Friday, April 3, 2009

A Unique Helmet

More from Fleer Cubs sets from the 1980's



This card of Jody Davis from 1983 reminded me of a feature on batting helmets that I believe is unique to the Cubs. They are the only team that doesn't use a decal for the team logo on the helmet. Instead, they use what looks like a raised felt-like logo. Their logo pops out at you, while every other team's logo just lies flat. This is something that they have been doing since at least the 1960's. I would say that this was originally the handiwork of clubhouse man Yosh Kawano. In fact, there were many seasons where the players uniform number was painted in white inside the C on the helmet.

These cards, from 1988 and 1989 give you another look at the raised C.





Going way back, the first season a card featured a Cubs player in a batting helmet was 1963. Here is Cuno Barragan and you can clearly see the raised C.



Here are some more from the decades:

Topps 1969 Don Kessinger - look closely (or click on the picture for a larger version) and you can see an 11 inside the C



Topps 1977 Bill Madlock, again you can see the number (18) inside the C



Donruss 1998 Pat Cline



Heritage 2002 Matt Stairs. It was harder to find a decent picture of the helmet with more modern cards since they mostly feature action shots from further away instead of a closeup.



I don't believe I've seen another team with a raised logo on their helmet. Have you?

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