MILWAUKEE, Wis. (CAP) - Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has announced that beginning next season, all players will be banned from wearing eyeglasses, contacts, or any other visual aid. And beginning in 2011, the ban will extend to Lasik eye surgery, cortisone shots, and similar medical procedures.
"Would Brian Roberts have quadrupled his home run production and hit 50 points over his average in 2005 if he weren't wearing contact lenses?" Selig asked reporters as he announced the new policy. "I don't think so. Baseball must always be about natural ability and not unnatural assistance."
News of baseball's new zero-tolerance policy comes as the sport grapples with continued allegations of steroid abuse among many of its players. Congressional leaders already conducting hearings on the steroid scandal have agreed to expand the scope of their investigation to include Selig's new banned accessories.
"Mr Henke, is it true that as a member of the 1992 World Series Champion Toronto Blue Jays, that you wore glasses for most, if not all of your pitching performances?" Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) asked 50-year-old former closer Tom Henke during the first day of hearings.
"I'm not going to go into the past or talk about my eyesite in the past," Henke told the Congressional panel. He also refused to address allegations of eyewear use leveled against him by former player Darrell Porter, who admitted prior to his death in 2002 to having gone shopping for glasses with Henke in the mid-'80s.
Congress then focused their attention on Selig's proposed list of banned medical procedures, where UCL reconstruction, known better as Tommy John surgery, took center stage. New York Yankees pitcher Carl Pavano, who missed most of the 2007 season after undergoing such surgery, testified it was all his trainer's idea.
"Yes, my arm hurt. Yes, I knew the injury could end my career," Pavano told Congress as he held back the anger. "But when my trainer told me to meet him at the hospital, I assumed it was for a strength and conditioning program.
"Next thing I know, I'm lying down on a gurney and counting backwards from a hundred," Pavano recalled. "I didn't know they were going to operate."
Congress plans to wrap up the hearings within a week and announce its findings shortly after that. Rumors that Selig also plans to ban cups and jockstraps as "performance-enhancing accessories" have yet to be confirmed by CAP News.
- CAP News Staff