McCann hopes wearing glasses is solution

Frustrated Braves catcher Brian McCann is going to play baseball wearing glasses for the first time, after contact lenses offered no relief from blurred vision and dryness in his left eye.

He’s expected to play in glasses as soon as Monday at Class AAA Gwinnett, where he could stay before rejoining the major league Braves when he’s eligible to come off the 15-day disabled list May 8 at Philadelphia.

“The contacts didn’t work,” McCann said Friday, after playing two games at Class A Myrtle Beach, a trip that proved fruitless for a remedy to the ailment that’s perplexed him and doctors since the season began.

The three-time All-Star, who’s been on the DL for a week, saw three eye specialists in April and tried three different contact lenses, in addition to ointments and medicated drops. Nothing worked.

“It bothered me every at-bat,” McCann said of the latest attempt to solve the problem with a pair of contact lenses. Before that, he tried single lenses for the left eye, the only eye that’s given him problems.

He played two games at Myrtle Beach, going 1-for-6 with a single, a walk and two strikeouts. McCann said the eye felt good for about 30 minutes after putting in the lens, but then the dryness returned despite frequent use of drops.

He was fitted for new glasses, which he wore taking batting practice Friday at Turner Field. McCann will wear a pair of prescription Oakley sports glasses when they arrive in a day or two, and he’ll use a hockey-type helmet facemask that he can keep on during innings, including when he pursues pop-ups or sets up to take throws to the plate.

It’s the type of mask worn by many other major league catchers. McCann has always worn the traditional catcher’s mask over a helmet, but that wouldn’t work well with glasses because of the need to pull off the mask to make plays.

There’s also a chance that he’ll be able to catch without wearing glasses, since his prescription is relatively mild.

He’ll try the new arrangement after Gwinnett returns for a homestand that begins Monday. He hopes the glasses will get him through the season, since McCann was told by doctors that another round of Lasik surgery was recommended only as a last resort.

He was cautiously optimistic after hitting the ball well in batting practice but said he’ll have to get used to the glasses.

“I hate being on the DL,” he said. “It feels like I’m not here. It’s so early in the season, and not playing. … This is probably the toughest thing I’ve had to go through in a long time. I hate it for the team that I can’t play.”

He’s had blurry vision and dryness in his left eye since the first week of the season. Exams showed his vision in that eye worsened slightly since Lasik surgery on both eyes after the 2007 season.

McCann said tests have shown his eyes are healthy, and doctors aren’t certain what’s causing the dryness and problems when he wears contact lenses.

He has hit .195 with two homers and seven RBIs in 13 games and had a 1-for-20 slump shortly before going on the DL a week ago.

He had no vision problems last season, when he hit .301 with 23 home runs.

Kawakami update

Kenshin Kawakami did some light throwing without pain in his right shoulder on Friday. The Braves announced Wednesday he would be dropped to the back of the rotation and his next start would be bumped from Saturday to Tuesday because of “shoulder fatigue.” The 33-year-old right-hander had a cortisone injection Monday.