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The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award

Letter of Recommendation Form
Thank you for your support of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards program.
Please complete the form below to submit your letter of recommendation in support of the award nominee. Recommendations cannot exceed 800 words. You will not be able to submit your recommendation if the maximum word count exceeds 800 words.
Please note that recommendations should come from someone other than the person who nominated the candidate. Please note that required fields on this form are indicated by an asterisk (*).

* Nominee Name:
* Your First Name:
* Your Last Name:
* Your State:
* Your Phone Number:
* Your Email Address:
* Your Relationship to Nominee:

Please enter your letter of recommendation in the text area provided below: To Whom It May Concern, I write in strong support of the National Beep Baseball Association’s application for the Jacob Bolotin Award. As the author of the book Beep: Inside the Unseen World of Baseball for the Blind (2018), I came to understand the sport of Beep Baseball and the community surrounding it very deeply as I followed the league from 2012 to 2016. Beep Ball is a wonderful, challenging, competitive, gritty sport that offers blind and visually impaired players a chance to take part in America’s pass-time, a chance to organize in their local communities, and a chance to run headlong into a buzzing base. The feeling of freedom that the sport gives the players can’t be underestimated, and independence and autonomy are strong values within the league. So are support and fellowship. That makes the NBBA unique. It’s a group that emerges from disability but it highlights ability, amiability, flexibility, durability. It’s about pushing limits as much as it is about keeping a steady hand. It’s about team-building and communication. But that doesn’t make it all sweet. In competition, the players experience intense rivalry, they create their own legends, and they celebrate a game many of them believed they might never play. Over the years, Beep Ball has also built up a passionate following among the players’ families, friends, and wider communities. And the sport has gone international, with a following in Taiwan, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina. This April, with the support of the U.S. Embassy, a demonstration of Beep Ball is planned for the African nation of Senegal. In short, Beep Ball is growing, and the great players, coaches, volunteers, and support staff could use your stamp of approval to help them expand even further, bringing in additional corporate donors and developing additional programs in cities like Washington, D.C., Columbus, Ohio, and Salt Lake City, Utah. (These expansion teams are the dreams of yours truly, but I hope it says something that I believe in the NBBA to move quickly to bring the game to even more participants.) This month, as pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training for Major League Baseball, I’m thinking again about the NBBA. In Beep Ball, it’s always the bottom of the 9th, full count. There’s always a hero at the plate, imagining the payoff pitch. It’s childhood, it’s sports, it’s opportunity. With your help, more people can experience the exhilaration and the sound of ball meeting bat. Sincerely and amiably, Dr. David Wanczyk Assistant Professor of Instruction Editor, New Ohio Review Dept. of English Ohio University Athens, OH 45701
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The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award

Letter of Recommendation Form