All Time Eyeglass Team

DaubachmanTurnerOD

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Relatedly - isn't it kind of amazing that Will Middlebrooks refused (supposedly) to get lasik? I don't remember him wearing glasses, but if someone told you lasik or glasses were the only thing standing between you and potentially untold millions of dollars, wouldn't you sign up in a heartbeat?

There must be more to the story, right?
 
Jul 5, 2018
430
Relatedly - isn't it kind of amazing that Will Middlebrooks refused (supposedly) to get lasik? I don't remember him wearing glasses, but if someone told you lasik or glasses were the only thing standing between you and potentially untold millions of dollars, wouldn't you sign up in a heartbeat?

There must be more to the story, right?
Middlebrooks has astigmatism which can't be corrected well with glasses. Only hard contact lens can correct it and they were too uncomfortable for him due to something with his tear ducts.

I don't know why he didn't go for lasik, but it's somewhat risky.
 

shaggydog2000

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Middlebrooks has astigmatism which can't be corrected well with glasses. Only hard contact lens can correct it and they were too uncomfortable for him due to something with his tear ducts.

I don't know why he didn't go for lasik, but it's somewhat risky.
It's very rare for the surgery to go wrong, but if it did, his career would have been over instantly with no hope of ever fixing the problem. I can see how a guy who made it to the major leagues with his existing eye sight wouldn't want to risk it.
 
Jul 5, 2018
430
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The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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Relatedly - isn't it kind of amazing that Will Middlebrooks refused (supposedly) to get lasik? I don't remember him wearing glasses, but if someone told you lasik or glasses were the only thing standing between you and potentially untold millions of dollars, wouldn't you sign up in a heartbeat?

There must be more to the story, right?
We need another thread about Red Sox players who should have worn glasses.

And then another thread about umpires that should have worn glasses, but that list would be too long...
 

DourDoerr

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1584655283982.png
Grab some pine, meat. Mr. Duffy isn't feeling the pressure, despite a '97 Houston squad needing some 33yo Rivera - after a 2 year absence! And I shouldn't hold the absolute awfulness of that Donruss card against Luis - but I will. Fire engine red. 5 words and almost as many fonts. Random spots that look like someone sneezed ink. Exciting action shot. No wonder Luis looks vaguely disgusted.
 
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Savin Hillbilly

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Alex Cole played in 24 games for the 1996 Sox. Remarkably, I can't find a single image on the internet of him in a Sox uniform, and I honestly have no memories of his Sox stint, but since every image of him playing for other teams features his specs, I think it's safe to assume he rocked them with the Sox as well.

 

DourDoerr

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Tom House
A godsend to the expansion Mariners as they stuck him there as a starter 11 times when he'd started 1 game total in his previous 6 seasons. Was kidding about the "godsend." Sent by someone, of course, but it wasn't God. Still, Tom Brady believes and that's good enough for us all.

Also, well-outfitted fan or player?
4245.jpg
 
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DourDoerr

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Dom DiMaggio: great career - 7x All Star - including age 35 season. Missed age 26, 27, and 28 seasons due to WW2. The Little Professor was a BMOC (and I felt like Chris Berman writing that).
 
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DourDoerr

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DourDoerr

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Alex Cole played in 24 games for the 1996 Sox. Remarkably, I can't find a single image on the internet of him in a Sox uniform, and I honestly have no memories of his Sox stint, but since every image of him playing for other teams features his specs, I think it's safe to assume he rocked them with the Sox as well.

Allowed! Welcome to LF. He's had great glasses over the years, with some early ones recalling those of the great Chuck Muncie (who, let it be said, we all wish was a 2 sport star for his inclusion here).

iu-3.jpeg

Boy, Topps really didn't even try back then, did they? That smudgy mess of a painted-over Saints jersey on the top right is shameful. A player is only going to be on a handful of cards - tops - during their career. Keep that in mind, Topps.

On Alex Cole - there's a real purge of the internet of pix of Cole wearing glasses while with the Sox (although TBH, I didn't look too hard - I "Topps-ed" it). All I could find was this below and they could be sunglasses only. And the placement of the ball doesn't look good for the Sox. Over/under on SoSH'ers who can recall the play? 14?

iu-1.jpeg
 
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threecy

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I can't find a photo, but I'm pretty sure Wade Boggs wore glasses for a time during his struggles during his last season with the Red Sox.
 

wiffleballhero

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In the simulacrum
View attachment 29138
Grab some pine, meat. Mr. Duffy isn't feeling the pressure, despite a '97 Houston squad needing some 33yo Rivera - after a 2 year absence! And I shouldn't hold the absolute awfulness of that Donruss card against Luis - but I will. Fire engine red. 5 words and almost as many fonts. Random spots that look like someone sneezed ink. Exciting action shot. No wonder Luis looks vaguely disgusted.
So this is how it's gonna be!

Dude: August 31, 1990. Grand slam in the bottom of the 8th to bury the Yankees. Frank Duffy does this in his dreams.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKkkI0LLoBI


Jump to the 8:30 mark for the highlights, you'll notice my man Rivera rocking the specks when he goes deep! (You'll also notice bespectacled awesomeness from Greg Harris as well.)

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS199008310.shtml
 

amRadio

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Feb 7, 2019
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I was just here to make sure someone said Eric Gagne and Dom Dimaggio before now. Never should have been in doubt.

I met Gagne on his way out of the park after game one of the 2007 World Series. Always loved him before the Sox, despite his horrendous showing here, that trade was one of the highlights of my Sox fan youth.
 

edoug

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Jul 15, 2005
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I can't find a photo, but I'm pretty sure Wade Boggs wore glasses for a time during his struggles during his last season with the Red Sox.
Wade didn't need glasses he drank his beers from a can. ;)

Good memory
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1992-07-24-9202210275-story.html
So this is how it's gonna be!

Dude: August 31, 1990. Grand slam in the bottom of the 8th to bury the Yankees. Frank Duffy does this in his dreams.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKkkI0LLoBI
At 7:40, maybe another Sox (former and future legend) should've worn glasses?
 

keninten

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Nov 24, 2005
588
Tennessee
Allowed! Welcome to LF. He's had great glasses over the years, with some early ones recalling those of the great Chuck Muncie (who, let it be said, we all wish was a 2 sport star for his inclusion here).

View attachment 29133

Boy, Topps really didn't even try back then, did they? That smudgy mess of a painted-over Saints jersey on the top right is shameful. A player is only going to be on a handful of cards - tops - during their career. Keep that in mind, Topps.

On Alex Cole - there's a real purge of the internet of pix of Cole wearing glasses while with the Sox (although TBH, I didn't look too hard - I "Topps-ed" it). All I could find was this below and they could be sunglasses only. And the placement of the ball doesn't look good for the Sox. Over/under on SoSH'ers who can recall the play? 14?

View attachment 29134
O`Leary gets the error against the Royals with Damon and Offerman on their roster, I think.
 

bigq

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Jul 15, 2005
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He was a huge part of the April and May dominance too. Check out his appearances in that historic start to the season. After opening day anyway.
Right. After a stinker of a performance on opening day he was amazing in April and May. Pretty good in August as well. The dude was streaky but definitely would want early 2018 and postseason 2018 JoKe on my all time eyeglass team. That guy was lights out good.
 

DourDoerr

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Dave Sisler, son of George Sisler and brother of Dick Sisler, rockin' the aviators in 1959
View attachment 29081
Just realized I hadn't added him yet - thanks for bringing him to the table, DNS! The first bespectacled Sox player since Tom Herrin (thanks AF), Dave Sisler did rock the aviators which was a bold statement indeed while America - and its game - squirmed under the thumb of horn-rimmed glass. Saying that Dick and his brother Dick were the 50's version of Ken and George Brett doesn't do right by the Brett brothers and even dad George Sisler could see that. Hell, the old man had 9.8 WAR in 1920 and his boys combined for 10.2 WAR - for their careers. Dave did go to Princeton though, and the later trade of this former Tiger from the Sox to the Detroit Tigers prompted sportswriter Hap Halbrooks to remark, "I can't see where they (Tigers) gained a thing in this transaction."

EDIT - Including Herrin
 
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DourDoerr

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So this is how it's gonna be!

Dude: August 31, 1990. Grand slam in the bottom of the 8th to bury the Yankees. Frank Duffy does this in his dreams.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKkkI0LLoBI


Jump to the 8:30 mark for the highlights, you'll notice my man Rivera rocking the specks when he goes deep! (You'll also notice bespectacled awesomeness from Greg Harris as well.)

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS199008310.shtml
Actually, Frank Duffy doesn't do that even in his dreams. He may count grounders to get to sleep, but that's probably as far as it goes. Absolutely spectacular find - and, as you say, against the Yanks no less - leaves me sorely tempted to jettison Duffy, but I frankly don't want to live in a world where Duffy is my DH. Let's settle Luis in that spot though, he (and you) earned it.

BTW - is the video some sort of communications school project? The accents and cadences of the announcers are epic, particularly the guy announcing the Sox game as he ends each sentence with his voice going up, like he's asking a question - "At the top of the seventh, he struck out Kevin Maas looking?"
 
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Jun 16, 2014
4
Concord, MA
I've got a great picture from 1976 of a hatless Tom House sporting aviators and a wet perm, but being new here, I can't figure out how to link a photo from my hard drive.

I've been dying to share it, and tried to read up on linking on the FAQ page. It is from some sort of MLBPA collection that has been up in my attic for decades, and pulled out of storage only recently in an attempt the fill the gap made by the lack of live sports.
 

Deweys New Stance

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Just realized I hadn't added him yet - thanks for bringing him to the table, DNS! The first bespectacled Sox player since Tom Herrin (thanks AF), Dave Sisler did rock the aviators which was a bold statement indeed while America - and its game - squirmed under the thumb of horn-rimmed glass. Saying that Dick and his brother Dick were the 50's version of Ken and George Brett doesn't do right by the Brett brothers and even dad George Sisler could see that. Hell, the old man had 9.8 WAR in 1920 and his boys combined for 10.2 WAR - for their careers. Dave did go to Princeton though, and the later trade of this former Tiger from the Sox to the Detroit Tigers prompted sportswriter Hap Halbrooks to remark, "I can't see where they (Tigers) gained a thing in this transaction."

EDIT - Including Herrin
Of course! I only knew of Dave Sisler because I remembered reading about him as a kid in the mid-70's in the all time classic The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, which had a hysterical passage about the futility of his career. Josh Wilker's Cardboard Gods blog had an entry on him as well several years ago which quoted from the book:

Wouldn’t he have been happier as a lawyer or a clamdigger or something along that line? He must have known that no matter how good he was he was never going to be good enough. He seemed bright, too. He graduated from Princeton, wore glasses, and was very analytical in postgame interviews. Look at his face in the card—serious, intelligent, taut—the face of an early suicide.

In actuality, he got over his relative lack of success on the diamond compared to his HoF father and pennant-winning brother quickly and joined the brokerage firm AG Edwards, where he had a long successful career, ultimately rising to Vice Chairman. But yeah, despite a bit of early success against the Yankees, he never really delivered much in a Sox uniform, with a total WAR for his Sox career of -0.4. He did, however, have a pretty solid year in the bullpen for the 1960 Tigers.
 

DourDoerr

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Of course! I only knew of Dave Sisler because I remembered reading about him as a kid in the mid-70's in the all time classic The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, which had a hysterical passage about the futility of his career. Josh Wilker's Cardboard Gods blog had an entry on him as well several years ago which quoted from the book:

Wouldn’t he have been happier as a lawyer or a clamdigger or something along that line? He must have known that no matter how good he was he was never going to be good enough. He seemed bright, too. He graduated from Princeton, wore glasses, and was very analytical in postgame interviews. Look at his face in the card—serious, intelligent, taut—the face of an early suicide.

In actuality, he got over his relative lack of success on the diamond compared to his HoF father and pennant-winning brother quickly and joined the brokerage firm AG Edwards, where he had a long successful career, ultimately rising to Vice Chairman. But yeah, despite a bit of early success against the Yankees, he never really delivered much in a Sox uniform, with a total WAR for his Sox career of -0.4. He did, however, have a pretty solid year in the bullpen for the 1960 Tigers.
I question the relative happiness of a clamdigger vs. an MLB pitcher too - seems an overreach! Nonetheless, "Cardboard Gods" is a fantastic book and I love that you were able to mine it for this piece of foolishness. I've been grazing in the field of team photos going back - and it can reach JFK assassination conspiracy heights (are those the outlines of glasses or his eyebrows?) - and haven't found anything yet.

Related to "Cardboard Gods," there's a new book by Brad Balukjian - The Wax Pack - and he was about to do a reading/signing at the local Books Inc. in early April. It looks like a fun read and I was going to reach out and see if anybody wanted a signed copy. The event has been cancelled, of course, but if it does reschedule, I'll set up a thread and gauge interest.
 

DourDoerr

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It is amazing to me that this team is not better. At a minimum, I'd think the pitching staff would be a little stonger.
+1 with a bullet. I suspect contacts have decimated the ranks post-70's glory years. John Curtis as your #2 is anemic. He later went to St. Louis and they didn't hold it against the Sox - and lucky for them they didn't - when they acquired another lefty named John (Tudor) 11 years later. Tudor came aboard after a brief layover in Pittsburgh and he excelled in St. Louis, of course, although his run wasn't as strong I had remembered after his runner-up Cy Young award season in 1985. Still, one might forgive the scarred Cardinals fan's offering, upon meeting John Curtis in their later years, "Mr. Curtis, I rooted for John Tudor. I counted on John Tudor. John Tudor was a favorite of mine. Mr. Curtis, you're no John Tudor."
 

DourDoerr

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I've got a great picture from 1976 of a hatless Tom House sporting aviators and a wet perm, but being new here, I can't figure out how to link a photo from my hard drive.

I've been dying to share it, and tried to read up on linking on the FAQ page. It is from some sort of MLBPA collection that has been up in my attic for decades, and pulled out of storage only recently in an attempt the fill the gap made by the lack of live sports.
A perm team, hmm. Anyway, I'm not an IT guy nor know what tools are available to lurkers, but what's worked for me on my Mac is to save the image on my desktop and then click on the "Attach files" below and then click on the file in the pop-up window. If the file's too big, there are sites to reduce it. Good luck.