HIGH POINT – Theresa Hitt smiled as she helped her 13-year-old son pull on his dark blue and red Miracle League of High Point Red Sox jersey Saturday morning.

Her son, Rinaldo Bacordo, also wore his Red Sox cap as he sat in his wheelchair waiting to play in the inaugural game at the Miracle League Field in the High Point Athletic Complex near Simeon Stadium.

Because of his disability, the teenager who attends Ferndale Middle School never before had the opportunity to play a team sport, his mother said. Now through the Miracle League of High Point, Bacordo is part of a team in his favorite sport – baseball.

Several hundred people came to the Miracle League Field to witness the first pitches, hits and runs in what promises to become a league offering thrills to boys and girls for many years. An on-again, off-again rain pelted the boys and girls as the first inning started, but no weather could dampen the enthusiasm and joy on opening day.

A cross-section of the community spent several years raising $500,000 to develop the specially designed field for children with mental and physical disabilities. One reflection of the community’s commitment – the money, almost exclusively from private funds, was raised during one of the toughest modern times for the city’s economy.

City Manager Strib Boynton said he’s never witnessed any cause in High Point that brought together such a diverse group of backers.

“Every civic club, hundreds and hundreds of individuals – I’ve never seen anything like it,” Boynton said.

The Miracle League of High Point is part of a web of baseball groups across the United States and Canada that reach 100,000 children, said Stephanie Davis, Miracle League national program director.

Davis and local dignitaries addressed the crowd of elected officials, volunteers, parents and children before the first game started. Players from the baseball teams at High Point University and Guilford Technical Community College welcomed and encouraged the Miracle League of High Point children.

pjohnson@hpe.com | 888-3528