seeing too clearly

I remember how last year, San Francisco Giants fans were so terribly excited by their newest star player, Pablo Sandoval. He was very nearly an All-Star and had a batting average around .330. He has personality, charisma, and started a craze among fans as they began wearing Panda caps and hats in keeping with his nickname the 'Kung Fu Panda.'

It was with a bit of greed that I thought upon hearing the news that he was planning on having his eyesight improved through lasik surgery (or the like) during the last offseason: how much better can he be when his sight is even sharper? If he bats .330 now, imagine how much higher he can go? Batting title, here we come!

Unfortunately, his production has tailed off for the 2010 baseball season, where his lack of discipline at the plate has resulted in some disappointment - his batting average has hovered around .270.

Now flash back to a scene from Star Wars (I've found so much of life that I can compare to Star Wars!): our heroes are on the Millenium Falcon having escaped Mos Eisley and are on their way to (spoiler alert!) the soon to be destroyed Alderaan - during the journey, Obi-Wan Kenobi first begins to teach Luke Skywalker the ways of the force by having Luke don a helmet with a visor that is solid and opaque. Luke is to use his lightsaber to protect himself from a little droid shooting lasers at him that he can't see. Luke has to trust 'the force.'

I wonder if Pablo was able to trust the force more last year and this year is relying too much on his improved eyesight. While he can better see the rotation of the ball, its release from the pitcher's hand, etc., maybe he isn't trusting his instincts as much. A drop-off of 60 points in the batting average is pretty astounding. Not that he should close his eyes when he's batting (!), but maybe there's a 'feel' for what he's doing in the batter's box that's missing while he's seeing the ball better. Oh well, good thing I'm not the batting coach - I'm sure relying on the force doesn't work in baseball: "Trust your feelings, Pablo, trust your feelings!"