By RICH MAYOR | PIONEER PRESS | JUL 19, 2019 | 1:24 PM

For the Glenview Blaze baseball program, winning on the diamond isn’t the only goal. Community involvement must be part of the picture, too.

The Blaze are especially committed to playing the game with their Buddy Ball partners.

The Buddy Ball program helps young people with learning and physical disabilities to be able to play baseball. Blaze players routinely pair up with their buddies and play baseball together.

And on June 24, the Blaze players took some of their buddies to Impact Field in Rosemont to watch a Chicago Dogs baseball game together.

The Dogs are a second-year franchise in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. The partnership began when a Dogs employee reached out to Greg Neppl, a 15-year-old Blaze graduate and Glenbrook South sophomore who now oversees the Buddy Ball program.

Neppl said it was the perfect opportunity, and that’s precisely how it played out for five members of the Buddy Ball program.

“The Dogs, that’s a good team to go see with your friends or your family,” Neppl said. “It’s a cool experience. It’s a lot of fun. So to bring the Buddies there, it was so great. It’s just such a family-friendly environment. They were able to get on the field, they got free hats. Everyone was so welcoming to them, and it was great to see how much they enjoyed themselves.”

The Blaze have teams ranging from under-10 to under-14 and have been playing baseball for the last 20 years. The Buddy Ball program has been around almost as long, but for a while it struggled to gain momentum.

But in 2016, Kreg Jackson and Dan Neppl took over the Buddy Ball program and injected new life into it.

Dan Neppl, who is Greg Neppl’s father, watched June 24 as the buddies were assisted by the Dog Squad. They were ushered out to the field, as each buddy ran to a different position on the field to meet players on the team. They stood alongside the players as the national anthem was sung. Afterward, they joined their families in the stands.

“I thought it was a really great experience,” Dan Neppl said. “We had some buddies who had never been to a baseball game other than the ones we play on Sunday afternoons. That was incredible to see. Seeing them meet the players, talking to the players, it was awesome.”

The Buddy Ball program features games on Sunday afternoons during the summer at Westbrook Elementary School in Glenview. The games last two innings, as the Blaze players assist their friends in all facets of the game.

Greg Neppl said he enjoyed helping out with the Buddy Ball program as a Blaze player, so when he headed to high school he sought a way to stay involved. Adding events to the calendar — such as the Dogs game — was one of his top priorities as the new coordinator for the program.

“I played Blaze (baseball) for five years, and every year, we got to do Buddy Ball for just one week,” Greg Neppl said. “That week was just so rewarding to me. To just be able to help one kid have a great time for even one hour, it makes you realize how fortunate you are. It makes you realize how lucky you are to play baseball. And then helping other kids, to help give them that feeling.

“To be this young and to help make kids’ faces light up, it’s just a great feeling. And knowing we can do more of it makes it even greater.”

Rich Mayor is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.

Twitter @Pioneer_Press