No baseball player has donned a helmet in the field (catchers excluded) since John Olerud retired in 2005, but Easton-Bell sports is looking to buck that trend.
The sports equipment company has designed a helmet specifically to protect pitchers, developing a product that was inspired by high school pitcher Gunnar Sandberg, who nearly lost his life when he was hit by a line drive while pitching a simulated game last year.
The helmet is designed to provide protection to the most vulnerable parts of the head, and could have helped save the part of Sandberg's brain that had to be removed due to the injury. Sandberg, however, is just happy to be alive, and he's happy to wear the helmet no matter how "uncool" others may say it looks.
"The Easton-Bell Sports pitching helmet prototype uses lightweight energy managing materials to provide protection to the most vulnerable areas of the head, without compromising comfort or performance," the company explained in a news release on Monday. "The helmet is made of expanded polystyrene polycarbonate, which is attached to a comfortable liner and elastic strap."
"With our pitching helmet prototype, we have redefined what is possible and launched a new era of protection for baseball pitchers," Easton-Bell Sports CEO Paul Harrington added in a statement to CBSSports.
It may not be the height of fashion, and there might be resistance to the new helmet at first, but if you think about it, as The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham pointed out, there was a time when catchers did not wear masks.
"No hitter would think to go to the plate today without a helmet," Abraham added. "Almost every park has a fence in front of the dugout to protect players,too. It might take 10 years – or some awful injury — but the day is coming when a pitcher wears a helmet."
"The Dome," as the helmet is called at Easton-Bell, still needs a bit of work but Harrington says he hopes the helmet will hit shelves this fall.
Photo courtesy of The Associated Press.
