The American League Makes Batting Helmets Mandatory

On March 11, 1958, American League president Will Harridge informed the circuit's umpires that batting helmets were now mandatory for all batters. The rule had passed by a 7-1 vote at the owners' December meeting in Colorado Springs, and Harridge used the start of spring training to make the enforcement official. The National League had adopted the same requirement two years earlier, effective for the 1956 season.

Helmets had sparked debate for decades. Pitches had struck players in the head since the earliest days of professional baseball, sometimes with fatal results. A pitch from Carl Mays killed Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman on August 16, 1920, the only player to die from an injury sustained during a major league game. That tragedy prompted discussion about protective headgear, but most players resisted. They considered helmets cumbersome, uncomfortable, and an admission of fear.

Branch Rickey pushed the issue forward in the early 1950s while running the Pittsburgh Pirates. He commissioned the development of a lightweight plastic helmet and required his players to wear them. The design worked. Other teams began to experiment with helmets, and injury rates dropped among clubs that adopted them.

The resistance from players faded slowly. Some veterans grumbled about the mandate, and a handful continued to step into the box wearing only a cloth cap for as long as they could get away with it. But the American League's 1958 rule, following the National League's lead, established that protective headgear was no longer optional. Modern players wear helmets with ear flaps on both sides, a far cry from Rickey's early plastic shells. The principle, though, traces back to this spring training directive.