This past Friday, I wrote a Uni Watch column about players who've worn another team's batting helmet in an All-Star Game. At the end of the piece, I asked whether anyone knew of additional All-Star helmet mix-ups, and the readership did not disappoint.
The most interesting new discovery involves the 1964 All-Star Game. In Friday's column, I wrote that the earliest known All-Star helmet switcheroo dates back to that game, when Johnny Callison of the Phillies hit a walk-off home run while wearing a Mets helmet. You can clearly see his Mets headgear as he's mobbed by his teammates after hitting the game-winning shot.
But now a new photo has surfaced, showing the Callison celebration from a different angle. And look what we can now see!
The player at far left is Johnny Edwards of the Reds. Although his helmet logo is blurry, it appears to be a Cardinals helmet. It's definitely not a Reds helmet because the Reds wore white headwear in 1964.
Edwards was on base when Callison hit the game-winning homer (he had been intentionally walked two batters ahead of Callison). So he actually wore another team's helmet before Callison did -- at least in that inning. Callison, however, had already batted twice before in the game, and it's not clear whether he wore the Mets helmet in those two previous at-bats. He probably did, but we can't know for sure. So, at least for now, we don't know whether Callison or Edwards represents the first known instance of an All-Star helmet mix-up. But we do know that the two earliest known examples of this phenomenon took place in 1964.
The Edwards discovery is just one of several newly unearthed All-Star helmet mix-ups we can now add to our database. Here are all the examples provided by Uni Watch readers in response to Friday's column:
If we add these new examples to the list from Friday's column, we end up with the following master list of All-Star Game helmet mix-ups:
And there are probably more instances still to be discovered and confirmed. Mets historian Greg Prince says he's fairly certain Tom Seaver wore a Dodgers helmet in the 1976 All-Star Game, for example, and reader Ron Elkins says he remembers Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale wearing a Pirates helmet in either 1962 or 1968. So far, there's no visual evidence to back up either of these claims, but the Uni Watch research wheels are turning. Stay tuned.
Do you know of still more All-Star helmet mix-ups? You know what to do.
(Special thanks to all the readers who submitted photos, tips and information for this column.)
Paul Lukas will be looking carefully for uniform oddities in tonight's MLB All-Star Game. If you liked this column, you'll probably like his Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so you'll always know when a new column has been posted or just ask him a question? Contact him here.