Oscar Gamble, a power hitter for nearly two decades in the major leagues who was instantly recognizable in the 1970s by his impressive Afro, which bulged like giant earmuffs from beneath his cap, died on Wednesday in Birmingham, Ala. He was 68.

His wife, Lovell Woods Gamble, said the cause was ameloblastic carcinoma, a rare tumor in the jaw. Gamble, who died in a hospital, lived in Montgomery, Ala.

Gamble played for seven teams over 17 seasons, starting with the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies, who sent him to the Cleveland Indians, where he began to show the power that made him an offensive force. A left-handed batter who regularly faced right-handed pitchers, Gamble hit 54 home runs in three seasons for Cleveland.

He arrived at the Indians’ spring training camp in 1973 sporting the Afro, putting him in tonsorial company with Julius Erving and Darnell Hillman, big-haired stars of the American Basketball Association. It was a stylish look among black men of that era — sometimes associated with the black power movement — but unusual within the conservative world of Major League Baseball.