So it's like when you have to explain to a woman why a lower ERA is better.

KF

Would wearing a helmet turned backwards like the catcher help with any of this. They use to wear hats turned backwards but now wear those helmets turned backwards.

I'm not KF, but I'd say the answer is "possibly", but only slightly because a catcher's skull cap only offers a very, very thin amount of padding.

An umpire should not wear one. Especially not backwards.

I do know an umpire brother who wears one of those hard shell liners in his cap. (I can't be "that guy.")

The catcher's helmet: One of the first guys to wear one was Johnny Bench. (Tom Haller wore a kind of bowl without a brim, like Bob Boone's, but Bench's was a batting helmet turned around.) In 1988, I heard Rick Dempsey and Mike Scioscia talking about head protection behind the plate. Gary Carter became part of the conversation, and he pointed out that the flap on the helmet would protect the back of his neck and skull on a broken bat or backswing and that's why he wears it. Dempsey, who only wore a cap under his mask like the early days guys reacted like you'd expect an Old School 20-year veteran to react, citing how he'd done it that way forever and he's not changing. Then he kidded Carter about wearing it to copy Johnny Bench. Scioscia always wore a helmet like Carter's and Bench's, but he often threw it off for those collisions at the plate that became his trademark. He didn't say anything when these two veterans were going at it.

But after Carter said that, I paid more attention to the kind of blow that a catcher takes, where head protection is helpful, and it's almost always to protect from a bat. I saw Mike Piazza get nailed by Gary Sheffield on a backswing in the area where the helmet meets the temple. What kind of damage would that have done if Piazza hadn't worn a helmet?

I can't imagine catching without a bucket nowadays, and I always give serious thought to wearing one as an umpire when I do wood bat leagues. (I still haven't crossed over.)