Man With Developmental Disability Named Softball League's MVP

REGO PARK, QUEENS — Every summer Saturday for 15 years, Hal Rubin has trekked from Rego Park to Ozone Park to play softball.

This is no ordinary softball league. The non-profit American Softball league is especially for players like Rubin, who have autism and developmental disabilities and who otherwise have few opportunities to play sports.

Rubin, 61, had spent season after season trying out for a junior softball league when he was growing up in Queens in the 1960s. Season after season, they turned him away.

It wasn't until Rubin was in his forties that he found a league of his own.

He moved into a home in Rego Park for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities like his, where staffers helped him find American Softball's then-burgeoning league.

"They told me I shouldn't give up on finding a team that was right for me," Rubin said.

Rubin joined the league in 2004 as a catcher and morning exercise instructor, and he started recruiting other teammates at his YAI home.

"There are a lot of places out there for children with autism and other developmental disabilities, but we're the only league I know of that does something for adults with these kinds of disabilities," Randy Novick, founder and CEO of American Softball, said.

The team has since grown to include more than a hundred players, but Rubin isn't just any player.

While celebrating the league's last game of the season on Aug. 24, he got a special surprise — the trophy for Most Valuable Player.

"I love everything about the game," Rubin said. "I love the friends I've made. I love the coaches. I love to be outside and to run. I love that it keeps me fit. Everything, I love it all."