Nick King photo

Yankees player Matt Hinkebein, 7, takes some practice swings as helper Tyler Roberts, foreground, 11, warms up before a recent game.

It is a picture-perfect summer evening - the kind that was made especially for baseball.

With clear blue skies and a slow-setting sun basking the fields in its glow, the Daniel Boone Little League complex is abuzz in yet another season.

Nick King photo

The Royals’ Riley Walker, 8, crosses home plate with helper Shelby Reddick, right, 10, Wednesday during their game at the Daniel Boone Little League complex. The Cardinals’ Jerryd Leiby gives his opponent a pat on the back as he crosses the plate.

On Field 4, Lyle Johnson is pitching to his son, Lanny Johnson. It’s Lanny’s second at-bat for the Royals, and he waits patiently for his dad to deliver the perfect pitch. Lanny has the look of an experienced ballplayer, despite being just 7½ years old. Sitting in his wheelchair with an oversized orange plastic bat cocked and ready, Lanny takes his father’s next offering down the third-base line. Lanny, though, isn’t content with just a single. He stretches the hit and pulls into second base, on specially crushed gravel for wheelchairs to roll smoothly over, with a smile on his face wider than the Grand Canyon. Lyle Johnson is looking right back at his son, matching him tooth for tooth.

Although it’s the seventh game of the season, it’s a moment that will never get old for Lyle, his wife, Jackie, and Lanny.

"It’s pretty awesome," said Lyle Johnson, who is also the coach of the Royals. "It’s a good feeling. I really never thought it was going to be possible, and then this came along and we were just floored. It’s just amazing."

What came along was a new league for players with developmental and physical disabilities, called the Challenger Division. A part of Little League Baseball, the Challenger Division was started in 1989 for kids such as Lanny, who suffers from spina bifida. The disease is a neural tube defect that happens in the first month of pregnancy when the spinal column doesn’t close completely. Lanny has paralysis halfway down his legs and uses crutches at home, but for baseball he needs a wheelchair.

Nick King photos

Above, helper Mary Cleek, 10, picks up a ball for Royals player Lanny Johnson, 7. Below, the Tigers’ Tori Boyles, left, and Jadria Roberts, 14, share a moment as they sit on the edge of the infield during their game against the Yankees.

Nothing, though, could keep Lanny from playing.

"I just like it," he said.

Challenger baseball didn’t make its way to Columbia until this year, and it might not have gotten here without a spur-of-the-moment detour by Bob DeGraaff.

In 2004, DeGraaff was in Indianapolis with his son, Robert, who was playing on the Daniel Boone Little League team and gunning for a spot in the Little League World Series. The Daniel Boone team finished a game short, losing in the semifinals to the eventual Midwest Regional champions from Iowa. Instead of going home, the DeGraaffs headed to Williamsport, Pa., to experience the World Series. When they arrived, Bob DeGraaff saw something that piqued his interest.

"To our surprise, there was a Challenger jamboree there," DeGraaff said. "I’d never heard of Challenger before that. On the same fields that you see on ESPN, they had Challenger baseball during the afternoon before the night games. I just thought it was really, really neat that these kids had the same opportunity. This year, my son’s now playing for Rock Bridge, so I kind of had it in the back of my mind that when he’s done and graduated" from Daniel Boone "this would be a great thing for Daniel Boone, and it fills a need in the community for team sports for kids that have either developmental or physical disabilities."

So DeGraaff began spreading the word about the possibility of a Challenger Division in Columbia and gauging interest. He says he spoke with more than 250 people to get the word out. The response has floored him. With four teams and 49 players, DeGraaff’s expectations have been exceeded.

"I credit the kids who are out there for this first year because it’s kind of a leap for a lot of these players to jump out and be part of the first year of something," said DeGraaff, the league’s coordinator. "They’ll pull in some more of their friends, and I hope to grow it from maybe four teams to six teams next year. I expect, based on how much fun we’ve had, that it will grow next year."

And it’s not just the number of kids that has impressed DeGraaff, it’s also the volunteers. The success of Challenger baseball is thanks in large part to the "player buddies" that assist the competitors during games. The buddies stand with players in the field and help them hit and run bases, while keeping everybody on the field safe. It’s buddies such as 15-year-old Jeremy Kiesewetter, who shows up every week to help out even though he’s not personally affiliated with any of the players in the league, that have helped DeGraaff and the coaches keep things running smoothly.

"It’s just fun," Kiesewetter said. "The kids really enjoy it."

What the kids seem to enjoy the most is stepping up to the plate and taking their whacks. No matter where they hit the ball, every batter reaches base because there are no outs and there is no score being kept.

Smiles count for more than runs.

For Sandy Bard, that has been evident through her son and daughter, who are participating in the league. After Angel Bard, 15, smoked a grounder to the outfield, her brother, Michael Bard, 16, followed with an inside-the-park home run. Sandy Bard was waiting in the dugout to pass out high-fives.

Although she was unsure how Angel would take to the sport, Sandy has been impressed with the improvement she’s seen in not only her own kids, but also all of the players.

"I hope it reaches out to other people with special-needs kids, because this is a challenge for these kids," Sandy Bard said. "It’s amazing.

"I never imagined having a softball team for special-needs kids because it’s a challenge. Once I’ve seen it, everything’s been possible. That’s the good thing about it. The people who started this are very special to my heart because seeing all this is really about their needs."

For Trish and Steve Wallace, the league was another way to get their son, Tim, involved in another sport. Tim, who is 13 years old and has Down syndrome, has always been involved in sports and Special Olympics, but something about the Challenger league was different.

"There’s a misnomer about Special Olympics that people think it’s for older kids and adults and it’s only a few sports," said Trish Wallace, who is an occupational therapist for Columbia Public Schools. "Even though Special Olympics has been around in Columbia for years and years, it’s not utilized as much as this has been."

With Tim involved, Trish joined as coach of the Cardinals. A typical game sees her everywhere on the field, constantly giving instruction and encouragement, with plenty of high-fives.

"I love getting the kids to do things they’ve never been able to do before, and watching them make success and have fun with each other and make friends with each other," she said.

Trish noted that the team concept of the Challenger Division has helped the players develop their skills and their friendships.

"He’s not only physically fit, but these are his friends," Trish Wallace said of Tim. "Inclusion is wonderful, but as kids grow older, their play is still different, and as much as we’d wish our kids could be in the regular mainstream, there’s still nothing like having friends that are on your level. All of his friends come from Special Olympics or Daniel Boone Little League, so we’re grateful for that. They understand each other, not that we want to segregate them even more, but in reality, there is a difference.

"When Tim starts having friends that he sees on a regular basis, that makes me feel so wonderful. That’s my main goal, for him to have friends in this world."

But even friends aren’t immune from one of baseball’s traditional pastimes, trash-talking.

"At first I was maybe overly-protective or too sensitive, and now we’re just out there playing baseball, getting our shoes or our wheels dirty, getting some grass stains," Bob DeGraaff said. "The players, just like any other dugout, trash-talk the other team and each other, and even the umpires and the coaches. I guess it’s a strong signal that everyone’s having fun."

After the Cardinals and Royals wrapped up their game, with the last batter of the inning allowed to circle the bases, the teams lined up and slapped hands.

Then they went on their way, as the sun set on another perfect game.

"To me, when you’re out here, you don’t see the kids’ handicap situation," Sandy Bard said. "You see them as kids, and that’s special."

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