Advertisement

Seeing Home: Baseball Broadcaster Ed Lucas Defies The Odds

10:25
Download Audio
Resume

This story originally aired April 23, 2016. This week it returns for Father's Day.

Like a lot of kids who grew up in Jersey City in the 1950s, Ed Lucas was a baseball fan. But unlike the kids he played sandlot ball with, Ed had limited vision. Doctors had warned his parents that the slightest jolt to the head could take away his eyesight completely.

On the same day that Bobby Thomson and the New York Giants won the pennant, Ed went outside to play with his friends.

"I was a left-handed pitcher. I took my glasses off because I felt I could see better without them. And I threw a pitch," he recalls. "A line drive came back and hit me between the eyes, and that was the last thing I ever saw."

Baseball would continue to shape Ed’s life in ways he never could have imagined.

"Baseball took my sight, but it also gave me a life," Lucas says.

Ed and Chris Lucas tell their story, In Their Own WordsTo hear the full story, click the play button to the left of the headline.

Ed Lucas and his son, Chris, have collaborated on the book, "Seeing Home: The Ed Lucas Story."

This segment aired on June 17, 2017.

Related:

Headshot of Karen Given

Karen Given Executive Producer/Interim Host, Only A Game
Karen is the executive producer for WBUR's Only A Game.

More…

Advertisement

More from Only A Game

Listen Live
Close