Eighteen years the father of an autistic child, Mark Reid still finds the need to take a step back and a deep breath.
“Oh, it’s very frustrating,” he said. “You get to the point where you have to walk away and come back and try to calm Adam.
“Show them a lot of love and they’ll do anything for you. But they challenge you. That’s just part of life.”
Peter Ladka founded You are Beautiful People so that special-needs children could do more than just watch life, but be part of life.
“Joshua misses a lot of school because of his therapies,” said Ashley Decker about her 10-year-old brother. “But when he goes on the field, it’s not Joshua with spina bifida, [it’s] just Joshua having a good time.
“When he’s out there, his confidence level is through the roof. When he was born, we didn’t know if he would walk. Now he’s telling the doctor, ‘I need a walker that will make me run faster.’ ”
Few things come faster in this world to children with special needs than being told what they can’t do, rather than what they can. When, at noon yesterday, Mark Teixeira walked into a suite where the Hope Week honorees would watch the Yankees and told them that after the game they were going to play with the Yankees, they cheered without limitations.
“It’s a lot of fun playing baseball,” said Ladka, who has five healthy kids and decided to thank God and the Orange County community with this program.
“Maybe there are people out there who don’t have the opportunity.”
Twenty-five kids showed up for the first game in 2005. Now there are four teams that play 12 games a season in a league where they can’t keep standings because everybody always wins.
They came off the bus yesterday, 18 players and one announcer — Daniel Fratto, who wheels a portable oxygen tank behind him because of an immune-deficiency syndrome — smiling through practically every cruel trick nature can play.
At least 50 percent have autism or a sensory-perception disorder, at least when not on the field.
“I see a big difference,” said Reid about Adam. “He’s calmer, he pays better attention now, talks to his teammates.”
Every player has a helper at bat and in the field. Yesterday, the Yankees were the helpers, although down at third base, Rebecca Tomczak, who has Down syndrome, thought A.J. Burnett was the one who needed help finding a girlfriend: herself.
“She said, ‘This is my A.J.,” said Lance Berkman, “told me to get away, punk.”
“This is so neat. They’re almost beside themselves every time they pick up the ball.”
Every time they do, it picks up their heroic parents. Asked what Beautiful People was doing for her 13-year-old Rusty, who has cerebral palsy and plays second base in a wheelchair, Joelle Wilkins paused.
“There are no words,” she finally said.
“He’s been watching a twin brother play since they were 3. Now he’s involved, and on that field he just lights up.
“His favorite channel is the MLB Network. He’s on the computer watching his Red Sox. Baseball has become his thing.”
Maybe that’s because, in this sport, even the best players get hits only three out of ten times.
“A young autistic man who came with us kept throwing ball after ball into ground,” said Ladka.
“By the sixth game, he and his dad were in the outfield throwing to each other. “I said to myself, ‘That one picture is representation of what this organization is about.’ “