Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert Tony Hutchens

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Colin wrote at 2006-08-24 20:40:52
Found this at http://brooks.mlblogs.com/



BATTING HELMET



I get many emails and whenever I do speaking engagements almost every question is: Why did I have a short brim? I think I was the only player that wore the short brim in the Majors and I never realized it got that much attention until I left the game. But back in the early ’70s, the Commissioner’s Office made it mandatory for anyone coming into the big leagues to wear a flap on your hat. If you were already in Major League Baseball you had a choice whether to do that or not. Of course, I wanted to wear the flap because it gave me more protection. I had been hit 3 or 4 times in the head and so the more protection, the better for me. When I got the helmet with the flap and put it on, it seemed like the bill was a little longer than my normal hat. The flap was a little longer and consequently when I went up to hit I could see the brim and part of the flap. It made me lose my concentration. I took care of it by taking a hacksaw blade and cut off about 1 ½ inches off the brim and about ½ off the flap. That’s how I got my short brim.  

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Gibber wrote at 2006-10-19 11:36:41
Brooks is probably the nicest big league ballplayer that there ever has been.  I asked Brooks Robinson this question at an autograph session.  It was a visibility issue, he said that his line of site was better with the cropped off helmet.



Back in the 50's through the 70's there were no team dress rules like there are today, so there were no issues with Brooks cropping his helmet.

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brooks fan wrote at 2007-07-27 12:08:39
Brooks cut the bill of his helmet down so it would'nt distract him.  He said while he was hitting he could see the bill of his cap so he had the equipment manager saw off a inch or so of his helmet so he could no longer see it.

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Larry Goldstrom wrote at 2009-06-17 21:34:37
At the time when Brooks was wearing the sliced down visor on his helmet, it was said by the TV announcers that he cut his visor down to help his vision.  



Apparantly Brooks wanted nothing in his line of vision or even peripheral vision when at bat.



PS:  My son's middle name is Brooks Robinson.  Honest to God.

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