Baseball's first century saw virtually all except a few cautious, previously injured players stride into the batter's box protected only by a soft cloth ball cap. "It took the National Pastime more than a hundred years to realize that in a collision between a baseball and a human skull, the skull comes out the loser," write Dan Gutman and Tim McCarver in "The Way Baseball Works." With the ball bearing down at 90 mph, and less than half a second in which to evade potential danger, batters need helmets as much or more than miners or motorcyclists.
Early Years
In 1907, New York Giants' catcher Roger Bresnahan spent a month in the hospital after being hit by a pitch. He returned wearing an inflatable batting helmet designed by inventor Frank Pierce Mogridge. Baseball, slow to change traditions, resisted adopting batting helmets even after Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was killed by a pitch from New York Yankees' Carl Mays in 1920. In the early 1920s, efforts by some players to wear leather headgear similar to the football helmets of the day met with ridicule from other players. In addition to Chapman, nine minor leaguers and 111 amateur players have died as a result of beanings since 1887, according to researcher Bob Gorman.
Preliminary Headgear
In August 1937, Willie Wells of the Negro Leagues' Newark Eagles was rushed to the hospital after being beaned and diagnosed with a concussion. While the prognosis was "out for the season," writes Larry Lester in "Black Baseball's National Showcase," Wells returned later in the season wearing a miner's hardhat without its flashlight. This is the first recorded instance of hard-shell protective headgear in the white or black leagues, Lester states. In 1951, the Brooklyn Dodgers' Joe Medwick was beaned and spent a week in the hospital. Dodgers President Larry MacPhail contacted neurosurgeon Walter Dandy at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, who designed plastic inserts that would fit into the zippered pockets in the batter's cap and offer protection. MacPhail ordered his players to wear the inserts.
True Helmets
In 1952, Pittsburgh Pirates President Branch Rickey, an important innovator in baseball, ordered Pirates executive Charlie Muse to work toward developing a helmet. Muse, designer Ed Crick and inventor Ralph Davia devised a helmet with maximum protection above the ears. Rickey ordered his players to wear the helmets, made of fiberglass and polyester resin. The heavy helmets were lined with foam rubber that soaked up sweat and later dripped into the players' eyes, wrote Kate Ledger in "Sports Illustrated."
Requirements
By 1955, 14 of the 16 major league teams offered helmets to players, and by the end of the decade, earflaps also appeared on helmets. Helmets became mandatory in 1971, with earflaps required of new players in as of 1983, long after the 1967 beaning of Red Sox player batter Tony Conigliaro severely injured his left eye. The obligatory helmet emboldens the hitter. Though some pitchers may still headhunt batters, with "heads encased in polycarbonate alloy and thermoformed foam, they are less likely to do serious damage," Gutman and McCarver write. "Intimidation has become less of a weapon.
References
- "The Way Baseball Works"; Dan Gutman, Tim McCarver; 1996
- "Popular Mechanics"; How the 105-mph Fastball Tests the Limits of the Human Body; Jeremy Rapanich; September 2010
- "Sports Illustrated"; Safety Did Not Come First; Kate Ledger; July 1997
- "Sports Illustrated"; Hit In The Head; S.L. Price; April 2009
- "The Last Years of the Brooklyn Dodgers"; Rudy Marzano; 2007
- "Black Baseball's National Showcase"; Larry Lester; 2002
Member Comments