The baseball season is winding down now, with two teams left standing to battle it out in the World Series.
But let's take a minute to remember a pioneer in baseball safety equipment who influenced every kid who ever swung a Little League bat.
Creighton Hale, the former head of Little League Baseball died earlier this month. And he did more than just run an organization. In the 1950s, it was Hale who created the plastic-shelled batting helmet that Little League required every team to use starting in 1961.
Hale joined Little League as its first director of research in 1955 and took on the task of studying how the league could better protect its young athletes.
According to the New York Times obituary: "To develop the helmet, Mr. Hale wanted to simulate the pitcher-to-batter confrontation. He built a compressed-air cannon with parts that he had bought in a local hardware store. Working from his laboratory in the basement of Little League's offices in Williamsport, he used the cannon to fire baseballs at various speeds at a plastic helmet mounted on a wood model. Testing showed that it could absorb a direct hit from a ball traveling at 90 miles an hour without cracking or being driven into a batter's head."
Hale went on to create a catcher's helmet with an attached mask and a catcher's chest protector.
Outside of baseball, Hall was part of the National Academy of Sciences that created a new military helmet made of Kevlar.
According to his official obituary at the Little League website, his family is requesting donations be made to the Little League Museum.