Welcome to the first entry for this blog. (Don’t you have something more important to do than read this?) I’m writing this from my teeny cubicle the sub-basement of the venerable Review of Optometry building, located in the outskirts of Philadelphia. I’ll admit that it’s cramped, damp and gloomy down here in the basement, but it’s also dank.

Now that you know where I’m coming from, let me tell you where I’m going to. This blog (such as it is) won’t be afraid to take on the Tough Issues, and ask the Really Big Questions, such as:

Are baseball umpires really as blind as bats?

Yes, they are. Well, more than a quarter of them are. I know this because I spent almost my entire coffee break performing an Internet search on it, and I came across one whole study from the 1980s that proves it.

Optometrist Arthur Seiderman is an authority on sports vision (as well as on children’s vision and vision therapy). He co-founded the Sports Vision Center of Philadelphia. Twenty-five years ago, he conducted a study of 40 umpires and referees between the ages of 27 and 57 who officiate at all types of college, high school and amateur sports competitions. Dr. Seiderman found that 72% of the officials did indeed have good visual acuity, with 20/20 vision or vision corrected to 20/20.

But as many as one-fourth (28%) of officials had less than 20/20 vision. What was more surprising: 30% of the officials had problems with depth perception and spatial localization—exactly the kind of visual skills necessary to follow a speeding fastball.

That study was from a quarter of a century ago. Requirements have changed by now, right? Not really. The only vision requirement for umpires in Major League Baseball is to have 20/20 vision or vision corrected to 20/20. They are not required to pass any other vision test.

So, hey, Ump, now’s the time to go get your vision checked!

On second thought, our local boys the Philadelphia Phillies are on their way to the World Series. So far, so good!

Never mind, Umps. You can wait until the season is over to visit your optometrist. (Go Phils!)