It’s not typical that news of a college student-athlete failing a test is an eventual cause for celebration. But in the case of newly minted national champion Christian Moore, his disaster of an exam at the University of Tennessee may have saved his career.

It was, truth be told, a vision test. Moore had been told that his “eyes might be a little off” when examined in high school at a Major League Baseball event, but he dismissed it, until he had this exchange upon his eye check in the fall of 2021:

Eye examiner: Close your right eye. OK, read.
Moore: H.
Eye examiner: That’s all you can see?
Moore: Yeah
Eye examiner: What? Are you serious?
Moore: Yeah
Eye examiner: Alright, do your other eye.
Moore: H.R.
Eye examiner: That’s all you can see?
Moore: Yeah
Eye examiner: Dude, you’re blind.
Moore: Am I? I don’t know.

A trip to the actual eye doctor confirmed the “Dude, you’re blind” diagnosis and Moore was fitted for contacts. That took as much of an adjustment as it did facing Southeast Conference pitching for the first time, but when he got the hang of it, his life changed.

“The baseball the first time, it looked like a beach ball,” Moore said. “But my depth perception was so off that I was so late and so early for like two weeks. Basically for the whole fall, I’m hitting blind and then I get contacts and I still feel like I’m hitting blind. So really, I didn’t get used to them until that winter of my freshman year.

“From there it was just learning and just seeing the ball better definitely helped. I would say, ‘How do you see spin? What is that? I see a shape. I see a ball coming at me.’ And then finally I saw it for the first time.”

He saw the ball and hit it right out of the gate, posting a 1.062 OPS in his freshman year over 118 at-bats. A regular as a sophomore, he had a .304/.444/.603 line, upping his season home run total from 10 in 2022 to 17 in 2023. That put him on the map as a Draft prospect, but one who seemed more like a second- or third- round type, and he came in at No. 67 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Draft prospects list that came out last December.

He's had an up arrow next to his name ever since, going from 67 to No. 52 when the list expanded to 150 earlier this spring, No. 25 at the Top 200 expansion and all the way up to No. 13 before ultimately being selected No. 8 overall by the Angels. That’s because he finished with a .375/.451/.797 line, finishing third among all Division I hitters (trailing only No. 3 pick Charlie Condon of Georgia and No. 6 Jac Caglianone of Florida) with his 34 homers.

When the competition got stiffer, in the ultra-competitive SEC, Moore stepped up his game even more, hitting .429 and slugging .925. He hit for just the second cycle in the history of the College World Series and was a big part of the Volunteers winning their first-ever title.

“Some of the guys we won with, I’ve been with them for three years now,” Moore said. “I’ve seen them grow, they’ve seen me grow and for us to do this as a group, everybody played a huge part in this. It’s special. I knew it from the get-go from the fall when I saw everybody click. I knew we had the talent, but you can have talent, but as a team, you need to have chemistry and we had that from day one. I knew we could do this and I’m just glad we did it.”

Growth, and learning, are key parts of Moore’s vocabulary these days. That foundation may have started before he headed to campus. The infielder was a regular at several MLB Develops events and still carries things with him from his time at the Hank Aaron Invitational.

“Those instructors, they all played Major League Baseball. The tips that they’re giving you can go for a lifetime,” said Moore, noting he still does drills Ron Washington taught him at the Hank Aaron Invitational. “I met a lot of great people, and made friendships for life. We all had one dream, to play pro ball. MLB Develops definitely helped us get to that dream.”

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He looks back and barely recognizes the teenager from Brooklyn who came to Knoxville, Tenn., over three years ago. The maturation has been both physical and emotional, as he’s the first to admit he had some growing up he needed to do in order to maximize his potential. And he recognizes all the work he’s put in, the investment the coaching staff put in to help him become the elite-level player he is today. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he’d be leaving college having won the SEC triple crown, having set both the single-season (34) and career home run record (61) for Tennessee.

“When I first got to campus, I remember Coach Vitello talking about the travel list,” Moore said. “I just wanted to make the travel list as a freshman. That’s all I wanted to do; I just wanted to be there. So for me to do all that stuff, it's really cool. I never thought I could be in this position.

“I worked hard for it. I always dreamed about it. Every kid has that dream. I thank God that I was able to live it out. And man, I look back and it took a lot of work, man. I know I'm talking about myself, but I want to talk about my coaches, because without them, I really wouldn’t be the player I am. They helped me a lot, so kudos to them as well.”