Martinez keeps the hits coming despite eye disorder.(baseball player Edgar Martinez)

Edgar Martinez was in a panic. He was losing sight of pitches. He appeared headed to the disabled list. He told the Mariners' eye specialist, Dr. Douglas Nikaitani, that he might retire.

"We were concerned that if the ball was thrown at his head or his face, he wouldn't be able to get out of the way," team trainer Rick Griffin says.

The episode occurred in May 1999. Frightening as it was, it was not the first time Martinez's vision had failed him during his distinguished career that was then in its 13th year. Nor would it be the last. Martinez, 38, suffers from strabismus, an abnormality that prevents his eyes from working in tandem. The condition causes his right eye to drift out intermittently, forcing him to use only his left.

Nikaitani, the optometnst who detected the Problem more than a decade ago when Martinez was in the minor leagues, says it's "a miracle" that Martinez has overcome his eye trouble to become one of the best hitters in baseball. Though Nikaitani says he knows of no other major leaguer with the abnormality, "it probably happens more often than we know," says Dr. Michael Repka, associate professor at the Wilmer Institute of The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Repka says that strabismus is exacerbated by fatigue and worsens with age, presenting an especially difficult challenge for an older athlete such as Martinez.

"He is basically one-eyed at times," Nikaitani says. "His (right) eye doesn't want to go straight. He has the ability to pull the eye in and maintain it. But when the eye goes out, he loses depth perception and the ability to see a change in velocity in pitches."

Martinez, one of the game's hardest workers, lifts weights, studies video and hits relentlessly in batting cages. He also performs eye exercises as part of his daily pregame routine.