_- -. --..-. ".#.,.# Page 1 Approximate!y 2,000 words AMERICAN BASEBALL CAP PIONEER MANUFACTURER OF BASEBALL HELMETS Written by June Grayson, Photographed by Richard Grayson (or any of our aliases) NO BUSINESS IN THE SPORTING# GOOD#INDUSTRY HAS A BETTER NAME Lindsay Wo!fe knows his ABCs. He a!so knows the other 23 !etters of the a!phabet however they are arranged in today's sports business wor!d. Wo!fe is the president of American Baseba!l Cap, the company that manufacturers protective p!astic he!mets for a!! of the major !eagues, co!!ege teams, and Litt!e Leagues - indeed, wherever hardbal! is p!ayed. He also does his part about the United States balance of payments. Americans may buy Japanese cars but the Japanese order their baseba!! he!mets from Lindsay Wo1fe. -_-. Wo!fe is a lifelong sportsman, mechanica! engineer and, at the age of 67, a cogent phi!os#pher about American business practices. You won't find Wolfe a part of any merger and acquisition deal. He be!ongs to the schoo! that knows that sma!! is beautifu!. His thesis? "We wou!d a!! !ive happier !ives and enjoy more of every day if we just did one thing wel! and kept at it." Any baseba!! player standing in front of a ball hurt!ing toward him #t 100 mi!es an hour can be thankfu! that the one thing that Wo!fe has chosen to do we!! is to make protective basebal! helmets. Baseball history before 1950 is loaded with players whose careers were shortened because they were hit in the head with a baseball. "Once you have been hit, it's disastrous," says Wolfe. "We have even had some men killed in baseball. In those days all they said was 'he was hit and had a hemorrhage.' Now we know that any heavy impact to the head can cause neuro!ogic damage of some sort, as well as a subdura! hematoma." Watch the fi!ms of the 1950 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and th# New York Yankees. No one wore a helmet. Branch Rickey, manaqer of the Pittsburqh Pirates and father-in-law (then) of Wolfe, said about that time, "1 wish someone cou!d show me how to protect the heads of my players, as they do in football." Ra!ph Davia, a young inventor, he!ped Rickey develop GEL, ##C, j the first plastic he!met. Rickey and friends founded American _ Baseba!l Cap in Pittsburgh in 1952. Wolfe was on the board of the new company from the beginning. . _. Rickey was already an innovator. He developed the farm system. He broke the co!or line when he was the first to sign ta!ented black players. Now he did it again. He made it a team po!icy in 1953 that his p!ayers had to wear helmets when up to bat. The Nationa! League voted in 1955 to make it a !eague ru!e and the American League fo!!owed suit in 1956. At first players did not want to wear the helmets, afraid they wou!d !ook !ike sissies. When some of the greatest names in baseball became convinced that he!mets provided protection the other p!ayers fe!! in Iine. PeeWee Reese and Jackie Robinson were ear!y believers. They knew that their friend, Joe Alcock of the Mi!waukee Braves, survived a head hit because the ba!! shattered his he!met instead of his sku!l. "Remember the 1981 World Series," says Wolfe, "when Dodger third baseman Ron Cey was beaned by the Yankee's Goose Go#sage? It was sickening. But Cey's he!met protected him. He even p!ayed in the next game." Some major !eague players wi!! on!y wear the he!met when at bat. Some wear the he!met with one ear f!ap on the side facing the pitcher. Others wi!! choose the two ear f!ap he!met. And others have designs a!tered just for them. A few p!ayers wil! now wear the hard he!met throughout the who!e game in place of the regu!ar soft baseba!l cap. "That is the trend," Wolfe says. "Litt!e Leaguers and col!ege players wear the hard helmet throughout the game. When they advance to professional basebal! they are a!ready so!d on fu!! protection." Wolfe became president of ABC in 1960. He moved the corporate headquarters from Pittsburgh to Media, a smal! Phi!adelphia suburb, when he bought the company in 1971. ABC subcontracts the manufacture of its he!mets to a Somerset, Pa., company where ABC owns its own mo!ds and machinery. After the he!mets are formed, they are shipped to Media for painting and decorating with team logos. Wolfe lets the qua!ity of his product speak for him. You wil! find no impressive business campus in Media. Wolfe, his son, other corporate employees, and a few seasonal workers operate ABC out of a modest frame bui!ding across the street from the !ocal commuter train. "We could have added our own manufacturing faci!ity. But why shou!d we? We are a seasona| bus!ness. This is the most efficient way to operate. I have never tried to impress anyone. We do what we do best - research, deve!opment, sa!es, and d!stribution. Then we hire other.companies to do what they do best." That is why Wolfe works c!ose!y with Wayne State University, Detroit. "They have the best faci|ities to study head injuries as any p!ace in the country. They have designed a head form that so perfectly simulates the human head that they can study its interaction with the speed of any ba!! and protective materials. We send them new p!astics and configurations constant!y seeking ways to improve our products." A he!met has a p!astic she!!, the foam for the ear pads, GEL, A##, # a leather liner with a different type of foam inside, and a crown pad. "We mix these products to determine the combination that best reduces the impact of the thrown ba!!. I was on the first committee to work with Wayne State to deve!op standards to prevent baseba!l injuries. So I know that they know what they are doing." "It would cost us thousands of do!!ars to rep!icate the whole testing process. Wayne State does it best. We do what we do best. We know how to se!!." Every spring Wo!fe or his son, Lindsay, visit a!! of the major league clubhouses. "We throw out the he!mets that should be thrown out, refurbish some he!mets, write up an order for the helmets needed, and send them a bil!. No contracts invo!ved. No endorsements." Wolfe has never sought an endorsement for his products. In fact, he doesn't be!ieve in them. "It is your integrity in the marketplace that counts," says Wo!fe. Wo!fe does not even worry about competition. "P!enty of peop!e make good he!mets. They can musc!e into my terr|tory .__ and they do. My phi!osophy is that every compet!tor !s a sales person for me. He is selling his products and I am se!ling mine and I !earn from him how to make my product better. Then I reach the point where the buyers know my product is the best." This explains why ABC now se!!s only baseba!! he!mets and riot helmets. ABC riot he!mets protected the po!ice during the student riots of the 1960s. ABC has shipped riot he!mets GEL, ABC, 6 to the Shah of Iran and European po!ice. "We experimented with he!mets for other sports. There were too many variations in playing conditions and state laws. We cou!dn't be sure that our products were the best under al! circumstances, so now we don't even try." Plastics deteriorate. "That is why we tell everyone to get new helmets every three years. The major league clubs buy a new #et of helmets each year so that is not their problem. But it cou!d be a prob!em for amateurs. The sun and other envinronmental conditions affect different p!astics in different ways. So the goal always is to find the best product for each set of conditions." .__ Product liability laws concern American business and ABC is not immune to these concerns. "It is ironic that a head he#met which has prevented so many serious injuries is now sometimes fautled if it does not prevent injuries to other parts of the body - something it was not designed to do," Wolfe says. Theoretically, it should be possible to deve!op protective equipment to prevent a!! injuries. "Who wou!d wear it?" Wo!fe asks. "You would !ook !ike a space exp#orer." Research may deve!op a better plastic someday. " A Genera! Electric or Genera! Motors could stimu!ate such a sudden material development because they would use thousands of tons of it. Our needs are re!atively so smal! in the total ##__ marketp!ace that we remain dependent on what is already availab!e." GEL, ABC, 7 Wo!fe thinks that a sma!!, fami!y-owned business is best structured to provide a quality product for the !ong hau!. "I disagree with the who!e philosophy of growth in American industry today. Just because you are successful in one company, why do you think you have to acquire 8,000 other companies?# "Many an executive in America today with a big company is !ooking at his own persona! track record, not what is good for the company 20 years down the road. He wants to show how he made the company grow. Then he wi!! be hired away by another company at a bigger sa!ary." "But how does he do this? To show profits for the short term, he wi!! use cheaper materia!s, cut the price, and raise the sa!es. Then other companies start saying "there's a guy who is a real comer' and he moves on for more money. But what did that executive do to the first company where he was responsib!e for its reputation and the !ives of the other workers? The company's reputation has soured, the costs are out of !ine, the stockho!ders are angry becuase the dividends are down - all just to get a quick sa!es curve for.his own advancement." "I am not against growth or competition but our decisions shou!d be based on what is best for a company in the future, not the short term benefit of the chief executive officer." Wolfe has spent his life keeping his eye on the ba!l. "Put a ba!| in front of me and I'!! fo!!ow it," Wolfe says. "It doesn't make much difference what the ba!! is. I p!ayed #=#, ""-, " footbal! and captained my team at Swarthmore Co!!ege. I was an All-American !acrosse player. It was my privilege to be associated with Branch Rickey, a rea!!y great man. And I still get to follow the ba!l in my business." "Anyone who knows me well realizes that I don't spend much of my time worrying about what is going to be !eft in the evening. Every day is a great day. I enjoy bui!ding a good product and giving good service." Lindsay Wolfe has adapted the princip!es of good sportsmanship to his business as we!! as his !ife. ####### -..