By KEVIN COYNE - March 18,2007

Baseball Stole His Eyes, but Not His Passion

THE names come back easily to Ed Lucas across half a century, the lineup cards of the two teams that shaped his life so deeply.

“Sister Gregory, she was the principal, Sister Anthony Marie, Sister Rose Magdalene. ...” he said, remembering the nuns, eight in all, at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind who helped him learn to negotiate a world that went dark when he was just 12.

“Monte Irvin, Bobby Thomson, Alvin Dark. ...” he said, starting down the long list of players he met on the June day in 1952 when Leo Durocher, the New York Giants manager, invited him into the Polo Grounds clubhouse and showed him that losing his sight didn’t mean he had to lose baseball, too.

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Today Show - MSN
Baseball a field of dreams for blind reporter

Ed Lucas finds joy — and love — through game despite childhood tragedy

By Bob Dotson


TODAY
April 12, 2006

Ed Lucas hasn't missed an opening day at Yankee Stadium in 51 years. He is a sports reporter covering a game he cannot see.

Ed lost his sight on Oct. 3 1951, on a legendary day in baseball history — the day Bobby Thomson launched the Shot Heard Round the World.

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At Home Plate
by Laura Nist - June 25, 2003

How Baseball Changed This Man’s Life

This is the story of Ed Lucas. Ed is blind. He is also a reporter for the Mets and the Yankees and has covered the playoffs, the World Series and the All Star game.

You may be asking yourself how does a blind man report on baseball games. Ed hasn’t always been blind. Even though he was born with a congenital eye disease he was able to see. He had a love of baseball from a very young age, as both of his parents were fans of the Giants – that is the NY Giants, prior to their move west. As a matter of fact the last game that Ed saw was the 1951 thriller in which Bobby Thomson hit the “shot heard ‘round the world”. He was twelve years old. He came home from school and watched it on TV with his family. After the game he went outside to play baseball in the nearby sandlot and was hit between the eyes with a baseball. Shortly afterwards, he lost his sight – partially due to the eye disease that he was born with, although doctors believe that being hit in the head with a baseball may have also contributed in the loss.

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