Ron Santo was also an early pioneer of wearing earflap helmets at the major league level, upon returning to action after having his left cheekbone fractured by a pitch in 1966. Although helmets with earflaps were common at the amateur levels in baseball, they were slow to gain popularity at the professional level. Some batters felt that seeing the earflap out of the corner of an eye was distracting. Tony Conigliaro was wearing a helmet without an earflap when he was seriously injured by a pitch in August 1967.