In the early 1950s, the governing body of Little League Baseball mandated the use of protective headgear during games for all players. In 1956 the National League followed suit and required the use of batting helmets by all players on all teams. After Little League Baseball announced a better helmet for the use of all players, the American League passed a rule on March 1, 1958 requiring all players to wear helmets. However, unlike in the National Hockey League (NHL) of the same era, helmets were widely accepted. It was not until December 1970 that Major League Baseball enforced strictly mandatory use of the batting helmet for all batters. Veteran players, however, were allowed to choose to wear a helmet or not, as they were grandfathered into the rule. The last Major League player to bat helmetless was Bob Montgomery, who last played for Boston Red Sox in 1979, coincidentally the same year the NHL finally made helmets compulsory with a similar grandfather clause for veteran players.