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Peripheral visions
By JOEL POILEY WESTCHASE -- High and inside at 90 mph or lining up a putt to win that friendly wager is the wrong time to discover your optics are making errors all over your visual acuity. Wearing sunglasses full time while playing professional sports may have started with baseball's Rickey Henderson in the late 1980s as a mere fashion statement. But as lens technology evolved, shades have become a staple among professionals and weekend warriors. Different lens tints maximize vision for different sports. Amber-colored lenses increase contrast and better define the breaks in a golf course. Neutral gray offers maximum glare reduction for baseball. Teal's optical properties enhance the yellow of a tennis ball. "The teal acts like a filter, muting all the infrared light around the ball and enhancing the clarity of the yellow in the ball," said Monique Cupryn, an optometrist who owns Sphere Fine Eyewear in West Park Village. Three types of glare cause vision distortion: Reflected glare is caused by light waves reflected from flat, smooth or shiny surfaces. When the light waves vibrate together horizontally, this creates polarized light, which creates blinding hot spots that are uncomfortable, distracting and sometimes dangerous, Dr. Cupryn said. Direct glare emanates from a direct source, most often the sun or overhead lights. "You can't catch a fly ball when it goes up in the sun without something cutting the glare," said Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Vernon Wells. Bounce-back glare originates from light beside or behind you that is reflected off your sunglasses and into you eyes. If you've seen your eyelashes reflected in your sunglasses, then you've seen bounce-back glare. Worse than glare itself, there are two levels of glare intensity. Veiling occurs most commonly when light strikes a smooth, flat or shiny surface and severely impairs or obscures vision. Discomforting glare occurs on hazy or overcast days, causing eye strain and fatigue. Non-polarized sunglasses don't actually eliminate glare; they only tint it, leaving it just as intense and dangerous. Ordinary polarization only blocks horizontally reflected glare, Cupryn said. Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins wears the Oakley brand of orange lenses to cut the glare from steam rising off the artificial turf at Veterans Stadium. "On hot days when the heat comes off the field, there's a little haze from it. You don't notice it until you put the sunglasses on," Rollins said. "Then, it's very clear. You see the steam rising above you. I wear them to bat with, too, because they help pick up the ball real well." Oakley, Bolle and Maui Jim came out with sports-specific eyewear in the early 1990s, Cupryn said. The idea was to take a prescription and give the patient more depth of field with no distortion even in a wraparound type lens. They come in a polycarbonate frame with interchangeable lenses. The glasses, which come with a regular sunglass lens, cost from $150-$350 depending on the level of coverage and degree of prescription. "We've had a tremendous amount of requests for them," Cupryn said. "Particularly from people who are heavily involved in sports. They're a little bulkier than standard fashion sunglasses. The frames provide a coverage or shield around the eyes in all weather conditions and get tighter on your face when you perspire rather than slipping. "Some frames have a particular type of frame where you can change the lens to a standard gray. Then, when you play golf or tennis you can insert the sports-specific lens." Cupryn said there are different sizes for different levels of coverage. A golfer, for example, could have three or four different lenses for different parts of their game. Cupryn said there are different sizes for different levels of coverage. Other athletes switch sunglasses, depending on the weather. "We use several different tints for different conditions," said Wells of the Blue Jays. "Like if it's cloudy, sunny or windy ... I also like how these don't move when you run like the old-style sunglasses."
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