Once banned, Reds now embrace facial hair

Rollie Fingers sat at an autograph table at the T-Mobile All-Star Game FanFest at Duke Energy Convention Center with some sage advice for a young Reds fan who wanted to grow a mustache like the Hall of Famer.

"Give it a few years," Fingers told the boy. "It's a pain in the neck to keep up."

Fingers, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992, set the record for career saves – since broken – with 341. He won three World Series titles while with Oakland from 1972-74 and was the MVP of the 1974 Series, earning a win and two saves in four games. He won or saved eight of the A's 12 World Series wins during their three-year run, according to the Hall of Fame. But the Steubenville, Ohio native is just as famous for his trademark handlebar mustache that first grew in 1972 after the late Oakland A's owner Charlie O. Finley offered him a $300 bonus.

In 1986, Pete Rose called Fingers to ask if he would be interested in joining the Reds. Fingers was just released by the Brewers and the Reds called him to show interest and invite him to camp.

The Reds had a policy of no facial hair at the time, and Fingers said no thanks.

"I wasn't going to shave my mustache to play for the Reds," Fingers said, with his mustache intact to this day.

But, Fingers pointed out the Reds have certainly used facial hair to its marketing advantage around the city for the All-Star Game.

"Now they got handlebar mustaches all over the place," Fingers said.

The mustache, meant to harken back to the start of professional baseball in 1869, is the dominant marketing symbol of the Reds' first All-Star Game since 1988.

No Reds had a mustache in 1988, or any other type of facial hair, because the club that has now so embraced the trendy mustache didn't allow its players any type of facial hair from 1966 to 1999. Even the team's mascot, Mr. Red, underwent a shave, as the sporting "Running Red" version of the team's mascot debuted in 1968 — sans 'stache. That was only the formal ban. Since center fielder Dummy Hoy sported a mustache in 1902, there were no other unshaven Reds until Greg Vaughn broke the hirsute line on February 15, 1999.

Now more than 16 years later, Vaughn looks back at that part of his life and it's one of his regrets from his playing career.

"At the time, it was a big deal, because I didn't understand what it had to do with the game," Vaughn told the Enquirer by phone recently. "But they had their business, they had their rules, and like I said, Johnny Bench, (George) Foster, (Tony) Perez, (Barry) Larkin, (Joe) Morgan — if those guys could do it, I damn sure should have just followed suit."

Legendary Reds general manager Bob Howsam codified the team's ban on outward signs of masculinity in 1967. That stood under Howsam and later owner Marge Schott until general manager Jim Bowden traded for Vaughn on Feb. 2, 1999.

Vaughn, who hit 50 home runs for the Padres in 1998, wished to keep his goatee. Schott wished to keep the Reds' policy of clean-shaven players. The man with 50 homers eventually won, but not before it went to the public.

"I think I was just mad… well not mad, but you just went to the World Series (with the Padres) and you want another chance, and then you don't have a chance to go," Vaughn said. "You talk about the history of the players they had there, if they could do it, I certainly could do it. That's one thing I wish I could take back. I'm glad I didn't have to, but I would."

Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty took Vaughn's side in a column in the Feb. 4, 1999, edition of the newspaper:

This anti-facial hair thing, it's a little dated, don't you think? Even for Cincinnati. Country Joe and the Fish are gone, man*.



It served its purpose when Bob Howsam introduced it in 1967. That was the Vietnam War Era, the turbulent '60s and all that. Howsam wanted his players to project a wholesome image that conservative Cincinnati could relate to*.



"To me, a stadium is like a theater," Howsam said Wednesday from his Arizona home. "It's a stage. If a person has to sit there for three hours to view a game, you want them to enjoy the attractiveness of it."

Howsam's heart was in the right place. For a long time, it was nice to look at the Reds and believe you were watching Wally and the Beav. But the times, they are a changin', to quote Bob Dylan, who has a goatee.

Actually, the times, they are a'changed. But part of what makes Cincinnati Cincinnati is its longstanding tradition of proudly remaining the last train out of an era. It's great living here, but nobody drives DeSotos anymore.

Fans wrote in from all over the country to support Vaughn's right to sport the goatee.

Schott finally gave in, announcing on Feb. 15, 1999, that Vaughn could keep his goatee.

"With the support of our fans, today we have changed our facial hair policy," Schott said in a statement released by the team on Feb. 15, 1999. "The team will continue to respect the traditions of the Cincinnati Reds baseball and adhere to our other uniform personnel rules presenting a clean-cut image."

With that, the barbate barrier was broken.

"I wasn't trying to rewrite any rules," Vaughn said in a statement at the time. "I'm just more comfortable with my facial hair. My main focus is to get ready to help this team compete for a division title."

Both Bowden and John Allen, then the Reds' managing executive, had it written into their contracts that they could not reverse the team's ban on facial hair.

At the time, Bowden said the rule had actually hurt his efforts at landing players, especially in the 1990s, when goatees were popular.

"I don't think there's any question this has been an issue over the years," Bowden told the Associated Press at the time.

Fingers remembered telling Rose he'd play for his Reds, but when Reds GM Bill Bergesch called to hammer out the details, the last was his mustache.

"I said, 'Why? What difference does it make whether I have a mustache or not,'" Fingers recalled on Friday. "He said, 'That's our policy. Marge Schott wants you to shave your mustache.' I said, 'You tell Marge Schott to shave Schottzie, and I'll shave my mustache.' And I never heard back from the Reds."

The 101-loss 1982 season was bookended with bristly brushups. At the start of the season, newly acquired Wayne Krenchicki's picture from Baltimore was touched up with White-Out to cover up his mustache.

In August of that year, reliever Jim Kern forced a trade when he started growing a beard as a protest. Kern, who wore a bushy beard with the Rangers, was sent to the White Sox for two players to be named (eventually Wade Rowdon and Leo Garcia).

Dave Parker wore a beard as a member of the 1970s "We Are Family" Pirates, but showed his smooth baby face in his hometown when he became a Red in 1986.

In 1993, bearded closer Jeff Reardon was signed as a free agent — but his beard wasn't. When he debuted in a Reds uniform, he was clean shaven, despite his protests. "My kids have never seen me clean shaven," he said at the time. But they did once he signed his contract with Schott's Reds.

Since then the Reds have seen the likes of Sean Casey, Ken Griffey Jr., Sam LeCure and Corky Miller sport various types of facial hair. The current team has some players with facial hair, including Brandon Phillips, Aroldis Chapman, Johnny Cueto, Burke Badenhop, Ryan Mattheus and Nate Adcock.

That all changed thanks to Vaughn, who looking back on it is a reluctant trailblazer.

"With all the history and the players they have, I should have followed suit, but I'm from California and we're a little different anyway," Vaughn said, laughing. "I was traded with a goatee, so I didn't understand why it was a problem. I guess it worked out for everybody and we had a good run. And a lot of guys are happy now."