Freddie Freeman's Vision Problem Subsides, but Hitting Problem Lingers ATLANTA - A hitter is nothing without his eyes, which is why anxiety gripped Atlanta's Freddie Freeman last month when his vision started blurring. What if his career was being sideswiped? A hitter might as well have a Wiffle ball bat in his hands if he goes to the plate and his vision is not right. Freeman, 22 and in his second season as the Braves" regular first baseman, was scared, and rightfully so. The problem began May 5 when a wind storm kicked up at Coors Field in Denver, where the Braves were playing the Colorado Rockies. The night before, Freeman had gone 4 for 6, raising his batting average to .302, or 20 points higher than he hit in 2011, his impressive rookie season. With the ability to hit for average and power, Freeman seemed destined to replace Chipper Jones as the No. 3 hitter in the Braves" lineup once Jones retires at the end of the season. But now as the wind blew hard enough to cover the first-row table in the press box with dust and dirt, Freeman felt his eyes go dry. He changed his contact lenses six times in the game. In the seventh inning, he played first base while wearing sunglasses to keep the wind out of his eyes. But in the process of repeatedly changing his contact lenses, Freeman scratched the cornea of his right eye. That created his blurred vision and in the days and weeks that followed he proceeded to sit out games, play with goggles, change contact lenses over and over and use prescription eye drops. Meanwhile, his average has plummeted 50 points. The worry? On a scale of 1-10, a 10," Freeman said Monday as he prepared to play the Yankees while batting fifth in the lineup. I have never had an eye problem. I make my living using my eyes. You kind of have a little panic attack because you don't know what's going to happen. Is it going to come back? Do I have to wear goggles, can I wear contacts? For the moment at least, Freeman is wearing regular glasses in batting practice to minimize exposure to any wind. The scratched cornea is healed and he is back to wearing contact lenses in games, but while he is confident he has his vision back, he still does not have his swing where he wants. In 106 at-bats since the wind began kicking up that day in Denver, Freeman has just 21 hits. His line in box scores over the last month are littered with 0-for-3s, 0-for-4s and even 0-for-5s. In two games against the Yankees this week, he is 0 for 7. Still, at least he can see what he is swinging at now, which was not always the case right after the incident. "I was helpless out there, I couldn't see, and I was hurting the team," Freeman said. I didn't know what was going on. I was getting frustrated. I didn't know what to do. It's taken me a month to have confidence in my eyes again. Jones said: "Freddie went through a period where he had no depth perception. There was some real concern. I can't imagine trying to hit major league pitching with perception problems. "You can do your homework," Jones added, "but if you are not picking up pitches out of the pitcher's hand it really doesn't do you much good." At one point in the ordeal, Freeman thought he was cured. He arrived at the ballpark and found that the sports goggles that had been made for him after his trouble in Colorado had just arrived in the mail. Freeman was still in his street clothes, but grabbed his bat and dashed to the batting cage outside the clubhouse. After ripping a few pitches, Freeman burst out of the cage and ran to Manager Freddie Gonzalez's office. Frank Wren, the general manager; Bruce Manno, the assistant general manager; and Gonzalez were having their regular early afternoon meeting and Freeman went around the room with a high-five for everyone present. "I can see!" he exclaimed. The euphoria did not last. Freeman got back in the cage against a 90 mile-an-hour fastball and discovered a blind spot. The nose piece on the goggles had created a black spot in his vision. The goggles were not a solution, just more of the puzzle to solve. For the Braves, there was a twist to all this that was hard to ignore. The 40-year-old Jones, the player Freeman is envisioned as replacing in the No. 3 spot in the lineup, has been continually hampered by physical ailments in recent seasons but his vision is 20-15, better than perfect. Asked if he could have continued playing the last few years without the acute eyesight that can spot the spinning of the stitches on a baseball after it leaves the pitcher's hand, Jones had a simple answer. Freeman, when he is on the ball and seeing it all the way to the plate, has the swing and the work ethic a successful ballplayer needs. He comes early to the park and stays late. He can be coached. He plays hurt, within limits, and is liked by his teammates. Jason Heyward, the Braves" 22-year-old right fielder, used to be considered the future cornerstone of the Braves. Selected in the first round of the 2007 draft, he burst into the big leagues in 2010 with a home run on opening day, a three-run blast in his first at-bat in the big leagues. But plagued by shoulder and thumb injuries, Heyward slipped to a .227 batting average last season, with just 42 runs batted in. Freeman, who was picked in the second round of the 2007 draft, was Heyward's minor league roommate. But he ranks higher than Heyward these days, provided he gets everything back in sync. When Freeman is going well, with his front shoulder tucked in at the plate so that he does not fly open as the pitch approaches, he hits line drives into left-center field or back up the middle. Recently, though, he has been out in front of pitches, a carry-over from the way he was hitting when his vision was shaky and he was starting his swing too early. "It's been a trying month, a lot of downs," Freeman said. I have never had a problem before. It's humbling - you think you are on top of the world and then something like this happens and it brings you right back down to the ground.