The Weirdness - A Chubbies Baseball Moustache For The Ages

Lord have mercy on us all. Via Nerd Baseball.

-The Pogonologist

Baseball-Themed Moustache of the Day - Jim Gantner, The Legend of

Via NerdBaseball.

Every Brewer fan of my generation knows who this guy is. However, I had nearly forgotten about his moustache. Those were the days.

-The Pogonologist

A Veritable Treasure Trove of Baseball Moustaches

Via NerdBaseball.

-The Pogonologist

Karl Chandler Has A Secret

Hysterical.

-The Pogonologist

Good Effort, Mr. Redlegs. Better Luck Next Year.

If mascots determined the outcome of sporting events, clearly the Reds would have walloped the Phillies. Mr. Redlegs knows how to get 'er done - just look at that dashing moustache. As for the "Phillie Phanatic," well, there's really not much to say about "it."

-The Pogonologist

This Week in Baseball: Fear The Brew Manchu

Click Image to Enlarge

Major League Baseball in the Good 'Ol U.S. of A. began in earnest earlier this month. Perhaps no other recognized sport in this country celebrates facial hair to the extent that professional baseball does. Granted, the heyday of the moustache in baseball and beyond reached its most recent pinnacle sometime during the 1970s, but I believe that facial hair is in the process of making a sizable comeback. The above image of a man holding up a sign (of what is probably his own making and design) portends as much, sent to me by a rabid fan of the True Blue Brew Crew (a blood relation of mine as it happens*).

This picture is interesting for a couple of reasons. Primarily, it makes a fairly novel pun. "Brew Manchu" is not your typical baseball joke, and for my money it's a pretty good one. Secondarily, the moustached man holding the sign up is in all likelihood referring to himself on his own sign. I applaud inventive self-referential behavior such as this in the context of sporting events, especially with regard to moustache-themed puns. And finally, the fu manchu style of facial hair was adapted by a large contingent of the 1973 Milwaukee Brewers, making them what I believe to be the most fu-manchu'd team in the history of the game. If nothing else, they were certainly the most brew-manchu'd team from a historical vantage point.

The Milwaukee Brewers of 2010 are no slouches in the facial hair department, however. A cursory examination of their active roster would lead one to believe that 10 out of 12 of the pitch-men (a 19th century term for "pitcher" since corrupted by television) maintain some degree of facial hair. One could make the case that fully 2/3 of the rest of the team is bearded/moustached/etc. All of this is subject to daily facial hair flux of course- some players may shave more often/closer to the face/etc. than others.

Regrettably, the fu manchu is currently absent on all of the faces of the entire roster to the best of my knowledge, but there is no reason that individual facial hair stylings should remain permanent or eternal. It is a long season in baseball, with plenty of opportunities for personal growth of all sorts.

And it wouldn't be a proper pogonological posting without the likes of an image of this man somewhere in the post:

Take Me Out To The Ballgame - ...

*Special thanks to Mattat, Destroyer of All That Is Good, for the image which inspired this post.

-The Pogonologist

The End of a Moustache?

Jason Giambi's magical moustache is no more. It had taken on a life of its own, according to the Yanqui first baseman.

Giambi shaved mid-game on Sunday, as the Yanquis were losing to the Angels. The Bronx Bombers would subsequently win the contest by 5 runs.

There is hope for Moustache Resurrection, however, as reported by the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

-The Pogonologist

Fox Sports Fails The Moustache

The world-wide-web division of Fox Sports has vomited up what constitutes some of the laziest reporting on the Moustache that I have borne witness to.

"Best Baseball Moustaches" fails on a number of counts, too many to world-wide-weblog about, given the length of original piece. However, I shall list a few of the many failings.

1) Only 7 moustaches are present. And while I cannot argue with the presence of The Mad Hungarian on the list, I can argue that 7 is a pretty weak number for a list. (Even a world-wide-web list.) I am not going to argue that here, though, as this is a world-wide-web log dedicated to pogonology (the study of the beard in all its forms), and not a world-wide-web log devoted to criticizing internet lists, many of which are very, very weak. Personally, I would have gone for at least 10 great moustaches. 20 would be better.

2) Hazarding a guess, it would appear that the feature takes advantage only of those digitized photographs of moustaches which are more or less easy to obtain, i.e., nothing from baseball's early days. While it is true that facial hair scholarship on the antediluvian period of pre-mass media baseball history is sorely lacking, Fox Sports would have done well to dig a little deeper than the moustaches of the 1970s. D+ for effort on this one, Fox Sports world-wide-web division. Intern Ricky (or whoever compiled this piece) needs to move away from content compilation and get back to coffee creation.

3) The Milwaukee Brewers got s*** on. Okay, sure, Rollie Fingers is sitting pretty at #2, but the digitized photograph, no doubt easily obtained, does not feature him in uniform. And what of the 1973 Milwaukee Brewers in general? Yes, they only won 74 games and finished 5th in the division that year, but their moustaches were glorious. My theory - a Cubs fan made this list. A second theory - the Cubs still suck.

4) The Oakland A's of the 1970s are sorely lacking as well, with the exception of Mr. Fingers, as per the above. But I'm a Brewers fan, so who really cares.

I cannot begin to comment on the accompanying video. I can vomit on it, however.

LOVERS OF THE BASEBALL MOUSTACHE, UNITE!

-The Pogonologist