Wait... Bryce Harper Was "BLIND" Until April 19th?

[StlSluggers]

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — On the day Bryce Harper walked into the eye doctor’s office, he was, he would say later, “blind as a bat.” Keith Smithson, the Washington Nationals’ team optometrist, asked Harper to read an eye chart, then looked at him with astonishment and said, according to Harper: “I don’t know how you ever hit before. You have some of the worst eyes I’ve ever seen.”

That was on April 19. The next night, fitted with a new pair of contact lenses, Harper, batting just .231 at the time for the low-Class A Hagerstown Suns of the South Atlantic League, had a double and a single against the visiting Hickory Crawdads. The next night, he homered. And the night after that, he singled, doubled, homered and drove in six runs.

“It was like I was seeing in HD,” Harper said.

Suffice it to say Harper’s hi-def vision is a huge upgrade over standard-def. In 20 games since his visit to the eye doctor, Harper is hitting .480 (36 for 75) with a .547 on-base percentage and an .893 slugging percentage — with 7 homers, 10 doubles and 23 RBI. For the season, he is hitting .395/.473/.702, leading the league in all three “slash-line” categories.

Source

So let me get this right... Bryce Harper was the #1 overall pick and he couldn't see for shiitake?

You have got to be kidding me.

[mojoorising]

you would think with all the money they spend on advanced scouting and stuff they would at least give all the players routine eye exams before paying them millions of dollars.

[Metropolitans]

That is honestly just ridiculous!!! Those post-contacts numbers are ubsurd!! This kid just skyrocketed up my radar!

And yeah seriously, don't MLB teams do check ups n physicals?? Isn't vision an important enough part of baseball that it should be checked? That's insane!

[wrveres]

you would think with all the money they spend on advanced scouting and stuff they would at least give all the players routine eye exams before paying them millions of dollars.

this.

[Element]

He just smashed #7 on the season. He's beasting on A-ball pitchers.

[bigken117]

This kid just skyrocketed up my radar!

How far up anyone's rankings can he go?

you would think with all the money they spend on advanced scouting and stuff they would at least give all the players routine eye exams before paying them millions of dollars.

this.

this

[thedude]

You would think teams would have started giving players eye exams after Lou Brown figured out all Ricky Vaughn needed was glasses.

[mojoorising]

You would think teams would have started giving players eye exams after Lou Brown figured out all Ricky Vaughn needed was glasses

HAHAHA

[West]

I think Wieters ditched his contacts when he got to the majors.

[coyotedelmar]

Tells you the competition he faced in Junior College (coming from someone who graduated from a CC/JC, which tells a lot about the education levels of them too )