Alex Torres was the arm Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon summoned after Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer’s comebacker caromed off Alex Cobb’s head in June 2013. The Rays’ right-hander was carried off the field on a stretcher and missed two months with a concussion and vertigo.
On this date — June 21 — a year later, Torres became the first pitcher to wear a protective cap in a Major League baseball game. The isoBlox-manufactured caps contained extra padding to help absorb the impact of a baseball, albeit with a look many likened to Nintendo’s Super Mario.
Torres — who had been traded to the Padres in January 2014 — didn’t care.