Brandon Chesser Beep Baseball mask

Date2014 August 03-10

DescriptionBlack leather and vinyl blindfold eye mask with a white elastic and hook-and-loop strap. The underside of the mask has a piece of colorful cloth sewn across the bridge of the nose and bottom to prevent the wearer from being able to see out from the bottom. This mask appears to have been handmade, perhaps modifying a blindfold.

Bio/Historical NoteBlindfold/mask worn by Brandon Chesser of the Austin Blackhawks, who lost his sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, in the 2014 National Beep Baseball Association World Series. The Austin Blackhawks took first place in the Series. Beep Baseball is a modified baseball game designed for visually impaired ballplayers. In 1964 Charles Fairbanks, a telephone company engineer in Colorado, designed the first beep baseball. It took about 10 years and a newly designed ball for the sport to catch on, but by 1976 the National Beep Baseball Association was founded and the first World Series held.

Object numberB-2015-0007

Subject National Beep Baseball Association

Attributes

Classificationspersonal artifacts

Dimensions7.5 x 3.5 in.

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