West Michigan Miracle League seeking donations | News

PLAINFIELD TWP., Mich. (WZZM) Tony Comden says he's been meeting plenty of West Michiganders who understand his dream. "What I've really been most surprised about is how many people that I've never met before have come out of the corners of West Michigan and called me, sent me an e-mail asking what they can do to help," says Comden.

Tony Comden shared his son Jed's story with WZZM in the summer of 2010. Believing that "Every child deserves a chance to play baseball," Comden founded the West Michigan Miracle League. He's worked tirelessly for the past few months to try to raise $600,000 to build a Miracle League field as part of a large baseball and softball complex to be developed near 10 Mile Road and Highway 131. "We're a little more than 20 percent toward our goal. We have a lot of outstanding requests right now. We have opportunities for naming rights to the field. So if there's a company that's particulary committed to baseball and to opportunities for disabled kids, we can have a Miracle League field named after them."

Plans are to construct the field next year with a completion date set for August, 2013. "A month ago, I sat in the dining room of a local sophomore in high school who has muscular dystrophy and loves baseball. I talked with him about our project and he's very excited. But he got real quiet and said, "You know, I wish we could have had this field a couple of years ago when I was still well enough to play.' Those stories get to me. They get me fired up. We need to get this field ready to go because every year that passes, we're going to be losing opportunities for kids to play baseball."  

Comden will hold a public meeting Monday night, April 16th at Rockford City Hall at 7:00 to provide information and answer questions about the Miracle Field.

WZZM 13 Sports Director Tom Clyde is a board member of the West Michigan Miracle League.