairbanks, who in 1964 modified a softball by inserting an electronic beeping device so that blind children could play the game.
"Sports have a unique ability to unite people and strengthen communities," DuPage Sports Commission Director of Sports Igor Bakovic said in a statement. "Supporting the NBBA World Series reflects the type of impact we strive to create through sports — bringing people together in service of something larger than the game itself."
The NBBA World Series has been held annually since 1976 in communities across the United States and internationally, including Taipei, Taiwan, in 2000. Illinois has hosted the World Series twice, first in 1990 in Chicago and again in 2002 in Glenview.
Chicago remains the only city to have a team represented at every NBBA World Series since the inaugural tournament. The city's legacy includes the Chicago Bluffs, Chicago Insight, Chicago Cobras and today's Chicago Comets, who captured the 2003 World Series title.
A full tournament schedule is live on the NBBA website.
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