Dr. Graebe Works With MLB Players

Dr. Rick Graebe realized every devout baseball fan’s cold weather wish last month – he hopped a plane in wintry Kentucky and three hours later disembarked in sunny Arizona to enjoy spring training.

Along with 10 other optometrists, Dr. Graebe visited the winter home of the Oakland A’s in Mesa, outside of Phoenix. He took in a ballgame and ate a couple of hot dogs, but his trip to the Cactus League was actually a business excursion.

He and the other optometrists are with The A Team – High Performance Vision Associates founded by Dr. Donald Teig, a pioneer in sports vision.

At the invitation of the Oakland A’s – the team depicted in the movie “Money Ball” – the doctors collected data on the visual systems of Oakland ballplayers.

In no other sport than baseball is vision so crucial to an athlete. Consider the challenge that faces every major league batter.

Standing 60-feet-6 inches away atop a mound, a pitcher spins a small sphere 90 miles an hour toward the plate.

The ball could sink, rise, curve inside or outside, and land in or out of the strike zone.

And how long time does the batter have to decide to swing or not? It’s measured in milliseconds.

That’s why all hitters have excellent eyesight and the best have off-the-charts visual skills. The Oakland A’s were no exception.

The A Team tested the visual skills of the players using sophisticated equipment, much of which Dr. Graebe uses in his office.

In one test, players were asked to touch an object on a computer screen as soon as it lit up. One player managed the task in 0.3 seconds.

“That’s unbelievable,” said Dr. Graebe, a behavioral optometrist in Versailles. “We thought he must have been guessing. But he did it time after time. That’s just exceptional coordination and visual skills.”

Another skill involved judging how fast baserunners react in a steal situation. The tests identified those who were quicker than others.

In another exercise, the doctors used a strobe light to help players build visual focus.

“Afterward, they all said the ball looked bigger and slower,” Dr. Graebe said.

Testing visual skills of the athletes was the main assignment for the doctors, who passed on their findings to the team.

“The A’s were very receptive to our reports and saw the value in what we were doing,” Dr. Graebe said. “The players all handled themselves well, too. I just loved the whole trip.”