Edgy MD wrote: [*]Outstanding Player who Wears a Helmet on Defense Why he did it (From his SABR bio): In December 1988, he suffered an intense headache while working out. It happened again another week later. He didn't think they were too worrisome and didn't tell anyone about them.8 But things got worse on January 11, 1989, when he collapsed while jogging around the Washington State athletics complex.9 He didn't wake up until an hour later. He stayed in the hospital for two weeks before returning to school in February, planning to resume baseball in March.10 His recovery process hit another snag on February 24 when he went to see Dr. Richard Winn, the head of neurosurgery at the University of Washington. Dr. Winn took several X-rays of Olerud's brain and found something potentially deadly: an aneurysm near the brain.11 “The guy brings out the X-ray, and I go, ‘There it is,'” Olerud said. “You didn't have to be a brain surgeon to pick it out.”12 John underwent six hours of extremely high-risk surgery. The operation was a success, but he still faced a multitude of challenges. Surgeons had to cut open his head to get to the aneurysm, which left an unprotected portion when they were finished. As a result, he began to wear a helmet on the baseball field at all times, a practice he continued his whole career.13 I never knew that. Later