Defying the odds: Blind in one eye, Hingham catcher Ben Cashman is an unlikely star

HINGHAM – Every once in a while, someone will hear a rumor or notice something is just a little bit off and ask Ben Cashman about it. And he will casually mention that, as a matter of fact, yes, he is legally blind in his right eye.

Invariably, this comes as a big shock to anyone who has watched him blossom this spring as a senior catcher on the Hingham High baseball team.

That includes a stray teammate or two.

"I didn't realize that until a couple of weeks ago when he told me," pitcher Jake Schulte admitted at Thursday's practice. "It's amazing he can play at such a high level and perform at such a high level."

Hitting a baseball is generally regarded as the hardest thing to do in all of sports. Doing it with 20/20 vision in both eyes is a challenge. Doing it, essentially, with one eye permanently closed would seem to border on the impossible.

And yet, here we are with Cashman rattling off big hit after big hit for the overachieving Harbormen (10-6) while nurturing a pitching staff that lost ace John Volpe to a season-ending injury in preseason.

"It's incredible," senior third baseman Bobby Falvey said of his classmate's impact. "It's absolutely incredible how good he is – how good at the plate he is, how good behind the plate he is. It is absolutely crazy how talented a baseball player he is. Kids on other teams have actually come up to me and asked me about (his vision) and every time I say, 'I have no clue how he (does it).' But he's just so good."

"I'm just amazed at what he's been able to do, given the depth perception needed not only to hit but to be behind the plate," Cashman's father, Jeff, said. "It's been so amazing to watch as a dad."

Ben Cashman, a 5-9, 160-pounder, just shrugs when asked to explain it all.

"It's more surprising to the people around me," he said. "It's just what I've been used to my whole life. It's nothing different for me. I've played on teams where more than halfway through the season guys will come up to me and be like, 'Hey, what's up with your eye?'

"I never really bring it up unless someone asks me about it."

Cashman, who plans to continue his baseball career at Division III Springfield College, has never seen clearly out of his right eye. He was born with a pediatric cataract that was removed via surgery when he was a week old. He has no lens in the eye. When he was young, his parents and doctors tried to strengthen the right eye by blocking out the left one – first with an eye patch (which he kept clawing off) and later with a black contact lens.

It didn't work.

"It's just incredibly blurry with splotches of colors. Nothing useful," Cashman said of what he sees out of his right eye. "I was born with a cataract, developed glaucoma and that's been going on (ever since). I take eye drops for it every day. My vision just never improved.

"Personally, I don't think about it often. It's just kind of how I've always been playing. But, yeah, coaches are usually impressed with it; other players are usually impressed with it."

His coach at Springfield College, Mark Simeone, likely will be impressed too.

One day.

When Cashman gets around to telling him.

"That'll be an interesting conversation," Cashman said with a grin.

'He's been rock-solid behind the plate'

For Cashman's prowess behind the plate, Hingham can thank his childhood friend, Andrew Joffe.

"He was a year older than me, but he played for my summer ball team that year and he was a catcher," Cashman said. "I don't know, it was some competition-type thing; I wanted to catch too. Ever since then I've always been catching."

And loving every minute of it.

"I just like the intensity of it," he said of the position, which his dad played back in the day at Whitman-Hanson High. "You're in control every pitch, you're in (the action) on every play. You gotta be ready to block balls in the dirt and throw runners out. Everything."

Cashman, whose older brother Brady (now a sophomore at UMass-Amherst) played at Hingham High, lost his sophomore season to the pandemic and played only sparingly as a junior, starting a single game. As a senior, though, he's grabbed the job by the proverbial throat.

"For us, he's been rock-solid behind the plate," said Hingham coach Frank Niles. "He throws (well) so people don't run all over us. It's high school baseball, they run some, but it's not like we're a team that people think they can just run wild against. That's good. He's thrown people out. He's respected enough back there (that teams don't challenge him a lot). And he's been great at blocking balls in the dirt."

Cashman loves cutting down would-be base-stealers, even though he wants to see his success rate in that department go up.

"Transfer time (from your glove to your hand) is really big – being able to get the ball out of your glove and down (to the base)," he said. "Obviously, having a strong arm (helps). But also being able to read the runners and having good pitchers who can learn to get a good slide-step going so they can be quicker to the plate, that all helps too."

Handling a pitching staff is also part of the job description, and Cashman gets high marks there, too. His list of favorite catchers includes Cardinals star Yadier Molina and old-schoolers Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez and Benito Santiago.

"He's a great catcher," said Schulte, who leads the team in innings pitched (34) and is 3-0 with a 3.09 ERA. "He helps me hit my spots. It's easy to throw to him. He's a great teammate. Sometimes after a tough inning he'll bring me over or he'll talk to the entire team and he'll tell us to keep our heads up."

Said Niles: "He can be direct and tough on them, but he's respected by all the kids. ... He's like part of the coaching staff. If I ask him, 'How's the bullpen look today?' he'll tell me the truth. He's very mature that way."

As for hitting, Cashman has picked his (big) spots. He's batting .277 and entered Friday tied for the team lead in RBI with 12. More importantly, he's come through in the clutch numerous times.

For example, with a three-run triple (he has a team-best three of those on the season) in an 11-9 upset win at Plymouth North.

"That was my buddy on the mound," Cashman said of North's 6-3 junior pitcher Will Krupa. "That felt really good. That was a fastball and I drove it to the opposite side. Easily the farthest I've hit a ball this season. And I knew it right off the bat."

Three days later, he stepped to the plate against Silver Lake and delivered a two-out, two-run walk-off single in a pulsating 11-10 win. The Harbormen plated nine runs over the final two innings in that one, including four in the seventh.

"Line drive," he recalled. "Fastball to the outside part of the plate. I had either one strike or two strikes on me. Two outs."

What was he thinking in the moment?

"Nothing," he said with a laugh. "Just react. But I was preparing myself for probably seven batters, thinking, 'I'm going to get up there and it's going to be me (who gets the big hit).' I've been doing a lot of succeeding recently, so I like getting up in those situations."

Said Falvey: "That was definitely the most exciting high school baseball game I've ever been a part of. To have him get that clutch hit was just the cherry on top. I was just so happy to see him do that."

Harbormen have rolled with the punches

Cashman isn't going to lie. Losing Volpe in a freak preseason accident – a collision at home plate – was a kick in the teeth for Hingham.

"Oh, my God. That one definitely hurt, me especially," he said. "This was going to be our year. I didn't take that one well."

Still, the Harbormen have persevered. They might not be the darlings of the MIAA power rankings – Hingham checked in at No. 39 in Div. 1 in Thursday's updated standings – but Friday's 7-5 win over Duxbury clinched a playoff berth due to their above-.500 record. Three of their losses have been by one or two runs.

"They're a good group," Niles said. "They're a good bunch."

"There were definitely a couple of games we'd like back," said Falvey, who's hitting .360 with 12 RBI, "but all we can do now is just focus on the future and focus on the upcoming games. I definitely think our team is extremely talented. With John (Volpe) going down we knew it would be hard to do great things without him, but we've embraced the next-man-up mentality and that has helped us reach nine wins. I can definitely see us getting more here soon."

Falvey raves about Cashman's impact on the team, calling him the "definition of a leader."

And Cashman, who knows a thing or two about overcoming adversity, is proud that his first – and only – extended varsity playing time is coming on a team that's shown so much character.

"All of these comebacks that we've had," he said, "there's something special with this team this year. We don't like to lose."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Hingham catcher, blind in one eye, now a star as a first-year starter