[infoshare] Tampa Bay's Blind Baseball Announcer - CBS Evening News - CBS News
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- Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:04:59 -0400
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VIDEO
The Blind Sportscaster
The Spanish voice of Tampa Bay Rays baseball, Enrique "The Volcano" Oliu was
born blind. Kelly Cobiella reports on the sports broadcaster's gift to
explain
a game he has never seen.
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Enrique Oliu, the radio voice of Tampa Bay Rays baseball.
PHOTOEnrique Oliu, the radio voice of Tampa Bay Rays baseball. (CBS)
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(CBS) They call him "the volcano." From the first pitch to the last out,
Enrique Oliu, the Spanish voice of
Tampa Bay Rays
baseball starts talking - and doesn't stop.
"When you listen to him talk, you can visualize what he's saying," says Rays
fan Manny Carmona. "Now, the question is how does he visualize it?"
How indeed, when he's never seen a single game. Enrique Oliu has been blind
since birth.
Oliu told CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella, "I see light and that's
about it. And the rest of it I just imagine what it would be."
Read Cobiella Blog Here
While his partner in the booth calls the play. While Oliu listens to the
crack of the bat, and the sound of the crowd to fill in the colorful
details.
"He listened to the radio when he was a kid and he heard the TV broadcast.
And that's what he always wanted to do. And he would never let anyone tell
him
he couldn't," says co-worker Mark Haze.
He talks to everyone, and soaks up everything.
"He's talking to me about base running, and the instinct's right there,"
says Rays manager Joe Maddon. "How do you know about instincts without ever
seeing
a base runner, I have no idea."
Oliu says there's certain things that you just "feel, plus homework, plus
everything else."
Everything else includes an understanding wife, Debbie. They met eleven
years ago on a blind date.
Every morning, she reads him the sports page. And every baseball evening,
she whispers sweet statistics in his ear.
What's truly remarkable is not how Enrique Oliu sees baseball, but how he
sees himself.
He doesn't think of himself as amazing.
"I think of myself as being a blind schmuck that's been fortunate to get a
microphone."
He's got a passion for life, as much as the game.
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