Using Tommy John’s surgery to strengthen your pitch even though you didn’t really tear your elbow ligament? You’re so old school! Okay…in all honesty, one would have to be crazy to go under the knife when it was not necessary, and apparently it’s the rehabilitation, not the actual surgery, that makes your pitch harder.
Anyway, that is all besides the point. There are new legal performance enhancers for baseball players that you may be interested in learning about. Don’t get too excited now. These won’t make your arms any bigger, but they may make your eyes stronger.
- Enhanced Ocular Devices
Carlos Beltran can tell you a little bit about this technical machine. His agent included one in his current contract with the New York Mets [20/20 vision? You might just be batting average]. Instead of waiting for Beltran to explain its mechanics, let me tell you that this type of tennis ball machine pitch tennis balls up to 155mph. By trying to read small markings places on the tennis balls as they whiz by, one is supposed to gain focus and concentration, which applies to the plate.
- Amber-Tinted Contact Lenses
Brian Roberts and A.J. Pierzynski can model this line of accessory. The lenses are supposed to reduce glare and make the ball look clearer. Roberts had a lot of success after he began to use the lenses, but that could be a correlational relationship instead of causal.
I did not even mention laser eye surgery (Lasik), because I feel that it is only warrented if you need it to fix a certain vision problem. It should not be used to get 20/10 vision if you already have 20/20 vision.
There is also always the option of using eye strengthening exercises that have been specifically developed to increase a player’s focus. There is no right way to go, but if you are a player or an agent, you should at least know what is on the market.
-Darren Heitner
