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Vision of the future: a new type of contact lens might allow baseball players to see a real boost in their performanceSporting News, The , April 29, 2005 by Stan McNealBrian Roberts first tried on his newfangled contact lenses about an hour before the Orioles` last spring training game in Florida. He ripped three hits on a day his teammates groused about the difficulties of seeing the ball in the bright sun shining from a cloudless sky. A longtime wearer of contacts, Roberts needed no persuading afterward to keep the new lenses, even if they make him look like some wild-eyed creature from a science fiction film. After a monster start--he entered the week hitting .444 with five homers--they might have to be pried away from him. Plenty has been said about performance-enhancing drugs this spring. Well, get ready for a new wave of performance enhancers, only these do not cause side effects and are not subject to suspensions. Known as performance-enhancing contact lenses, they were designed to help hitters pick up the seams on the ball better and to protect the eyes from the sun. "They`re almost like wearing sunglasses without wearing sunglasses," Roberts says. "I could tell such a huge difference right away that I was willing to give them a shot." Seven years in the making by Nike and Bausch & Lomb, the lenses--which will be known in the retail world as MaxSight--are so new they have made their way only into a few major league clubhouses so far. Roberts, the Orioles` leadoff hitter and second baseman, is the only player the SPORTING NEWS could confirm is wearing them in games. Reds center fielder Ken Griffey has tried them in batting practice and plans to break them out for real once he becomes more comfortable with them. Reds closer Danny Graves also is wearing them during pregame work. Red Sox pitchers Bronson Arroyo and Mike Timlin and Twins catcher Joe Mauer have been fitted. Tennis player Roger Federer and several D.C. United soccer players have agreed to try them. The University of Miami has 20 athletes on its football, baseball, tennis and track teams wearing them. The lenses also come in gray-green for golfers, and a set for night use is in the final stages of development. But for now, the version that`s part orange and yellow with a hint of red--amber, to be precise--remains mainly in the testing stages for the pros. Roberts doesn`t wear them all of the time, so don`t credit his hot start solely to his high-tech eyewear. His amber set is of no use at night, when he plays most of his games. But none of the dozen or so players who had been fitted by last week has turned them back in. "It helps your eyes relax instead of squinting all the time," Graves says, "and that helps relax the rest of your body." Roberts and Graves have worn contact lenses for years, so their adjustment is not the same as it is for someone who never has worn glasses or contacts, such as Griffey. "It took me about 15 minutes to put them in the first time," he says. "I`m still getting used to having something on my eyes." Even though Griffey has been a bit slow testing the amber lenses, he was counting the days until a Reds off-day so he could try his gray-green set on the golf course. The gray-greens--used in stationary sports; the ambers are geared for speed sports--allow golfers to better differentiate the shades of green on a course. Golfer Justin Leonard has a pair of sunglasses with gray-green lenses, and he told Nike he is able to separate out every blade of grass. For baseball players, because amber blocks out blue light--"visual noise" to vision experts--red colors, such as a baseball`s seams, are accentuated. There are medical advantages as well to wearing the lenses, which basically are soft contacts with a tint that has been scientifically developed. Although light can leak through sunglasses, through the opening between the frame and the eyes, performance-enhancing contacts sit on the pupils and better protect them from the sun. Because baseball players are exposed to so much sunlight, some of them--Timlin, for one--develop a condition called pterygium that, essentially, causes a callus-type film to form on the cornea, leading to dryness in the eyes. "Most important, we want our athletes to continue to see their sport better and better for longer and longer," says Tony Chipote, a marketing field manager for Nike. "As soon as you start to lose your eyesight, the rest of your body will start to suffer. When you have those guys whose reflexes are cat-quick, they`re that way based first on what they`re seeing." When MaxSight hits the market this summer, the sets will be sold at vision care centers, not sporting goods stores. They will be available in prescription and nonprescription lenses and will cost about the same as regular contact lenses. They have a life of about three to four weeks, depending on how often they are worn. They`re not for everyone. When Cardinals left fielder Reggie Sanders was told of their attributes, he rolled his eyes. "OK, sure," he said in a "What will they think of next?" tone. City zoning rules for group homes might be relaxed; Facilities forMilwaukee Journal Sentinel, The , Jan 23, 2006 by FELICIA THOMAS-LYNNAnnie Carvin`s eyes follow the stranger entering the room. She stops eating and quietly places her spoon down on the table beside her bowl of Sugar Pops and milk. She studies the unfamiliar face. The 60-year-old with black wavy hair showing hints of silvery- gray was born with developmental disabilities. Her right arm is contorted and she is unable to speak. After a few seconds, her inquisitive eyes ease a bit and a smile crosses her face. Her demeanor is in stark contrast to the combative and agitated state she had been in when she first arrived at the 15-bed Family House in Milwaukee`s central city from an institution. With society`s continued shift toward transitioning the disabled from institutional settings into home-like environments, Carvin and hundreds of others with physical or developmental disabilities have found shelter in the nearly 200 licensed community-based facilities throughout the county. That number is expected to increase even more, particularly in the city, as officials eye a plan that would relax the rules regarding the facilities. Right now, the facilities can move into any residential area if they meet minimal requirements. However, because the numbers are increasing, many new facilities also must receive approval from the city`s Board of the Zoning Appeals because they are often within 2,500 feet of an existing facility. The rule also applies to other types of group-living arrangements. "It`s a rarity at this point in time when group-living facilities don`t conflict with one another under the 2,500 (foot) spacing requirements," said Clifton Crump, the zoning board`s secretary. There were 95 group-living arrangement cases before the board in 2005. Of those, 37 were renewals and 58 were new cases. Sixty of the cases were approved, one was denied and the others are still pending. The early growth in the industry was driven by the shift in attitudes of how people with disabilities are viewed by mainstream society, said Geri Lyday, the county`s adult services administrator. Lyday said what has driven the industry these days is the state`s recent policy to allow federal funding, which had previously gone only to institutions, to follow clients into the community. She said there has also been an increase in the number of nursing homes closing down. Carvin, for example, had been in a 200-bed nursing home that was forced to shut down because it failed to meet quality-of-life standards. The owner of Family House said Carvin has changed dramatically from the day she arrived three years ago. "She could not feed herself, and she was grabbing food with her hand from everyone`s plate and stuffing it in her mouth," recalls Cordelia Taylor, owner of eight Family House facilities. "She constantly howled night and day." Lyday said Carvin`s improvement isn`t unusual. "People thrive and do wonderful in alternative settings, and they should be able to live in the community just like you and I do," she said. But group home owners say having to go before the zoning board is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. The city has already lost one lawsuit under the ADA challenge, and another is pending. Because of those challenges, city officials are planning to revamp Milwaukee`s current ordinance by separating group homes for those with physical or developmental disabilities from those facilities that deal with people with disabilities that may be related to illegal drug use. In the proposed ordinance, a disabled person is defined as someone with either a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits at least one of the person`s major life activities, as long as the impairment is not related to drug use or addiction. Under the ordinance, if all residents of a group home have disabilities not related to drug use, the 2,500-foot requirement would be waived. That means owners of the facility would not have to go before the zoning board for approval. The proposal has aldermen scrambling to alert their constituents about the change. A Department of City Development map shows that the vast majority of group homes are in districts 2, 6, 7 and 15. At an emergency town hall meeting last week called by Ald. Joe Davis, some residents who didn`t have concerns about elderly, physically or developmentally disabled people living in their neighborhoods said it would be nearly impossible to determine whether a person`s impairment is drug related. They said their neighborhoods are already "dumping grounds" for group homes and they feared that loopholes in the new ordinance would make matters worse. "They are not going to downtown and Brewers Hill. It`s going to be dumped on the northwest side," said Robert Thompson, who lives near a group home for troubled boys. "They are going to have them in the area where poor common people live who have worked their rear ends off," said Thompson. "This is where they are going to put these people. Our neighborhoods are going to be flooded with group homes. This is easy money for a lot of people." Eyes relaxation index
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