Let’s get all of the “eye” expressions out of the way right now, shall we? “The eyes have it,” “keep your eye on the ball,” “seeing is believing,” “eye of the beholder” and “hindsight is 20/20.” There.
If you’re a major league outfielder like Mike Cameron, and you’re having trouble catching fly balls, the eyes only have it if they’re good eyes. Great eyes, actually. And sometimes hindsight is more like 20/40. Or 20/60 or 20/100.
This started as a half-hearted joke in an earlier blog
I’m not sure why Mike Cameron is having trouble getting a bead on fly balls lately, but I don’t think a trip to ophthalmologist would be a waste of his time. You know, Global Laser Vision. Perhaps Dr. Yaghouti can do for Cameron what he did for Steve Hartman. Yaghouti is a beauty, after all. What’s Hartman’s vision now? 20-3? Something like that.
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Now it looks like we’re not that far off.
Mike Cameron misjudged another fly ball Wednesday night, in the Padres 7-3 win over Washington. I don’t have the exact number, and none of the techno-stat companies keep track of this sort of thing, but that had to be the fifth or sixth such misplay for Cameron so far this year. This from a superior, three-time Gold Glove defender in center field. If he’d recently been traded from the American League and were patrolling unfamiliar outfields, that would be one thing, but of course that’s not the case. The zero errors total is beside the point.
Coincidence is a possibility, sure, as is a fielding slump. But I say a trip to eye doctor is in order, and stat. It happens to the best of us. There’s nothing embarrassing about it. There’s no reason to be macho here. Cameron is 34, and vision changes in our 30s. While it might be as simple as new prescription for glasses or contacts, sports health care professionals are doing some incredible things in this area. As evidence, read this article, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.
Because you see, seeing isn’t always believing, I can’t see for miles, and the eyes don’t always have it. Not necessarily. Hence, I differ to the guy with the MD after his name. Maybe Mike Cameron should too.
— HOWARD COLE