The Mustache Gang, a term coined for the
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
Oakland Athletics baseball team, a team that broke the traditionally conservative baseball views by sporting mustaches. From the change in American men's fashion away from facial hair in the 1920s to the early 1970s, there had only been two baseball players who had facial hair during the regular season:
Stanley "Frenchy" Bordagaray of the
Brooklyn Dodgers, who was then ordered to shave by his manager, and
Wally Schang
Walter Henry Schang (August 22, 1889 – March 6, 1965) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from to for the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, St. Lou ...
of the
Philadelphia A's.
This changed when A's outfielder
Reggie Jackson showed up to spring training with a fully grown mustache which would later be thought of as the catalyst that sparked the move away from the conservative baseball era. This move led to that year's
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
to be dubbed "
Hairs vs. Squares", as the Oakland A's Mustache Gang faced off with the conservatively clean-shaven
Cincinnati Reds.
The Origins
Before ,
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
was traditionally conservative, where all players were clean shaven. During this time, there had even been an
unwritten rule
Unwritten rules (synonyms: Unspoken rules) are behavioral constraints imposed in organizations or societies that are not typically voiced or written down. They usually exist in unspoken and unwritten format because they form a part of the logical ...
that frowned upon players with
facial hair. There had been some baseball players who grew mustaches, but all showed up cleanly-shaven at the start of the regular season, either by their own decision or as ordered by their managers.
The Mustache Gang was started in
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
when
All-Star outfielder Reggie Jackson showed up to spring training with a mustache, claiming he would have a fully grown beard at the start of the regular season. Initially, this assertion was not taken well by the organization and according to
Mike Hegan
James Michael Hegan (July 21, 1942 – December 25, 2013) was an American professional baseball player, who later worked as a sports commentator. In Major League Baseball (MLB) he was a first baseman and outfielder, and played for three different ...
, "(Owner)
harlie(
Finley) told (manager) Dick (
Williams) to tell Reggie to shave it off. And Dick told Reggie to shave off, and Reggie told Dick where he could shove it."
In a hope to avoid a large conflict, Finley decided to take a
reverse-psychology approach, knowing Jackson thought of himself as an individual, he hoped that if a couple other players decided to join him in sporting facial hair, then he would give up and shave off his beard. In an attempt to do just that, Finley asked A's pitchers
Jim "Catfish" Hunter,
Rollie Fingers (who came to be known for his long
handlebar mustache),
Darold Knowles
Darold Duane Knowles (born December 9, 1941) is an American former professional baseball pitcher and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from through , most notably as a member of the Oakland Athletics dynasty that won three consecu ...
, and
Bob Locker to all grow a mustache. This backfired and lead to the birth of The Mustache Gang.
As the mustache spread in popularity among the team, owner Finley and the other management began to come around to the new look. Finley had come around so quickly, he also grew one and encouraged the other members of the team to do the same. He even dubbed that year's "
Father's Day
Father's Day is a holiday of honoring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society. In Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on 19 March as Saint Joseph's Day since the Middle Ages. In the Unite ...
" as "Mustache Day" and offered a $300 reward to anyone who could grow a mustache by then. Once "Mustache Day" rolled around on Sunday, June 18, all 25 players on the Oakland A's roster had a mustache,
even manager
Dick Williams decided to grow one.
To further promote his team's new look, every fan that showed up to the Oakland Coliseum that day wearing a mustache gained admittance for free; this numbered about 7,000 of the 26,210 in attendance, and all were treated to a 9–0 shutout win over
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
.
As though to irritate the other owners even more, Finley took it one step further by making his team's uniforms different from the rest of the league, the traditional baseball pants and black and grey jersey was replaced with a "two-tone uniform". Meaning, the players would wear a green and gold pullover shirts on top, along with the traditional white pants and elastic belts. This created a baseball team unlike any other in its time.
Members of the 1972 Oakland A's
Hall of Famers
Of the 25 members of The Mustache Gang, four of them have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Three of the four were players, Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, and Rollie Fingers. The fourth member is manager, Dick Williams.
References
{{Oakland Athletics
Oakland Athletics personnel
History of Major League Baseball