On Boundaries In Sports

Boundaries have a role in sports.

Sidelines, rules, and unwritten codes of ethics represent boundaries needed to ensure a match proceeds in an orderly fashion.

But events I attended the last two days involved dedicated individuals working to remove boundaries that have no place in sports.

Sunday, Globe Life Field in Arlington hosted Swinging For A Cause. Attendees had the run of the big league baseball playing surface, participating in all manner of field-day-style activities. They played catch, hit wiffle balls, tossed horseshoes, threw footballs, kicked soccer balls, and enjoyed loads of other fun physical activities in the presence of the 2023 World Series trophy the field’s regular occupants won a month or so ago.

Proceeds from the day of play benefitted The Sandlot Children’s Charity. Founded by Texas Rangers Baseball Club Radio Announcer Jared Sandler, the nonprofit provides grants to organizations that create opportunities for individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities.

The annual event outgrew its previous location at Topgolf and as it has added donors, it’s also added to the number of groups it helps. Working with the charity the last few years, I’ve gotten to see a wide variety of entities targeting persons with specific disabilities or looking to facilitate participation in certain categories of sports. They’re all working to remove boundaries that might prevent those with disabilities from participating in sports.

And the important part here is that they succeed. We’ve talked to parents, organizers, and athletes themselves about how activities like playing tennis, racing in wheelchairs, and riding in horse shows provide lasting benefits to differently abled competitors.

There is one sport where the word “boundary” connotes a positive: cricket (unless you’re the bowler who just surrendered one). The term “boundary” in that pastime connotes a ball hit out of play, roughly the equivalent of a baseball home run.?

Sixes Party Cricket , a new venture in The Colony featuring computerized video cricket batting cages along with food and drink, opened their venue Monday to local Special Olympics athletes. The international organization reports that more than 80,000 Special Olympians worldwide participate in cricket, but such opportunities remain limited in the United States.

Indeed, the sport of cricket itself has lately made a substantial push to establish itself stateside. Major League Cricket debuted this summer and the International Cricket Council will hold the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup across the U.S. and the West Indies. Newly dedicated venues, like the Grand Prairie Stadium cricket ground, Mustangs Cricket Academy, and Sixes look to broaden cricket’s appeal for athletes of all abilities in order to grow the sport.

In addition to volunteers, vendors, and ticketholders, Sunday’s event also included a number of current and former professional athletes. One can readily see the benefits sport has provided to the likes of Jon Gray, Drew Pearson, Darren Oliver, Derek Holland , Mark McLemore , Steve Buechele, Mike Adams, and the evening’s Community Excellence Award winner, Marcus Semien. But one does not have to learn to play at the highest levels to benefit from sport. The smiles of Buddy Up Tennis athletes Brady Vaughn and Sarah Haake as they romped across the pickleball court in shallow left center field provided proof of the joy such play brings.

The same held true for cricket. Members of the Dallas Mustangs attended the event at Sixes. Their squad brought the area its first 2023 bat-and-ball championship when they claimed the Sunoco Minor League Cricket Championship in early October. One young athlete they worked with Monday had participated in plenty of other sports through Special Olympics and his father wanted him to try his hand at cricket. The young man picked up a bat and almost immediately started making consistent contact, helped, no doubt, by the athletic abilities he had developed playing other sports.

I had a long discussion Monday about baseball and softball techniques a cricketer might learn to improve his or her cricket performance and vice versa. Trying unconventional approaches to developing one’s game requires circumventing one’s own mental boundaries. When it comes to improving performance or expanding participation, removing boundaries is what sports is all about.

This article originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website.

Rush Olson has spent two-plus decades directing creative efforts for sports teams, broadcasters, and related entities. He currently conceives and executes content projects through his companies, Rush Olson Creative & Sports, FourNine Productions and Mint Farm Films. Through MFF, he’s at work on biographical documentaries about Nancy Lieberman, Sidney Moncrief, Pudge Rodríguez, Ed Belfour, and Bob Lilly as well as a show about the The College Gridiron Showcase.

Subscribe to @MintFarmFilms on YouTube to see excerpts from upcoming documentaries.