MESA, Ariz. — After a spring training eye exam showed his vision had worsened, A’s reliever Sean Doolittle plans to start the season wearing prescription eyeglasses when he takes the mound.
“I’m going full ‘lefty reliever,’” Doolittle joked. “I had the beard, now I’m wearing glasses. Just full lefty reliever.”
Doolittle got his glasses Tuesday and wore them while pitching in a minor league game Wednesday, reporting no problems. He didn’t want to experiment with contact lenses in the dry Arizona air, though he might try contacts at some point.
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The glasses he’ll wear for games are a pair of clear, rectangular-shaped Oakleys with black trim. They have rubber gripping on the sides and bridge of the nose so they won’t fall off. Doolittle showed off a second pair of glasses that he’s wearing away from the field. Those ones are rounder, a bit more scholarly looking.
He’ll debut the new eye wear in a Cactus League game Saturday, when he’s slated to pitch in a split-squad home game against Cincinnati.
Players get their vision checked when they get their physical at the start of spring training.
“I bombed the eye chart,” Doolittle admitted.
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He’s got 20/25 vision in his left eye, 20/40 in the right. Doolittle said he noticed he was squinting while driving at night, and wearing glasses seems to have literally opened up a new world to him.
“Looking around now at the mountains, oh my gosh, they’re really nice,” he said with a straight face. “I can see everything in more detail. It’s like going from Standard Def to 4K.”
And the lefty notices another benefit of wearing glasses.
“It’s been great with March Madness,” Doolittle said. “I don’t have to get up and walk over to the TV to see the score.”