My guy is ten and wears glasses.

Do most players switch to contacts at some point? If so, at what age should we switch?

Is this a red flag for scouts down the road?

Tx,

D

No red flag. My son started wearing glasses in the second grade. Switched to contacts at age 11 or 12. Was drafted at age 17 and again at age 20 while wearing contacts. At age 21 he had lasik surgery and threw away the glasses and the contacts.
Fungo

Thanks Fungo.

It's a ways off but, I wondered. I wear glasses as well and I know that there are some things that are affected - the eye tends to be lazier to move beyond the peripherals of the lens, etc. (not that this matters that much if you are paying attention). I would think that contacts would be an improvement on this and the surgery probably better again.

Tx,

D

I might add that pro scouts did give eye tests to my son (in our house) but those were done with his contacts on and were very basic test with an eye chart and a color blindness chart ---

They say kids can have their prescriptions change a bit at the beginning.

It was baseball that tipped us that he needed glasses in the first place. I was watching him hit off the iron mikes as I had been for weeks and he started progressively slipping a bit. We talked about it and he said he could not see the board all that well at school - funny he's a good student. About five or six months later, it happened again and when we took him in, his precription had changed. They say it's quite common in young kids. He had a great summer at the plate (700's) and I wonder if we hadnt had that second check, just how frustrating it could have been.

There are a couple of other kids on this team who wear glasses and I should probably remind their parents that this could happen.

I will have to do a check on the Colour Blindness - I seem to recall my father was colour blind. I am not and I would imagine they might have checked my son at some point.

Tx,

D

that is exactly the opposite for me...a baseball was the only thing I could see well.

I never was able to get into the habit of hitting or playing with glasses on (probably should have) whenever my eyes shifted to anything outside of the frames the ground looked a lot closer which threw my balance off and made me want to puke.

I used to wear glasses, and when I got contacts, I became a much better hitter, not to mention as a catcher you pretty much cant wear glasses. The thing about glasses, they slip, get dirty, break, they get distorted vision (unless you have oakley or similar lenses), and you have no peripheral vision. If I get to play in college, which I doubt because I am not a particuarly gifted ballplayer, probably about average, if I do though, I will get lasik so I don't have to deal with them.