How a football helmet became UofL baseball's most celebrated piece of equipment
"The guys beat the daylights out of each other once they have it on their head, but they look forward to that."
"The guys beat the daylights out of each other once they have it on their head, but they look forward to that."
"The guys beat the daylights out of each other once they have it on their head, but they look forward to that."
The Louisville Cardinals wanted a celebration unlike any other in college baseball this year, and they certainly got it—with a little help from the UofL football team.
Nestled in between gloves and bats, the Cardinals keep an authentic Louisville football helmet in the dugout. When someone hits a home run, he's greeted with the helmet at home plate, puts it on and his teammates line up to slap the helmet on the way back to the dugout.
"The guys beat the daylights out of each other once they have it on their head, but they look forward to that. It's good team bonding. It's just fun," Louisville baseball radio announcer Sean Moth explained.
The Home Run Helmet was born earlier this season when outfielder Ethan Stringer and catcher Zeke Pinkham were looking for a celebration that would stand out.
"We decided we needed to come up with something, so I said, 'I've got a football helmet at our house. Why don't I bring it? We can get something going with that,' and it just kind of took off," Stringer said.
The Cardinals' first Home Run Helmet was Stringer's old high school football helmet. Once Moth got a look at it from the broadcast booth, he thought an upgrade was needed and reached out to the football team, which helped out with the official helmet the team uses now.
"In high school and travel ball, you normally just take your helmet off and hand it to the next guy. You run back to the dugout and everyone congratulates you, but getting that football helmet is a little different. I've never seen that before. All the teammates lining up, smacking you on the head, it's a feeling that just can't be described," said third baseman Alex Binelas, who leads the team with 13 home runs this season.
Stringer likes how the celebration has grown, adding it would be cool if it became a tradition. Eventually, he'd like to see the team take another page out of the football playbook and add some helmet stickers to the mix.
"When we first got it, we thought about having guys signing it or seeing who could get the most marks. So far, we haven't done anything like that, but when we get it, it's fun. We get fired up for each other and it brings a lot of energy in the dugout," Stringer said.
The Cardinals—and the Home Run Helmet—are heading to Durham, North Carolina, for the ACC tournament. Louisville is the No. 1 overall seed and starts play Wednesday against No. 12 Boston College.