Perhaps you saw Freddie Freeman wear glasses during one at-bat Friday and squint and look otherwise uncomfortable in later at-bats, and you thought, uh-oh, here we go again. Well, the Braves first baseman tried to assure everyone Saturday that he’s not regressed again with the vision situation.
“It was a little windy last night, and I just put the glasses on to try to stop it,” said Freeman, who wore them in his third-inning Friday when he grounded out. “But I couldn’t see with the nosepiece, so I took them off. But everything’s good. It was just windy last night.
“My eyes are fine. I was just trying to block the wind, do anything I could, because my eyes were drying out with the wind blowing right into my face.”
Freeman has had well-chronicled problems in the past with dry eyes exacerbated by dry and/or windy conditions. He wears contact lenses, but also wears clear, non-prescription glasses in the field to keep particles out of his eyes. He doesn’t wear them while hitting because he doesn’t like how the nosepiece obstructs his view.
His equipment manufacturer, Under Armour, hasn’t been able to design a pair for him that eliminates that issue.
Freeman was diagnosed with minor abrasions on the whites of his eyes a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn’t anywhere near as problematic as the condition he had two years ago, when he was forced to miss significant playing time while trying to find a combination of contact lenses and solutions that worked for him.
He kept playing this time, going 0-for-12 in an April 21-23 series against the Marlins in a series that ended his early season surge and began a slump that he still hadn’t snapped out of despite an RBI single Friday. He was 7-for-46 (.152) in his past 11 games before Saturday with one double, one homer, three walks and 14 strikeouts.
He insisted Saturday that his eyes were not the issue.
“I did (wear the glasses) for one at-bat and could see the dot again (from the nosepiece) like I did a couple of years ago, so I just took them off. I was fine after that,” he said. “I’ll talk to Under Armour, see what they can do. I think I’m in the clear, we’re almost there. Just a weird-wind day. Usually it doesn’t blow straight into your face when you hit here at Turner Field, so I was just trying to do something with wearing glasses, but with the pad I couldn’t do it so I just took them off. But I’m fine. There’s no problems.”
New glasses for B.J.: In other Braves corrective-lens news, center fielder B.J. Upton debuted his new prescription sports glasses Saturday night against the Giants.
He began playing in glasses just over a week ago and wore a pair that featured conventional-style black frames while waiting for the wrap-around sports glasses to arrive. He got them Saturday and tested them in the indoor batting cage and during outdoor batting practice before wearing them in the game.
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