By Jordan McAlpine, Reporter
After being away since the fall of 2019, the Miracle League returned to Omaha’s AllPlay Field this fall for eight afternoons of buddy baseball.
“A year and a half off was a long time and you just saw today what it meant for the kids,” said Miracle League Marlins head coach Kenny Livermore.
A league that provides kids and young adults the chance to play non-competitive baseball on a field that’s accessible for anyone, there are two divisions and over 350 kids in the league. This was the 12th year the Miracle League has existed in Omaha, but this fall had an extra special feeling to it. The chance to be back.
“It’s something for them to do because for a lot of them, this is all they get to do,” Livermore said. “Like I said to see them out here with smiles and stuff, that’s what it’s about.”
Livermore, who has been coaching for 10 years now, got started by finding a pamphlet laying in the parking lot at a Ralston Baseball Field. The father to a girl with Down Syndrome himself, he wouldn’t want to spend his Saturday’s any other way. There is no better coaching job out there in his eyes.
Livermore’s Marlins team consists of kids ages 13 and older and they’ve been together for 10 years now. One of those kids is Kaden Boetteger, who also has Down Syndrome. He has played in the Miracle League since he was four years old and is now a freshman at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
He and his Marlins teammates received their year-end trophies Saturday to complete what he said has been a fun fall season. He had a smile from ear to ear when he received that trophy, but his favorite part of playing baseball comes out on the field.
“My favorite part is running around the bases,” Boetteger said.
Boetteger and his Marlins teammates will be back again next summer along with the rest of the Miracle League. This time the wait won’t be so long.
