Have you ever wondered what goes in to getting a professional baseball player ready to start the season? One St. John’s optometrist recently had the chance to put the Toronto Blue Jays’ peepers to the test.
Dr. Sarah Hutchens says it all started last year while taking part in training with the Sports Vision Association. It was there she connected with the optometrist for the Blue Jays and Cleveland Guardians and expressed interest in being involved with the Jays camp.
Sure enough, she got a phone call in January asking if she could tag along to help at the Blue Jays spring training facility in Dunedin, Florida.
Dr. Hutchens says the testing for a professional ballplayer in much more in depth than what the ordinary person gets during a routine eye exam.
She told the Tim Powers Show that they do a series of tests on the athletes in various positions such as sitting, standing, in their batting or pitching stance, and focus on things beyond overall vision like hand-eye coordination and depth perception.
