Lookouts Cody Strait Bounces Back From Eye Injury

 Lookouts outfielder Cody Strait is one of the team's best hitters with
a .311 average.  But at this time last year, Strait wondered if he would ever be a productive hitter after a bizarre eye injury on May 20, 2007.
 Cody Strait on 5/20/07

 Said Strait, "It was a fast ball up and in.  I swung, and it fouled off
straight off the bat, and straight into my eye.  And I was wearing Oakleys.  And it broke the Oakleys in half.  And broke three bones around my eye. 
And I had twelve stitches.  Kind of a freak accident.  Nobody has even seen that before."
   It was a scary ordeal for the Lookouts outfielder.
"I'd say it was swollen up for three or four days, where I couldn't even open it at all.  I was pretty scared at first because I wasn't real sure, whether I was going to see in it or not.  Because right when it hit, the lights went out, and I couldn't see anything."
    Strait admits it was tough stepping back into the batter's box after the injury.
"When I got in the games, I didn't even think I had a chance last year.  Just from missing.  Not playing those couple of weeks. And my eye the way it was, and being a little bit timid."
    But you could say Cody is seeing straight again.  He's among the team leaders in homeruns with five.
"Now, I don't even think about it anymore. It's back to 100 percent. 
Just I know not to swing at those pitches up and in, that are balls."