Fashionable Batting Helmets

Fashionable batting helmets are here to stay. Softball teams have pretty much turned into fashion statements, especially with players sporting the low profile softball helmets. Pony tails don’t help and in my opinion so much emphasis on fashion is getting in the way of safety.

Air brushing batting helmets is almost a given these days. It used to be team colors, perhaps a solid color helmet with a name on the back, or even better a team logo accompanied by the players number, but not anymore. This can’t make it easy to be a coach these days. Why do I say that?

Softball and baseball is a team sport. Every player who ever stepped foot on the field did so with eight others. Pitchers need a defense and an outfielder needs an cut off player who knows what to do with the relay. In order for a team to play as a team, they must act as a team and individualism is not a choice.

Old school teams never put their name on the back of uniforms. They had a number and the common logo of the team. This represented their own unique individuality and there it ended. it didn’t matter what their name was. What mattered is what team they played for and as a team they either won, lost or died forever.

What are we teaching youth baseball players? Softball helmets airbrushed with individual names and themes? Baseball helmets with sci-fi designs from game console developers? What does this say for the unity of the team? How does this spread the glue needed to cement relationships on a team?

Perhaps the most glowing example of this occurred last season when I was watching a youth baseball game and one of the players neglected to take his turn in the batters box. The umpire looked to third base and questioned the coach, who yelled at the dug out assistant coach. It was soon apparent that the player didn’t have or couldn’t locate his helmet.

In a hurry, he grabbed one close to the entrance and as he moved bangs out of his eyes, the owner of the helmet showed up to have words with the player. From the stands we couldn’t hear what was being said, but it became clear when the player was removing the helmet and began his search again for something else to wear.

Coaches, parents and bystanders never said a word about the incident. There were no words of disapproval. No erratic behavior from the bench. It was as though, the helmet belonged to one player and that helmet represented the identity of that one baseball player. Nobody else was allowed to encroach on that identity.

We’re not coaching baseball and we’re not preparing young players for the future to play a team sport. We are instead, babysitting kids. teaching them to be like many of today’s professional players. Money grabbing. Headlines and publicity hogs. Soon baseball and softball will lose the word team when you are discussing it. Pretty soon players will figure out how to play all by themselves.