A competitive baseball team made up of amputees is coming to Bowling Green to spread awareness about diversity in sports.
The Louisville Slugger Warriors is a nationally sponsored nonprofit for adult amputee baseball players.
Players are U.S. military veterans, active duty personnel, Wounded Warriors, and current or former amputee college baseball players.
The head coaches are two former Major League Baseball players, Curtis Pride and Len Whitehouse, and their honorary coach is John Kruk.
Western Kentucky University is bringing the team to campus for an award-winning documentary screening highlighting their stories, and to scrimmage the WKU baseball team.
The event, called Heroes on the Hill, is being put on by the Mary E. Hensley Lecture Series, and is a partnership with the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences and WKU Athletics.
“That’s something we don’t normally see on a speaker series and so it’s really exciting to be the first time to really partner in that way between athletics and academics,” said Corrine Murphy, dean of the CEBS.
The Louisville Slugger Warriors play in national and regional tournaments around the country and in special events against able-bodied teams.
“We want everyone to feel welcome and wanted. Our best achievement will be the more we can have, the better,” Murphy said.
The event on WKU’s campus will be the first time the Slugger Warriors play in Kentucky.
The documentary screening will be held Friday, Oct. 10, at 6 pm at the Downing Student Union Auditorium and will feature a Q&A panel afterwards.
The scrimmage game will be Saturday, Oct. 11, at 1 pm at Nick Denes Field. Both events are free and open to the public.