A History of Facial Hair for the Oakland Athletics

Long before Sean Doolittle grew out his beard of red, the Oakland Athletics were widely known for their radical jerseys and facial hair.

Prior to 1972, most major league baseball teams required all of their players to maintain a clean shaven face, a policy some teams maintain to this day. As part of his constant effort to drum up publicity for his franchise, Charlie Finley offered each of his men a $300 bonus if they were to grow a mustache.

That may not seem like much money by today’s standards but in the context of the times, it was quite a hefty bonus. The records of 1972 payroll are a bit like Swiss cheese in that there are a lot of holes but the highest paid player on record was contracted to make $100,000 for the ’72 season with the lowest contract record set at $9,600. The average rent in 1972 was $165 so it is understandable why every player collected a bonus that year.

But it wasn’t enough to simply grow a mustache. A’s legend Rollie Fingers has become so synonymous with his facial hair that he maintains his handlebar mustache to this day.  Ray Fosse, legendary catcher, broadcaster and sex symbol, adopted facial hair when he joined the team in 1973 and maintains one of the finest mustaches in the known universe. Reggie Jackson appears with a mustache in every baseball uniform he ever wore including his Hall of Fame plaque.

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It was actually Jackson who started the mustache trend in Oakland when he showed up to spring training with a handlebar mustache. Finley, before offering the bonus, encouraged players to grow facial hair out of spite because he assumed, probably rightfully, that Jackson had grown the facial hair to draw attention to himself. Spite, as it sometimes does, turned into a good idea and the idea of a mustached gang, as they were later titled, began to appeal to Finley which is when he made his bonus offer to the boys.

The mustache gang would go on to win three consecutive world series titles.

The ’70’s dynasty may have been the only team to adorn facial hair but over the years several Oakland Athletics have grown out legendary lip warmers. Dennis Eckersley, for better or for worse, has kept the mustache he wore to the 1989 world series to this day and many of the pitchers for the team, in recent years, have grown some type of facial hair whether it be a trimmed beard like Ryan Cook, a crazy mess like Sean Doolittle or an 1800’s train robber goatie like Luke Gregerson. That tradition may be winding down as Sonny Gray has exhibited no ability to grow full facial hair and new pitcher Chris Bassitt told the Swingin’ A’s podcast that he cannot grow a beard worth speaking of. We’ll always have Josh Reddick‘s beard, though. Always.

Of course, where the players lack facial hair the fans pick up the slack. All it takes is a quick walk around the Oakland coliseum to find plenty of men of all ages, and a couple of women, growing curly mustaches, handlebars or thick beards (I’m looking at you Ben) not for hipster reasons but to pay tribute to a uniquely Oakland A’s tradition that was birthed at, almost, the beginning and has stood the test of time through our entire history in Oakland.