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Monday, May 16, 2005 |
Charlie Muse, Inventor Of The Batting Helmet, Dies
Charlie Muse, the inventor of the batting helmet, died May 5, in Sun City Center, Florida. A longtime Pittsburgh Pirates executive, he is credited with inventing the batting helmet at the behest of then-Pirates GM (and former Dodgers GM) Branch Rickey. At first laughed at as an accessory for "sissies", the batting helmet's adoption accellerated after Dodgers pitcher Clem Labine beaned Brave Joe Adcock on August 1, 1954, and Adcock remained unconscious for fifteen minutes afterwards. Adcock, wearing one of Muse's inventions, said the helmet may have saved him from a severe injury. The next day, the Dodgers made batting helmets mandatory.
Until former Pirates general manager Branch Rickey pushed in the early 1950s for the creation of a protective helmet, batters traditionally wore only their cloth caps to the plate. At the time, Rickey owned American Baseball Cap Inc., and he chose Muse to run the company and design a suitable helmet.Muze was 87."It (the development) was more difficult than people would think," Muse told The Associated Press in a 1989 interview. "The players laughed at the first helmets, called them miner's helmets. They said the only players who would wear them were sissies."
Muse worked with inventor Ralph Davia and designer Ed Crick to perfect a helmet that was strong, light and aesthetically pleasing. They went through numerous designs before coming up with a comfortable plastic helmet that provided maximum protection above the ears, the most vulnerable area for batters.
Muse later had a prototype of the helmet molded into a lamp that sat on his office desk for years.
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