Washington Nationals phenom Bryce Harper used to be able to see the ball well enough to be considered the best young prospect in the country, good enough to be compared to a young Mickey Mantle.
And then he got Ted Williams’ eyes.
Now, Harper might be able to see Nationals Park in Washington from the dugout of his current team, the Hagerstown Suns.
Harper is smoking hot playing in Class-A ball in Hagerstown, batting .358 in 24 games, with eight doubles, six home runs, 17 runs scored, 21 RBI and five stolen bases.
Before April 20, Harper was batting .235 with one home run, one double and seven RBI.
The difference? Contact lenses.
“I was told my vision was really bad,” Harper told the Hagerstown Herald-Mail. “I’m seeing the ball well. I’m seeing the spin and I’m seeing the strings really well. My vision is now in HD.”
The 18-year-old Harper told the Herald-Mail that he was told his vision was “really bad,” but Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo told me that it was not that drastic a change. One eye may have been around the normal 20/20, while the other was slightly off that — perhaps 20/30.
Now, Rizzo said Harper has 20/15 vision with the contacts — which, according to legend, was the vision Williams had.
Rizzo said the organization is investing in a vision program for all its players that includes exercises to try to improve vision reflexes.
The irony of this is the Nationals are the organization that paid a starting shortstop $4 million a year who could not see the ball.
When baseball came to Washington, the first free agent signing by Nationals general manager Jim Bowden was shortstop Cristian Guzman, who was given a four-year, $16 million deal.
He batted a whopping .219 his first season, and missed all of the second year with injuries. But Guzman came back to hit .328 in 46 games in an injury-shortened 2007 and .316 in 2008.
The difference? He could see the ball in 2007 and 2008 because Guzman had Lasik eye surgery.
It was an embarrassing development for a franchise that was the superstore for embarrassment in baseball, although Guzman’s previous team, the Minnesota Twins, didn’t know he couldn’t see the ball, either.
Bowden said every player the organization drafted since he had been there was checked for vision problems. But it turns out they didn’t check the one they gave $16 million.
“Guzman’s signing did not include a depth perception test due to his performance with the Twins and the scouting reports that did not indicate that there was a potential problem or area of improvement,” Bowden wrote in an email.
So take the Bryce Harper contacts as a sign of progress for this organization. You can go to Hagerstown to see the results, or just wait until he arrives in Washington. It shouldn’t be long.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
