There’s a new batting helmet that can withstand being hit by firethrowers at their best: we’re talking 200 MpH heat.  So you’d be forgiven for thinking that it would be all but standard apparel for batters.  It is for third base coaches on the college and national levels, after a coach waas recently hit and killed with a foul ball, so why not for batters?

Because it looks dumb, of course. The New York Times quotes Jeff Francouer of the Mets as saying he absolutely wouldn’t wear it because of the aesthetics of the thing.  Nomar worried about the comfort level, too, but again and again the helmet–which has been proven more effective than the current model in independent lab testing–is rejected.

This is ridiculous.  MLB has a responsibility to its players to keep them as safe as possible.  A team could suspend or even cut ties with a player if he didn’t take recommended medical treatments, so why can’t, and why doesn’t, MLB require the new helmet, which is safer than the old?

And who’s going to be the one who gets hurt and changes the paradigm?  That’s a terrible question to have to ponder.  Step it up, Selig.