Don't be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his.
-- General George S. Patton
April 30, 2005
What'll They Think Of Next???
How would you like to have eyes like those staring you down?
According to FoxSports.com:
Performance-enhancing contact lenses? Brian Roberts first tried on his newfangled contact lenses about an hour before the Orioles' last spring training game in Florida. He ripped three hits on a day his teammates groused about the difficulties of seeing the ball in the bright sun shining from a cloudless sky.
A longtime wearer of contacts, Roberts needed no persuading afterward to keep the new lenses, even if they make him look like some wild-eyed creature from a science fiction film. After a monster start — he entered the week hitting .444 with five homers — they might have to be pried away from him.
Plenty has been said about performance-enhancing drugs this spring. Well, get ready for a new wave of performance enhancers, only these do not cause side effects and are not subject to suspensions. Known as performance-enhancing contact lenses, they were designed to help hitters pick up the seams on the ball better and to protect the eyes from the sun.
"They're almost like wearing sunglasses without wearing sunglasses," Roberts says. "I could tell such a huge difference right away that I was willing to give them a shot." Seven years in the making by Nike and Bausch & Lomb, the lenses — which will be known in the retail world as MaxSight — are so new they have made their way only into a few major league clubhouses so far.
Roberts, the Orioles' leadoff hitter and second baseman, is the only player the Sporting News could confirm is wearing them in games. Reds center fielder Ken Griffey has tried them in batting practice and plans to break them out for real once he becomes more comfortable with them. Reds closer Danny Graves also is wearing them during pregame work. Red Sox pitchers Bronson Arroyo and Mike Timlin and Twins catcher Joe Mauer have been fitted.
Tennis player Roger Federer and several D.C. United soccer players have agreed to try them. The University of Miami has 20 athletes on its football, baseball, tennis and track teams wearing them. The lenses also come in gray-green for golfers, and a set for night use is in the final stages of development.
For the rest of the story check out FoxSports.com
Pretty impressive really. Technology is an amazing thing. So how long before the congressional hearing on eye enhancements in professional sports!??!?!?
lagleRock Out!
Pretty amazing, much like filters for the camera, polarizing or enhancing certain color spectrums. Maybe the commissioners will impose handicaps on the users. They may even issue an edict exempting their use, exemptions have worked for the LPGA why not elsewhere.
Posted by: Jack at May 2, 2005 07:53 AMJust illustrates the folly of the whole "performance enhancing drugs" scandal.
RWR
Posted by: RightWingRocker at May 2, 2005 02:59 PMI would think there is a difference regarding the contacts vice steroids. The lenses are not so much an improvement as they are an enhancement of what your eye is allowed to see. And the results (for those who can wear them) should visually be the same across the board, for each player who uses them. How they are able to react to what they see, is going to be based ultimately on each players natural talent...which with or with out the contacts remains the same. This is not the same with steroids, as some people will develop differently with the same amount of a given steroid, and with different ones on the market each effecting each individual in different ways...the end result would be not only major differences between those who would chose not to use them against those who did, but between the users of them as well.
As a side note, have they ever banned a shoe worn by a professional baseball player because it allowed for better traction on the field? Or would they ban same if it came along? Same thing as the contacts...
Posted by: Guy S. at May 2, 2005 09:58 PMLet me call Senator McCain real quick! LOL!
Posted by: Tina at May 3, 2005 09:40 AM