List of bespectacled baseball players

William Henry "Whoop-La" White

In baseball, players rarely wear spectacles but some players played in the major leagues with glasses. For many years, wearing glasses while playing the sport was an embarrassment.^[1] Baseball talent scouts routinely rejected spectacled prospects on sight.^[2] The stigma had diminished by the early 1960s and by one estimate 20 percent of major league players wore glasses by the end of the 1970s.^[1][3] The development of shatter-resistant lenses in the latter half of the 1940s contributed to their acceptance.^[4]

The first major-league player to wear spectacles was Will 'Whoop-La' White in 1878-86.^[4][5] Only pitchers dared wear glasses while playing until the early 1920s, when George 'Specs' Toporcer of the St. Louis Cardinals became the first outfielder to sport eyewear. Bespectacled pitchers are less rare as they have less need to field the ball.

There are only two players in the Baseball Hall of Fame to have worn eyeglasses during play: Chick Hafey and Reggie Jackson.^[6] Because his vision became so variable, Hafey was obliged to rotate among three different pairs of glasses.

List

Non-pitchers

Other notable non-pitchers who wore glasses include:

• Bob Dillinger^[5][7]
• Clint Courtney — first catcher to wear glasses^[5]
• Dick Allen — first American League MVP to wear glasses^[5]
• Dom DiMaggio — "The Little Professor"^[5]
• Freddie Freeman
• Stan Lopata — the first National League catcher to wear glasses^[8]
• Jason Phillips
• Darrell Porter
• Chris Sabo
• Eric Sogard
• Bill Virdon^[9]
• Earl Torgeson — Replied "Because I want to be able to see." when asked by Jack Brickhouse why he wore glasses when he played.^[10]
• Eddie Joost Shortstop, career spanned 3 decades, both NL and AL

Pitchers

Pitchers who wore glasses include:

• Mel Harder^[5]
• Vic Sorrell of the Detroit Tigers^[11]
• 'Deacon Danny' MacFayden
• Jim Konstanty^[5]
• Nate Robertson
• Carmen Hill^[5]
• Lee Meadows^[5]
• Ryne Duren — once hit a batter in the on-deck circle^[5]
• Brett Cecil
• Tyler Clippard
• Kyle Farnsworth
• Éric Gagné
• Kevin Gregg
• Henderson Álvarez
• A. J. Griffin
• Vance Worley
• Francisco Rodríguez
• José Valverde
• Bob Veale^[12]
• Bill Dietrich^[13]
• Aron Finklestein — once threw a fastball over the backstop in Peabody^[14]
• Ronald Belisario
• Joe Kelly (pitcher)

And an umpire:

• Frank Umont — first major league umpire to wear glasses^[5]

References

1. Jerry Nason (Boston Globe) (August 1963). They've Taken the Stigma Out of Astigmatism. Baseball Digest (Lakeside Publishing Co.). pp. 53–54. ISSN 0005-609X. Retrieved 5 August 2011.
2. H. G. Salsinger (Detroit News) (June 1957). Baseball Digest - What a Scout Looks for in a Boy. Lakeside Publishing Co. p. 72. ISSN 0005-609X. Retrieved 5 August 2011.
3. Bruce Markusen. "Cooperstown Confidential - Regular Season Edition - Glasses Half Full". Oakland Athletics Fan Coalition. Retrieved 5 August 2011.
4. Swaine, Rick, Beating the breaks: major league ballplayers who overcame disabilities
5. Bill Koenig (6 June 1996), "Spectacular players can wear spectacles", USA Today, Baseball Weekly, retrieved 29 October 2013
6. Voigt, David Quentin (1979). American Baseball: From Postwar Expansion to the Electronic Age. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-00332-4.
7. Lewis, Franklin. "DeWitts Proved Shrewd Dealers". Baseball Digest (September 1951): 99–100.
8. James, Bill (2003). The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-2722-0.
9. Gentile, Derek (2008). Baseball's Best 1,000 Revised: Rankings of the Skills, the Achievements, and the Performance of the Greatest Players of All Time. Black Dog & Leventhal. p. 609. ISBN 978-1-57912-777-0.
10. Dickson, Paul (2008). Baseball's Greatest Quotations Rev. Ed.: An Illustrated Treasury of Baseball Quotations and Historical Lore. Collins Reference. ISBN 0-06-126060-6.
11. "Swift remains mound choice", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 15, 1934
12. Porter, David L. (1995). Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: 1992-1995 Supplement for Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Other Sports. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-28431-1.
13. Westcott, Rich and Bill Campbell (2003). Native Sons: Philadelphia Baseball Players Who Made the Major Leagues. Temple University Press. p. 63. ISBN 1-59213-215-4.
14. Grande. "RRBL Box Score". Home Teams Online. Retrieved 20 May 2013.