Times-Advocate from Escondido, California • 11

DAILY TIMES-ADVOCATE, ESCONDIDO, JUNE 29, 1972 A-1 1 Ability to distinguish sounds Blind he calls each play dick handles the desking of suburban prep fpotball and he has his share of work taking basketball as well. Medick is happy with his life and feels he is doing a competent job, and his associates at the paper agree. But he doesnt like having what he does made into a big thing." ei fell XDOflGj)aDE SPEOAL FOR JUNE jl (q) regular $2.79 1 "Ive followed softball for so long I can tell where the balls going and how cleanly its been hit. I know every players way hitting and the sound tells me if the ball has been popped up, hit to the outfield or caught. study every pitchers delivery for its sound.

"Sure I get crossed up once in a while. I try to be oblivious to outside noise. The crowd is behind me, the ball is in front. remember one time I was embarrassed. I called a hit a homer and it was a ground rule double that bounced over the fence.

Once when I was doing a game on radio, I called a strike on a guy but the umpire ruled it an illegal pitch and a ball which let the winning run come in. Asked how he knows when pitching changes are being made, he points out he could tell that the hurler was being hit and from the sound of his delivery that he was losing his stuff. I know these managers so well, I listen for him coming out of tiie dugout and going to the mound, he said. Medick has literally hundreds of clues he listens to. Some pitchers grunt when they throw certain pitches.

Others scrape their feet on some pitches. A ball landing in the glove of a fielder has an entirely different sound from one landing on the ground. And the sound tells him to which field it is hit. Medick was reared in the Columbus, Ohio, area and when he was a boy of four years his great grandfather, who had been a baseball player, started teaching him the game. He would take me out and run me around the bases.

If I could do it without holding his hand, he would give me an ice cream. I learned what a diamond was like. Then he would take me in the stands, usually on the third base side, where after a while I could tell what was happening on the field from the sounds. Medick, who attended Ohio State University and was graduated from Western Reserve University, said he actually got started announcing games at a tournament held at Ohio State. "I would go out there and follow the play, he said.

One day the announcer didnt show up. The scorekeeper didnt want to do it, so I sat down and did it. That was much harder than it is today. I was further away from the backstop and the field was near a mental hospital and the patients kept running around and hollering. Medick came west and his interest in softball took him to Culver City where he assisted the announcer and eventually became the announcer for the team there.

In 1960 he moved to Long Beach and the firefighters there had a softball team and asked him to announce. Later he began calling for the Long Beach Nite Hawks, the most famous softball team in the country, again inheriting the job when an announcer quit. Medicks newspaper career started in 1960 when he sat with a sports writer while not calling the game. The writer had to go in early and asked him to cover the final three innings. At the Long Beach paper he learned they were looking for someone to take suburban sports items over the telephone.

I said I could type and wrote in college. One thing led to another. That summer the young man who was handling their junior baseball coverage quit. I offered to do it. I organized the junior baseball setup and Im still 'handling it.

In addition to junior baseball and softball I handle junior American Legion and Connie Mack league games. During football season, Me 1 2 1 N. MAPLE, ESCONDIDO Open Days a Weak, 11 am to 9 pm. Air Conditioned-Free Parking i LONG BEACH (UPI) -Chuck Medick doesnt want to be held up as an example because he doesnt think hes doing anything particularly extraordinary. The 49-year-old Medick is the public address announcer and occasional radio play-by-play broadcaster for Western Soft-ball Congress games which he covers for his newspaper where he holds down a full-time sports writing job.

Chuck Medick does all these things even though he has been blind since childhood. "So many blind people have accomplished great things, said Medick when contacted in the sports department of the Long Beach Independent, Press-Telegram. "Im just happy to have a hobby which I was lucky enough to turn into a vocation. I dont really feel Ive accomplished anything. I dont want to be held up as an example.

A lot of the blind can outshine me in 5,000 different fields. But spectators who know Medick is blind and hear him announce games at Joe Rodgers Park are amazed at his ability. He sits only a short distance behind the plate but can call every play instantly. And he will demonstrate his ability for interested bystanders. I have done calls for radio during our world tournament for stations in the midwest, he said, Its not hard once you get accustomed to the sounds.

Medicks talent in knowing what takes place on the field is the result of his uncanny ability to distinguish sounds on the playing field. Chess in worlds spotlight NEW YORK (AP) Promotional aspects of the Fischer-, Spassky world championship chess 'match are becoming as important as they are in any big league sport. Chess matches are not usually world happenings. But with the keen interest sparked by American Bobby Fischer challenging Russian Boris Spassky for the world title, its a different situation. The Icelandic Chess Federation has put up close to for the 24-game match to be held for two months in Reykjavik, Iceland, starting Sunday.

The games will be played in the Reykjavik Sportshall, which seats about 3,000 people. The match will be open to the public, and tickets will cost $5 a game or $75 for the 24 games. Of the $200,000 put up, some $125,000 will be paid in prizes to the players, according to the federation. Fischer, 29, and Spassky, 35, will also divide 60 per cent of the income from films and television. The federation has signed a 99-year contract with Chester Fox and Inc.

for exclusive worldwide visual rights, including rights to film the match and still photos of the match taken inside the Sportshall. In the United States, ABC has contracted for exclusive film rights. The Fox film segments will be shown Saturdays on the ABC program, Wide World of Sports. In the United States, Channel 13-WNDT, New York, and Teleprompter Cable have planned programs discussing the action at the match, without the use of the Fox film. Channel 13 plans a move-bymove commentary and analysis on the match, by chess master Shelby Lyman, who will work from a studio in Albany, N.Y., using vertical boards to illustrate the moves.

10 win prizes in Cappy Dick puzzle contest ESCONDIDO Names of 10 North County youngsters who were winners of funny eggheads in the Daily Times-Advocates Cappy Dick count-the-nines cartoon coloring puzzle contest of June 11 have been announced. Winners are Marie Hinrichs, Amy Martin, Billy Stine, Carol Kapusnik, Cheryl Pfafman, Tina Hanson, Dennis Watts and Ruth Goldberg of Escondido, Donna Ward and Maureen Sagan of Vista. of I I i Perfect Partners! Action Levis Double Knits team up with Antron Nylon Floral body shirts. Levi Polyester Double Knit Flares, Prefinished Bottoms, Waist 28-38, Length 28-34, White, Burgundy, Brown, Tan, Navy. $16 00 Spire Antron, Nylon Knit Body Shirts in Blue, Burgundy, Navy.

$18.00 Shop Monday and Friday 'til 9 o'clock oral robe FOR MEN AND BOYS 745-4242 Downtown Escondido Grand at Kalmia 1.