Creighton Hale; Little League CEO helped develop batting helmet
To reduce the danger of being struck in the head by a pitch, baseball players have experimented with helmets made of leather, metal and other materials since the turn of 20th century.
The National League required batters to wear some kind of protective headgear in 1956, followed by the American League two years later.
Most of those early helmets covered only the top of the head. The modern, hardshelled batting helmet, instantly familiar to anyone who has played or watched baseball, was a surprisingly late development.
It was patented in 1959 by Creighton Hale, a physiologist who was the first director of research for Little League Baseball. He later became the president and chief executive of Little League, making him one of the most influential people in baseball.
Dr. Hale died Oct. 8 at a hospital in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the headquarters of what is now called Little League International. He was 93.
The Little League organization announced his death, but the cause was not disclosed.
Little League Baseball was founded in 1939. When its annual World Series was first televised in 1953, doctors and psychologists became concerned about the physical and emotional toll that intense competition could have on athletes no older than 12.
Hale, then on the faculty of Springfield College in Massachusetts, wrote to Little League president Peter McGovern, suggesting that a commission investigating the sport's safety would need a qualified scientist.
In 1955, McGovern offered Hale a temporary assignment as research director.
"I took a year-and-a-half leave of absence, and I'm still on it," Hale said in 1985.
One of the first things he studied was why Little League batters were more likely to be hit by pitches than their adult counterparts. By measuring how fast hitters could react to thrown balls, he discovered that a simple adjustment would alleviate the problem: He moved the pitcher's mound back two feet, putting the pitcher 46 feet from home plate instead of 44.