[jkumpire]

I appreciate all the opinions here about the old v. new face protection. But I can't understand how the following can be true:

1. Better vision with a helmet: How can this be? In a helmet, just like a mask, you have one gap to look through to call pitches. How much extra sight can you get? If there is more, is it really a value worth wearing the helmet for?

2. You feel cooler? How? By enclosing your whole head and neck in a plastic shell, usually if not always black, as opposed to a wool hat covering the top of your head, with a mask with open bars across your face? Even if you sweat through the hat (which I do regularly) it will help conduct heat away if there is a breeze. Better airflow with a helmet, how can it be when your neck, ears, and the whole of your head is covered in plastic?

3. Every helmet I have ever seen has very poor inside padding. I wear doeskin pads made in 1990 on my mask, and not only have I had great protection, good doeskin or other mask padding help your face to breathe well, and it fits comfortably. Good mask padding will help you stay cool and keep sweat from your eyes. I just don't see how helmet padding is superior in this respect.

4. One of the reasons why the new Fed rules for catcher's helmets are so bad is hearing. Talking to catchers is a very hard thing these days, kids can't hear you (their teammates, and their coach either) as well as with the old mask/helmet combination that did not cover the ears. Can you hear things you need to hear as well as an umpire with a helmet as opposed to the mask? It is hard to see how this can be.

4. I wear a 7 7/8 hat. No helmet really fits me at all, and even finding a mask and hat combination is hard to do these days. I would think I would have to pay several hundred dollars for a custom shell to fit my head. Not everyone has this problem, but for a few of us it is an important one.

I have a few other questions/objections to the helmet, but until I find a helmet that fits as good and works as well as my mask, I'm not changing.