NYGPS MEETING-OCTOBER 1ST WITH ED LUCAS

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LUCAS FOUNDATION 2

Our final NYGPS Meeting of 2014 will take place on October 1, 2014, at our “home base” the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse with our guest speaker being the incomparable Ed Lucas. Ed has a legendary career in baseball as a sportswriter, broadcaster, and motivational speaker. Ed lost his sight at 12 years of age after viewing the Giants/ Dodgers “Shot Heard ‘Round the World Game. Soon after the game ended, a jubilant Ed went to play baseball with his friends. While delivering a pitch, he was struck right between the eyes and lost his sight forever. This didn’t deter him, as he, with the help of his friend Phil Rizzuto, pursued a career in the game he loved and loves to this day. Ed told me about the friendships he forged with Willie Mays, Bobby Thomson, Monte Irvin, Russ Hodges, Bob Lurie, and others. Hodges in fact bought Ed his first Seeing-Eye dog!! Ed later became the only person to get married at home plate at Yankee Stadium!! Today, his Ed Lucas Foundation offers direct support to individuals who are blind/visually impaired, as well as those with disabilities that are determined to be of financial need. Join us for this most memorable of evening!! Please RSVP ASAP!! Thanks as always to the great Jay Goldberg for “lending” us his beautiful baseball boutique for all of our NYGPS meetings. Here is the link to Jay’s place for the perfect baseball gift!!
http://www.bergino.com/

Here are some great links about Ed and his Foundation:

http://edlucasfoundation.org/

http://www.edlucas.org/video.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Lucas

HISTORIC HARLEM STAIRWAY TO THE POLO GROUNDS IS REBORN THANKS TO DAILY NEWS EDITORIALS

ny daily news

THE GIANTS, METS, JETS, YANKEES AND BASEBALL GIANTS CHIPPED IN HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO HELP GET IT BUILT
BY FRANK GREEN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, August 5, 2014, 6:32 PM

A legendary flight of stairs has been re-born, thanks to a years-long campaign spearheaded by the Daily News.
The baseball and football Giants joined the Yankees, Mets, Jets and Major League Baseball, along with former Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, now the city controller, to contribute a combined $950,000 to fix the long-decayed John T. Brush Stairway in Highbridge Park.
For 50 years, the stairs carried fans of the five city sports teams to and from the Polo Grounds in Harlem, until they finally rusted away in the years following the stadium’s demolition, in 1964.
Brush was the owner of the Giants baseball team from 1890 until his death in 1912, the year before the team opened the staircase.

Now, 101 years after the New York baseball Giants built and donated them to the city, the stairs are open again to carry people 80 steps from Coogan’s Bluff on Edgecombe Ave. down to the Harlem River Driveway.

Melody Williams, 48, who grew up in the Polo Grounds housing development where the old horseshoe used to stand, was excited about the new construction, which includes fresh landscaping and several new tables at the stairway’s base.
“I might go take a picnic, you never know,” said Christian Lloyd Joseph, 41, a boxer who lives in the neighborhood. “It makes it way easier,” he added of navigating the famously hilly neighborhood.
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