As they rounded third and headed home, Blake Shaffer stopped the wheelchair halfway through the baseline, picked up his son and slid him into home — all while his teammates chanted “Landon, Landon, Landon” from the dugout.
“It was so cool,” said Blake Shaffer, who owns Springfield-based LWS Tax and Accounting Services. “He loved that (slide). His hand got all ripped up and he thought it was cool.”
Blake Shaffer and Landon, who is wheelchair-bound after being diagnosed with a rare copper deficiency called Menke’s Disease as an infant, are participating in the 6-and-under baseball league at Northridge this season.
Landon made his first appearance on the diamond May 14, hitting a grand slam and playing left field for the team sponsored by his father’s accounting firm, which is named after his son.
“You can see the joy in his face being part of a team,” said Tina Shaffer, Landon’s mother, who captured Landon’s first at-bat on video.
While their life isn’t really normal, Blake Shaffer said, playing baseball is a chance for Landon to participate like any other child. As he watched the video later that night, that’s when the tears came, he said.
“He loves it,” Blake Shaffer said. “He knows he’s part of a team. It’s really cool for us. It’s something we didn’t think was ever going to be possible.”
Fist bumps
When Landon was born in 2006, Blake Shaffer couldn’t wait to share sports, especially baseball, with his son.
Landon was developing on track at first. But at 6 months old, he started regressing, his parents said. Tina Shaffer, a nurse, thought her son would need therapy.
In the summer of 2007, doctors at Dayton Children’s Hospital diagnosed Landon with Menke’s, a rare disease which stops the intestines from absorbing copper, leading to copper deficiency.
“It’s not a diagnosis you want to hear for your first child with all the hopes and dreams you have for him,” Tina Shaffer said, “but he continues to surprise us.”
The disease occurs in one of every 100,000 to 250,000 births, according to the Menke’s Foundation, and primarily affects male infants. Symptoms include weak muscles and rosy cheeks.
“They told us he would only live to be 2 to 4 (years old),” Blake Shaffer said, “and he’s 8. He’s really healthy. As long as he gets his medicine, he does pretty well.”
Landon and his father share a love of the Cincinnati Reds, Blake Shaffer said — including favorite players Brandon Phillips and Todd Frazier.
“We watch every game we can,” he said.
Next month, Landon will finish up first grade at Northridge Elementary School — another experience his parents never thought would happen. He spends his days mostly in his wheelchair, but the students accepted him immediately, often sharing fist pumps. Landon is happy at school, learning how to communicate through blinking and eye gazing, Blake Shaffer said.
The family isn’t sure how far along Landon is mentally, but he often answers questions at school, blinking twice for “yes.”
“He’s very smart, he just can’t tell anybody,” Blake Shaffer said.
Last year, Landon struggled through problems with his bladder, dropping to 25 pounds, Tina Shaffer said. He fought his way through it and now is healthy as ever.
“He’s had trial after trial,” she said.
Game ball
Before Landon was born, Blake Shaffer and his close friend, Thor Bisher, had often talked about sharing the ball diamond with their children. Over the last few years, Blake Shaffer often sponsored teams at the Northridge baseball league, including his 5-year-old daughter Aliya’s team.
As the season grew closer, Bisher approached Blake Shaffer about having Landon participate on his baseball team this season. The goal, at first, was to get Landon in the dugout with the other boys, said Bisher, a third-grade teacher at Snowhill Elementary in Springfield. The plan quickly turned into rolling Landon on to the field with his teammates, as long as Blake Shaffer kept him safe, to play defense and hit off the tee.
“I knew we were, through something as simple as that, giving him a kind of dream come true,” Bisher said.
Earlier this month at Northridge’s Opening Day, Landon was announced as part of Bisher’s team. It’s also been positive for Bisher and the other players, including his 6-year-old son Charlie.
“These kids will grow up and say, ‘I remember we had a kid on our team in a wheelchair!’ ” Bisher said. “For them to see someone who looks different, but is like them, and to experience that, I think it’s huge.”
After each game, Bisher gives one player the game ball — often using it as an opportunity to make his players laugh. Last Thursday, the game ball belonged to Landon.
“I was trying to say something funny and I was choking up giving it to Landon,” Bisher said.
Throughout the game, Blake Shaffer asked him if he was having fun, emphatically blinking every time.
“He was just a little boy doing what all the other little boys get to do in a little bit of a different way,” Blake Shaffer said. “For him, it’s exactly the same.”
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