By Zack Steele
I wanted to begin by giving a big shout-out to all of our area high school baseball teams, who all won area championships. Here’s hoping they all go a long way in the playoffs.
Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you I am a big sports fan. I played sports growing up and played college baseball for about a week (actually, it was two years, but it felt like a week). I still like to watch sports at all levels, especially baseball
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I have to say that I cringe every time I see a young person playing any sport with regular eyeglass frames. It makes for a dangerous situation.
Regular frames for everyday wear are not made for contact, from a ball or an elbow or a foot. Frames will break if hit hard enough and the resulting injury can be sight-threatening.
Imagine a “bad hop” in a little league game that happens to hit the shortstop wearing his or her eyeglasses. The lenses will most likely not shatter, but the frame will. A broken frame can have razor-sharp edges that can lacerate the globe of the eye, causing permanent injury.
You may scoff at the odds of something like this happening, but I saw this catastrophic injury firsthand.
I was 14 years old and a teammate of mine named Josh was running on a play from first to second base. While making an attempt at a double play, the opposing second baseman inadvertently threw the ball right into Josh’s face. His glasses shattered, slicing his eye. My teammate and friend had emergency surgery that night on his eye. Josh’s retina on his right eye was torn, causing permanent vision loss. His promising baseball career was over.
I remember those few moments like it was yesterday. I still wince when I think about it. And every day, when a child comes in needing glasses that plays a competitive sport, I am reminded of Josh.
That is why I always tell my patients and parents to make sure to have standard sports frames and lenses. I know that when we think of sports glasses we are reminded of the goggles of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But these days, they actually look stylish, and most importantly, they protect the eyes from situations like what I described above.
Believe me, it is worth the extra money on a pair of these glasses to protect your child’s eyes from harm.
Dr. Zack Steele is a 2003 graduate of the UAB School of Optometry. His practice, Trussville Vision Care, is located on Chalkville Mountain Road in downtown Trussville.