That was it. That was the end of his eyesight.
"But baseball," says Lucas, sitting in the Shea Stadium press box, ''baseball brought me back."
For 25 years, Lucas has reported on the game, for newspapers, for magazines, for radio. His eyes are absolutely useless, not a thing he can do with them, so he covers the game with his excellent hearing, frightening memory, well-worn radio and, just for backup, a pal from the Lions Club, District 16A.
Lucas' writing is simple, straightforward; done mostly by dictation over the phone. He is best known in northern New Jersey for his trivia questions. He is no threat to Roger Angell or Red Smith and doesn't pretend to be. He pays the mortgage by handling public relations for Hudson County Meadowview Hospital.
Lucas contributes regular reports to WOBM-FM in Toms River, N.J., and he writes a Tuesday column for the Dispatch, a 31,000-circulation daily serving Hudson and Bergen Counties, and a monthly column for Yankee magazine, the team's official publication. Both columns are called As I See It and feature Lucas' logo, a baseball sporting sunglasses and a cap.
"Heyya, Eddie," says Darryl Strawberry in the Mets locker room, a place done up in blue and orange and littered with million-dollar players. "It sure is nice to be back home. "
Lucas stands in his old black raincoat, clutching his tape recorder under the right fielder's mouth. "Looks like the team is playing like it did in '86," says Lucas, who gets around the stadium without use of a cane.
"Gee, I hope so," says Strawberry. "I think we've got a healthy roation and a terrific pitching staff."
