Comments on: 1969: Padres Return Home, Fall to Braves

By: Ben B.

Ben B. — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:44:42 +0000

The PECOTA cards over at BP have some really interesting comments from previous years for Mike Cameron (especially considering the eyesight concerns this year). Here are a couple of them:

2003:
“Why aren’t teams more active in getting their players medical care? Cameron complained at the start of the year that he was having trouble picking up the spin and movement on pitches, and it took months for the team to get him help. It turned out that his right eye was badly messed up, having become a different shape than the left from an injury that might go back to a ball he took to the orbital bone years ago in the minors. Cameron’s vision in that eye had deteriorated dramatically. He was fitted for a right-eye-only contact, but how long does it take to adjust to that kind of thing, mid-season, to really get to the point where you’re seeing well? The difference between being a great hitter and a bad one is so very fine, and a player’s sight so important, that it’s hard to believe, months later, that it took as long as it did for the team to get him to a good optometrist.”

“Having hit four home runs in the game, already tying the major league record, in his fifth at-bat, Cameron was up with a 3–0 count, and took a strike right down the middle. Faced with the choice between hacking at the pitch, which no one would have blamed him for, and playing the game, forsaking the record to get on base again, Cameron watched the pitch go by. You want an unselfish, giving player? Here he is.”