New Handicapped-Accessible Sports Field Opens in Nassau County

EAST MEADOW, NY - The new handicapped-accessible sports field at Eisenhower Park opened this past weekend just in time for the start of the 2016 baseball season.

Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano was joined by Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves, County Legislators Rose Marie Walker and Dennis Dunne, as well Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker, Kristine Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of League of YES (LOY), and players from both the Nassau and Suffolk LOY divisions joined together on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the new field.

“This sports complex, which is the first of its kind in Nassau County, has been designed not only for baseball but for multiple sports and uses state of the art turf suitable for walkers, wheelchairs and other adaptive mobility devices and prosthetics,” Mangano said. “With the creation of the new field, the League of YES is now able to provide special needs baseball fans in Nassau County and beyond the opportunity to play the game they love.”

Since 2010, the League of YES (formerly known as the Miracle League of Long Island) has provided players with special needs the opportunity to play baseball.

The opening day officially kicked off with the nationally ranked marching band for the disabled the FREE Players Drum Corp and the Kellenberg Memorial High School Choir singing the National Anthem, before County Executive Mangano threw out the first pitch to one of the league’s original players and best hitters, Zachary Stein.

The new field, built with state-of-the-art turf suitable for walkers, wheelchairs as well as other mobility devices and prosthetics, was designed to be used for multiple sports.

The new field provide special needs baseball fans in Nassau County the opportunity to play the sports they want.

Fitzpatrick said she was thrilled to see her years of negotiations, planning, and hard work has come to fruition.

The first League of YES field, located in at Bald Hill in Farmingville, has been serving hundreds of special needs players and thousands of volunteers for the past five years and will continue to do so in the future.

Registration for the 2016 season is now open and all players with special needs who want to play baseball can choose which field they want to play on.