Skip Schumaker of the Cincinnati Reds has had plenty of excitement during his 12-year MLB career.

He’s played for three of baseball’s most historic teams: the St. Louis Cardinals (he was there when they won the 2011 World Series), the Los Angeles Dodgers, and now the Reds.

In that time, he has also been on the field for two harrowing incidents.

Schumaker was playing second base for the Cardinals in 2010 when his good friend, pitcher Blake Hawksworth, was smacked in the face by a line drive that earned Hawksworth 20 stitches.

Four years later, when Schumaker was playing for the Reds in a spring training game, his teammate Aroldis Chapman took a shot to the head that fractured his skull.

So when his 7-year-old son Brody moved up to a traveling baseball league in southern California, Schumaker researched head protection. “I came across the GelDefender,” Schumaker said. “My son loves it, and I make it mandatory that he and his teammates wear one.”

Father and son Schumakers: Skip Schumaker is completing his 12th year in the Majors. His 7-year-old son, Brody, and Brody's teammates are playing it safer in California with GelDefender skull caps.

Schumaker’s insistence on protection is welcomed by Brody’s coach — coincidentally, the now-retired Blake Hawksworth.

“I’ve never understood why you have to wear a cup, but nothing to protect your head,” added Schumaker in a Facebook post. “Finally a company has developed a product that fits the head and you can’t even tell that the player is wearing it.”

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g-forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.