It was a normal evening at the baseball field, with all the sounds of a classic game: the thud of bat to ball, cheering players encouraging each other, running for the bases - but with a few new sounds as well. The team, Indy Thunder, was playing beep baseball, a form of baseball played by people who are visually impaired. Their 2017 season and quest to repeat a win at the World Championships is at the center of a new documentary, “Thunder Rolls!: The World of Blind Baseball.”

Beep baseball is a co-ed sport, played with an oversized softball that beeps. There is no second base; instead players tag first and third base, which stand at about five feet high and resemble a football practice dummy. Both people who are sighted and visually blind can play, though sighted players are usually blindfolded, and players include a range of ages. 

Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus Robert Arnove’s journey with beep baseball started 20 years ago when he was introduced to it by a cousin. He knew he wanted to make a documentary about the sport and reached out to Susanne Schwibs, senior lecturer at the IU Media School, to see if she was interested in making the film with him.

Arnove calls the film an educational and feel-good story, centering around a team with a tremendous love for baseball. 

“When you tell people you’re making a film about people who are blind playing baseball, they said how is this possible. It is possible as we tried to illuminate in the film. When you open up opportunities, people with disabilities can compete at Olympic levels,” he said.

As the Indy Thunder team came together as a family to win, so too did the film crew. Arnove noted the absolutely key role that Schwibs played as co-director, producer, and editor, adding the making of the documentary was a labor of love, with most work done for free by the crew.

After a selection in the Heartland Film Festival and two sold-out shows in Bloomington, the public are invited to a free screening of the movie at the Waldron Arts Center on Sunday, December 3, at 1:30 p.m.

Arnove hopes the film helps people expand their notions towards those with disabilities.

“People with disabilities have a tremendous range of talents and skills, given opportunities to live fuller lives and do what they want to do. This film shows that this is possible,” he said.