Baseball Players Have Freakishly Good Eyesight

My son has 20/13 vision too. Above average vision is a trait that all really good hitters seem to share.Barry Bonds had 20/10 vision and he's one of the greatest hitters of all time.

Pro hitters need great eyesight. The average MLBer has 20/13 vision. Jacoby Ellsbury wears contacts because his vision is only 20/20.

My son got a bunch of peperwork from the MLB Scouting Bureau this week and one of the things they want is a full eye exam and a report from the doctor.  Son has never had any issues in the past so I assume it's standard procedure to get the info.  I guess I'll know in a couple of weeks what his vision is.

I've read that several MLB players have had laser surgery (LASIK) to improve their vision from 20/20 to 20/15 or even 20/10. No one cares about elective Performance Enhancement Surgery or the super strong contacts.

This is interesting.  Mine both were contacts (they have poor, but not horrible, vision) and they are extremely fussy about their prescriptions.  Both have astygmatism and can tell if anything is off, even a tiny bit.  Our opthamologist says he has never had patients that notice so much.  We even do daily disposable lenses, so they're perfect every time and they can change numbers 4 times a year.  They want lasik, but can't until they're adults.

Thanks for sharing!

9and7,

congratulations to your son.

our son got a kick out of the bureau requested peripheral vision test back in September, never had that one before.

He wears contacts. 

One scout told us players hit better with contacts (see Ellsbury comment above) than after Lasik. Others say opt for Lasik.

Will investigate on our own.

That's a very interesting point.  If elective Lasik is ethical and okay, what if there was a surgery similar to a Tommy John performed before any injury that would enhance pitchers' velocity?  I think that would get people a little more riled up.

Two classic tales on this subject.

First, Joe Garagiola used to talk about how Ted Williams spoke of hitting a curve ball by picking up the spin on the ball.  JG found that unhelpful, as he found it hard to see spin when the ball was already coming at him at 90+ mph.  Late in his career, Williams' eyesight was tested and found to be 20/8.  JG quipped, "No wonder HE would say that.  He could see the spin.  Heck, he could read Happy Chandler's signature."

Second:  Wade Boggs had excellent natural eyesight as well.  One year in spring training, a bad hop during infield struck him on the forehead and left him with some blurring and, even when that cleared up, a diminution in his acuity.  He hit under .300 that year for the first time in his career.  During the off season, he got contacts for the first time and worked a lot on acuity exercises.  His average was restored to well over .300 (though he did taper off as he aged).

I have long advocated having players ask their optometrists to correct them to 20/15, not the standard 20/20.  In reality, your son might be 20/40 and your optometrist might not see a big need to wear lenses, or your son may find the correction more trouble than it's worth.  Well, he can go without everywhere else, but he should pop those contacts in before he steps in the box. I guarantee you will notice a difference in performance.

I don't know if baseball improves your eyesight, but it's a reality that keen eyesight is critical to peak performance in baseball.  So perhaps it's self-selecting in that way.  Those with lesser vision wash out.

I found this thread to be fascinating.  I have never heard of any correction beyond 20/20 in an effort to improve performance.  Looking forward to hearing more folks chime in on their opinions and any such vision corrections they have made (or allowed their kids to have made).  Am especially curious of anyone making "corrections" from an initial 20/20 reading.

If you really want to track the difference, chart day games vs. night games.

Most who need correction are nearsighted, not farsighted.  In bright daylight, vision is fine.  At dusk or under the lights, there is a fuzzy effect that corrective lenses will, well, correct.

Actually you'll improve in both day and night, but you'll notice it more in dusk or darkness. 

If you want to test your son's eyesight without an immediate trip for an exam, pull your scorebook and check his performances in day games vs. night games.  A pronounced dropoff would be a telltale sign.

Had an interesting talk the other day with a players dad that happened to be one of the top eye surgeons in the Midwest.  I learned a lot!

I had known most of the good vision practices, but didn't realize how easily certain issues could be corrected or enhanced with practice.  This surgeon is also a baseball nut, like myself, so he has spent a lot of time on the vision in baseball subject.

i knew most people are left or right eye dominant.  I did not know that some of the best hitters in the world were both eye dominant.  Which is a big advantage Because one eye does not effect what the other eye sees.  Better yet, he has developed a way that people can temporarily train their eyes to be equally dominant.  I told him if he could invent something that would do this in the on deck circle it would be very popular.  

While the above has nothing to do with actually improving 20-20 vision to something better, it does improve the accuracy of how you see moving objects. He also talked about ways to improve vision both with and without surgery. Anyway, for an older person like myself, this was all extremely interesting.  I spent two hours asking questions and learning.  It's nice to talk to someone that truly knows most everything about a topic.

BTW, this dad has a son that was a HS All American and should be a College All American and high draft pick. And a younger son and daughter who look like high level prospects in baseball and softball.

Son has 20/13 but with slight astigmatism he needs to where dailies at night when pitching and driving.  

While I was reading this it makes me think about smart phones . How much of a negative impact will they have on their vision/game? My kids drive me nuts with them . I know they spend hours on them every day . I am constantly turning the lights on when their on using them in the dark. Yesterday they both had panic attacks when their phones died. I found it humorous and disturbing at the same time.

The last time I heard a lot about visual acuity training, it was used by a particular player to explain a sudden jump in his MLB productivity.

That was Sammy Sosa. 

The exercises may well be worthwhile, but unfortunately, once the cat got out of the bag with Sosa, his testimonials for them kind of got discarded.  I wonder how much improvement we might see from someone who did them, but avoided illegal PED use?

I recently took my oldest to an Optometrist to discuss getting contacts.  We had the discussion about modifying the prescription to enhance his vision for sports (baseball).  She said that the retina can only provide what nature has blessed you with, meaning a 1 megapixel camera can not take a 1.1 megapixel picture.  Your retina can not see better than 20/20 even with modification or glasses if nature won't let the retina do it.  My son has 20/10 vision capabilities due to the number of retinal cells he was born with.  Without glasses 20/30.  She said he did not need glasses or contacts unless he wanted them.  When we found out he has 20/10 capability, we ordered the contacts. The problem with contacts is that they can not be made with the small degrees of change that may be necessary to get to 20/10.  He may end up with glasses since they can be modified 1 degree at a time.

The Air Force Academy has Sports Vision Training in their Human Performance Labs.  Not sure on recent studies, but had good results in studies in the past 10 years or so.  

glad you posted this, 2018 has 20/13 as well.   It drove him nuts when an ump in middle school would call a ball 6 inches off the plate a strike. 

We had a long talk about how in middle school the zone is expanded and he better start hacking.  he could see clearly that the ball was not in the zone.... 

Once he got the idea of expanding the strike zone he was fine.  

Good thread!

I think coaches need to keep this in mind with their middle school and high school players.  That is when a lot of changes happen.  When I hear of a teenager who is a good hitter begin struggling one of my 1st questions is when his eyes were last checked.  Its is such an easy thing to correct.  

This is also a timely post because I saw online that Chris Sabo's birthday was this week!  For all of us rec-spec guys, we salute you!  

I didn't get lasik until well after I was done playing.  It was the best money I ever spent.  Drove myself to the doctor the very next morning.  But I have to wonder if I would've been able to play after the surgery.  Days would've been fine.  Nights would have been tough.  As my doctor told me I experienced some "star bursts" around lights.  Not sure how that would have impacted my play.

Get your kids eyes checked regularly.  Kids get "used" to degraded vision because it happens slowly. They don't even realize they aren't seeing well.

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

Okay, thought I'd share an update:  After reading thru this thread and checking with our insurance, I decided to take GHHS Jr in for an eye exam.  He's never worn glasses, but was tested at 20/25 during his physical at the end of last year.

I was completely prepared with a loooooong explanation for why I'd like him to have contacts to correct his vision to 20/15 if at all possible.  Turns out the Doc had just moved to our town from Orange County (baseball central in SoCal) and had ZERO issues with prescribing contacts (after questioning the boy WITHOUT me in the room, to make sure that's what HE wanted.....which garnered major respect points from me).

Turns out GHHS Jr was actually 20/25 in one eye and 20/30 in the other with a little astigmatism in BOTH eyes (had to break out the wallet for TORIC lenses!).  He is now 20/15 in both eyes and seeing like never before.

It's early in the season, but the results are very impressive so far:  He's hitting an even .500 (7-14) with 5 BBs, 2 HRs a triple, and 2 doubles.

SLUGGERDAD:  Thank you VERY much for starting this thread!

My 2016 is blessed with 20/13. He can spot the good looking girls in the stands faster than any of his fellow players but still has a problem with the sharp curveball.