Recommended Reading

One of baseball's most dedicated -- and now longest-tenured -- media members has published his memoir.

Ed Lucas has covered baseball for close to 60 years -- yet he's never seen a game since 1951 as you or I might. He personifies beating the odds, building a successful career and a wide circle of friends. His deep passion, encyclopedia knowledge, and knack for landing the "hard-to-get" interviews has made him a much-respected figure in New York baseball circles.

He shares his unique story in Seeing Home. In our interview last week, he explained that "everybody has some sort of obstacle they have to overcome. This book will help them overcome things. You can't give up -- people can tell you can't do this, you can't do that. I didn't listen to them. And I fought to make sure I could do what I wanted to do."

Losing his sight from an accident while playing baseball at age 12 only made the New Jersey native's interest in the game stronger. With parents who encouraged his passion -- especially his mother who wrote New York-area players asking them to send Ed in his most difficult moment -- Lucas found a life-long friend and mentor in Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto. That led to his building an enviable series of contacts and friendships in the game from Leo Durocher, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle to even the notoriously media-averse Ted Williams and Dave Kingman.

Away from baseball, Lucas also made headlines by becoming the first blind parent to win custody of his children after a divorce.

A graduate of New Jersey's Seton Hall University and long associated with the campus FM station WSOU, Lucas has donated his interviews (some dating back to the 1950s) to the school's media archive, which has preserved and digitized them. Ed Lucas continues to add to that collection. Saturday, he was among the flock of reporters on the field at Yankee Stadium before the afternoon's Subway Series game.