Watertown has become the home training spot for the Boston Renegades, a beep baseball team. The sport allows players with vision impairments to continue to play and be part of a team.
The team marks its 25th anniversary in 2025, and for most of that time Watertown has been its home. Each Sunday, the Renegades take the field at Filippello Park to prepare for upcoming tournaments, including the NBBA Beep Baseball World Series.
Some aspects of beep baseball are like the game played by major leaguers at Fenway Park. There are bases, bats, and balls. However, the ball is bigger, and beeps to allow fielders to track it by sound. There are only two bases, and to score a run a batter must put the ball into play and reach the base before a fielder can secure it. If the fielder controls the ball before the runner reaches base, it’s an out. Batters know where to run by the tone emitted from the base.
The whole time, all players — batters and fielders, alike — are blindfolded so they cannot see anything.
Guy Zuccarello first joined the Renegades in 2001, and said while he isn’t the oldest player, he believes he is the longest tenured one.
“It’s just so much fun. It’s addicting. It’s an external motivation to stay active and do something for exercise,” Zuccarello said. “It challenges me. It’s just awesome being part of the team, being part of a group — and that camaraderie. It’s a family as much as it is a team.”
Zuccarello now lives in Belmont and grew up in the area. He did not begin losing his sight until later in life. A big Red Sox fan, he also played youth baseball as far as the Babe Ruth level (adding that he wasn’t very good). When he was 19, he began to lose his central vision. Several years later, he discovered beep baseball through the Association of Blind Citizens.
“I said, ‘Wow!” Zuccarello said. “All the losses I had from losing my vision, losing my license; finally I was getting something back.”
Zuccarello said the Renegades have opened up opportunities for him to have new experiences.
“We’ve been part of a documentary about the sport. The Sox have hosted us at Fenway, these things I would never have had a chance of doing before,” he said. “They’re trying to establish a trip to Puerto Rico in August. One of our players is from there originally, and it’s trying to get the sport going on the island. So that’s just everyone’s efforts to grow the sport.”
The Renegades’ roster is made up of players, as well as a large number of coaches. Along with helping train the players, during games the coaches are in the field serving as the eyes of the fielders, said Bryan Grillo of Watertown, who has been part of the team since 2003.
The beep baseball field has 12 zones, six on the left and six on the right. The coaches can give some guidance, but can only say one word: the zone number.
“Based on tone and inflection, how you say the number conveys information: whether it’s in the air, whether it’s a hard hit, whether it’s in front of you,” Grillo said. “So with different ways of conveying information, just by that one number, because that’s all you can say.”
Some speak of the Renegades as family, and for coach Hunter Weissman it is a family affair. He was first introduced to the sport by his uncle, Rob Weissman, who is the Renegades’ head coach. His sister took part for a while, and his mother used to volunteer.
“(Rob) has been doing it with a few of his buddies for a long time, and he introduced me to the game when I was, like, five years old,” Weissman said. “In 2004 he brought a blindfold and made me go find it. I didn’t do all that well.”
A former college baseball player at Franklin Pierce, he grew up in Westminster. He moved to Belmont, and got to know Watertown through the Renegades. Now Weissman is a program coordinator with the Watertown Recreation Department.
Weissman’s primary role with the Renegades is hitting coach, and he recently began pitching. He also runs the live streams of games on the team’s Facebook page.
He treasures his experience with the Renegades.
“We have some guys that are totally blind, and we have some people who have partial sight and peripherals,” he said. “It’s really an amazing mix of amazing people on this team. So it’s truly incredible. It’s one of the greatest experiences of my life.”
The Renegades will play in three competitions this year. The Beast of the East tournament takes place in two legs, the first in Woburn on June 21, and the second on June 28 in Norwood, Pennsylvania. Then from July 21- July 27, the team will compete in the Beep Baseball World Series outside St. Louis in Edwardsville, Illinois. Teams from across the United States, and as far as Taiwan, to play in the NBBA World Series.
The team is always on the lookout for both players and coaches, Grillo said, and the team also relies on donations to cover the cost of equipment and travel.
“It’s an expensive sport to play. The ball costs almost $40. The bases are a couple hundred dollars and of course, there’s travel expenses, from rental cars to airplanes to hotels,” Grillo said. “The Beep Baseball World Series is going to be an expensive week. So we’re always looking for people — if they’re interested in donating, they can.”
The Renegades have published their own media guide for 2025, with player biographies and more. See it by clicking here.
Find out more about the Boston Renegades at www.blindcitizens.org/renegades/.