Chesbro was a true Highlander. But Conroy was a punk.

The first thing I did was head to BBRef to check their stats: Here's the page. Seems to be some disagreement between the picture and the rest of history with how to spell Keeler/Keiler's name. Anyone know what's up with that?

The first thing I did was head to BBRef to check their stats: Here's the page.

Pretty good team. But, man, do they need a C in the worst way.

Pretty good team. But, man, do they need a C in the worst way.

The next year, they upgraded with the 40 year old Deacon McGuire. And no, 40 year old ballplayers were not common.

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Here's what struck me about this picture: no mustaches, no beards. Just a very few years earlier, nearly everyone in such a picture would have had a mustache. When did that happen? What is the first year you could have had a no-mustache picture of a baseball team?

It seems that in about 40 years time, the proportion of American men showing facial hair went from none to nearly all back to none again. (Well, I suppose Teddy Roosevelt and W.H. Taft held out a little longer.) When, exactly, did these changes happen and why?

And when we're done answering these questions, we can start in on the hair styles and the quantity of foreign substances required to maintain them.

It seems that in about 40 years time, the proportion of American men showing facial hair went from none to nearly all back to none again

The Bearded Age seems to have started around the time of the Civil War, so you have to wonder if wartime conditions (metal rationing limiting the availability of razors, maybe, or just life in the army) had some influence. What led to its demise in the 1910s and 1920s, I have no idea.

Here's what struck me about this picture: no mustaches, no beards. Just a very few years earlier, nearly everyone in such a picture would have had a mustache. When did that happen?

I bet the solution to that puzzle involves George Steinbrenner and a time machine.

But it wasn't all just America, was it? Weren't there plentiful beards and mustaches in Europe in the late 19th century?

so you have to wonder if wartime conditions (metal rationing limiting the availability of razors

Surely they used shaving knives back then?

But it wasn't all just America, was it? Weren't there plentiful beards and mustaches in Europe in the late 19th century?

Every damn physicist.

Surely they used shaving knives back then?

You're probably right, I'm not sure when safety razors were introduced.

From fashionencyclopedia.com:

"By the close of the century, the mustache was falling out of favor among the style-conscious. American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (1867–1944) created the popular Gibson girls in the 1890s, which were a good measure of popular fashions of the times, and showed the fashionable escorts as clean-shaven. Mustaches remained quite popular, however, chiefly among older and professional men, well into the twentieth century."

TR and Taft were older and professional men, who'd already established their personal style. Ballplayers were young men.

The Peter Morris book A Game of Inches claims that Phillies outfielder John Titus wore a mustache into the 1907 season, the last such player of the era -- beards and mustaches were rarely grown in the 1920s and 1930s, and it wasn't until the late 1960s/early 1970s that they made a comeback (Charlie Finley encouraged his A's to grow mustaches in the early 1970s, but there's evidence Dick Allen wore one with the Phils in the late 1960s).

Anyone have a 1904 Highlanders picture? Because now you've got me wondering about the 40 year old McGuire.

(My own beard dates from about 1973 - I've had the thing for nearly 40 years now.)

Might the mustache not also have been something of an old world affectation, worn by German and Italian and Eastern European immigrants? As their sons became Americanized (and what better symbol of Americanization than playing baseball?), the mustache might have looked old-fashioned and foreign.

In 1970, the creators of The Mary Tyler Moore show intended for Mary Richards to be a recent divorcee. The network brass famously fired back that American viewers did not want to see divorced people, New Yorkers, Jews* and men with mustaches as TV characters. This was only 40 years ago, folks.

*I understand that "New Yorkers" and "Jews" might well have been synonymous to a certain percentage of the population.

The network brass fired back in a famous retort that American viewers did not want to see divorced people, New Yorkers, Jews and men with mustaches as TV characters.

and a year later, All in the Family (set in New York, with a mustached Rob Reiner) became the most popular show in the country. Looks like the judgement of network executives hasn't changed a bit.

and a year later, All in the Family (set in New York, with a mustached Rob Reiner) became the most popular show in the country. Looks like the judgement of network executives hasn't changed a bit.

Funny thing is Reiner's character is clearly meant to be Jewish (unless I missed some short-lived stereotype of Poles as hippie, pseudo-intellectual college boys) but they didn't go there.

I just noticed that one of the two most obviously receding hairlines belonged to the player who was known as "Kid."

It seems that in about 40 years time, the proportion of American men showing facial hair went from none to nearly all back to none again.

But then sometime in the mid-late 30's there was an movie archtype of a dapper man with a pencil thin mustache, sometimes a leading man (Melvyn Douglas, Errol Flynn) and sometimes a villain.

And while that trend never really caught on with the general population, it's interesting that one of the long-running magazine ads for shaving cream was targeted at "the one man in three who shaves daily."

What was really comical was when some of the hippie trends of the 60's started to migrate towards other groups, which led to some sublime sights, like local TV anchors and car salesmen with peace medallions and muttonchop sideburns, and hardhats with hair longer than that of the hippies that they loved to beat up. The early 70's were truly an anthropologist's dream.

But then sometime in the mid-late 30's there was an movie archtype of a dapper man with a pencil thin mustache, sometimes a leading man (Melvyn Douglas, Errol Flynn) and sometimes a villain.

And of course you had Douglas Fairbanks in the silent era who had a mustache (and also a tan, only a few years removed from an era where everyone used parasols on sunny days to avoid the stigma of a tan) and Clark Gable, the great romantic movie star of the 1930s and 1940s.

Clark Griffith, 1903 = Burt Lancaster, 1950

What led to its demise in the 1910s and 1920s, I have no idea.

Poison gas and gas masks.

Facial hair lingered on for another two decades in the form of toothbrush moustasches. Examples included James Joyce, Orwell, the Japanese and Soviet militaries (check out the famous photo of Krivoshein and Guderian). That style understandably went away once it became strongly associated with Hitler.

Yeah, and pencil moustasches, as in 19.

The exception to the trend was surprisingly the RAF, where handlebar moustasches were almost obligatory during wartime.

Clark Griffith, 1903 = Burt Lancaster, 1950

And Chief Bender = Frank Langella.

Perhaps the shift of American philosophy from a rural/agrarian mind-set of the 19th century to an industrialized attitude in the early-20th might have had something to do with the eschewing of facial hair.

Which is a fancy way of saying that guys got rid of their beards so as not to get 'em caught in a drill press.

What led to its demise in the 1910s and 1920s, I have no idea.

Poison gas and gas masks.

The timeline doesn't work for that comment. Remember that we are looking at a 1903 picture, and the facial hair is already gone.

Which is a fancy way of saying that guys got rid of their beards so as not to get 'em caught in a drill press.

I'm sure rural/urban has some influence. But how do we explain the rise of beards around 1860 in the first place? It can't be that simple. And as for the "drill press" comment: farm machinery is at least as dangerous as factory machinery, if not more so. Just ask Mordecai Brown.

The timeline doesn't work for that comment. Remember that we are looking at a 1903 picture, and the facial hair is already gone.

This photo of a completely clean shaven team is an exception for its era. We are talking general trends. In twenty years facial hair had ceased to be widespread and in the 50's almost everyone was cleanshaven, in baseball and outside. The two wars had an enormous effect on male fashion.

But then sometime in the mid-late 30's there was an movie archtype of a dapper man with a pencil thin mustache, sometimes a leading man (Melvyn Douglas, Errol Flynn) and sometimes a villain.

And of course you had Douglas Fairbanks in the silent era who had a mustache (and also a tan, only a few years removed from an era where everyone used parasols on sunny days to avoid the stigma of a tan) and Clark Gable, the great romantic movie star of the 1930s and 1940s.

True, although Gable's 'stache didn't make its first appearance until after at least his first 10 or 15 movies. In the pre-code Red Dust (1932) with Jean Harlow he was clean shaven, but by the time of It Happened One Night (1934) he was sporting his trademark.

Mustaches and then beards began appearing in northeastern cities in the 1830s, and were common in the rural northeast by the 1840s. The Beard Era predates the Civil War by 15+ years.

The first American safety razors appeared in the 1880s, and the Gillette safety razor with a disposable blade was first sold in 1901. Being hairless suddenly became a lot easier just before this picture was taken, which partially explains the sudden fashion shift.

But then sometime in the mid-late 30's there was an movie archtype of a dapper man with a pencil thin mustache, sometimes a leading man (Melvyn Douglas, Errol Flynn) and sometimes a villain.

And while that trend never really caught on with the general population, it's interesting that one of the long-running magazine ads for shaving cream was targeted at "the one man in three who shaves daily."

Gable, Vincent Price, David Niven, Ronald Colman... Frederic March had one in The Best Years Of Our Lives. Bud Abbott, sometimes. Tom Dewey ran for president twice with a 'stache. That period of facial hair probably peaked during WWII; a number of GIs had mustaches during the war.

In the 1950s and early 1960s you could get away with facial hair if you were considered an artistic type - square old Mitch Miller had a Van Dyke beard, as did Peter and Paul of Peter, Paul, and Mary. Beatniks likely had beards but not mustaches.

I think some of the facial hair terminology has gotten confused. I think the modern goatee is more of a Van Dyke beard than anything. Isn't the classical goatee the chin hairs and nothing else (think Appalachian farmer look.) Some people call a modern goatee a Fu Manchu, but the Fu requires that the chin be shaved, like the biker guy from the Village People. I don't know what you call it when the chin is shaved but nothing else - when the sideburns come all the way to the mustache.

This photo of a completely clean shaven team is an exception for its era.

Not according to the other photographs in the stream. Most team pictures have a mustache or two, but whiskers are pretty hard to spot.

The first American safety razors appeared in the 1880s, and the Gillette safety razor with a disposable blade was first sold in 1901.

Perhaps, but they took a while to catch on. In one of the Titanic artifact exhibits, a card points out that a safety razor would be fairly uncommon at the time, being seen as somewhat sissified.

I have always heard that Wally Schang, in 1914, was the last of the mustachioed baseballers until the 1970s. Wikipedia repeats this, but offers no more evidence than I have.

Did many/any of the Negro Leaguers have mustaches? There's at least one picture of Satchel Paige in a Cleveland Indians uniform with a mustache.

Many African American football and basketball players of the 1950s and 1960s had facial hair. Ben Davidson is the first white man I know of in that era.

Three comments:

1. #22, Neil Kinnock, got it exactly right. The widespread demise of the beard started in Europe when it was found that gas masks would not function properly on an unshaven man. The U.S. was not a part of the war for its first three years, but Americans then copied the English fashion. When our doughboys returned from the fight, facial hair and long hair had fallen out of favor and were seen as old fashioned. Also, beginning with the recession of 1920, there was a rising tide of social conservativism (and anti-immigrant feeling) in the U.S. The outward expression of that was more conservative dress and hair for men. Although with the Great Depression American politics turned liberal from 1930-1946, that social conservativism which began in 1920 stayed pretty strong until the mid-1950s, when it began to erode and the teen culture took over. Just as a rough estimate, I would say the social conservativism that began in 1920 was not fully eclipsed until 1965;

2. Why the 1903 Highlanders were all clean shaven? I don't know. However, it's possible that was the dictate of the owner, GM or manager. It was clearly not yet the national trend. In fact, the president of the U.S. at that time, Teddy Roosevelt, was still a young man, very much mustachioed and very much the fashion plate for his time;

"Funny thing is Reiner's character is clearly meant to be Jewish (unless I missed some short-lived stereotype of Poles as hippie, pseudo-intellectual college boys) but they didn't go there."

3. That is wrong. Perhaps you did not watch the show much or don't remember it distinctly, but "Mike Stivic" was not a Jew. Of course, the mustachioed (and toupee-bearing) Rob Reiner was in real life a Yid. But Meathead was not supposed to be. The character mentioned his Catholic upbrigning at least once, though he also uttered a great line about what his religion became: "Thank god I am an atheist, Arch!" There were also a few mentions of Archie's (rather tame*) Jewish stereotyping in the show, and more than once Mike said things like, "That's not true, Arch. I have friends who are Jewish. They aren't like that," which made it clear Mike was not one of the tribe.

*There was a funny scene where Archie needed to hire a lawyer. I think he had been in a car accident with an Arab-American. He has Mike go through the phone book looking for names of attorneys which sound Jewish:

Archie: I'm gonna go into town and get me a good Jew lawyer.
Mike Stivic: Do you always have to label people? Why can't you just get a lawyer. Why does it have to be a Jewish lawyer?
Archie: Because if I'm going to sue an "A-rab," I want a guy that's full o' hate!

om Dewey ran for president twice with a 'stache

Jimmy the Greek first drew national attention for picking Truman over Dewey in '48. He claimed he did so after some of the females he knew expressed skepticism about anyone with a mustache.

Pretty good team. But, man, do they need a C in the worst way.

A 49 OPS+ looks horrendous to us now, but it's not out of line for catchers in the early 20th century. Whether it was because of the wear-and-tear of the game (most catchers in the aughts didn't play anywhere near a full season) or an emphasis on defence, catchers simply didn't hit.

Here are the OPS+ for primary catchers in 1903:

Boston AL: Criger, 64
Philadelphis AL: Schreckengost, 87
Cleveland AL: Bemis, 95
New York AL: Beville, 49
Detroit AL: McGuire, 87
St. Louis AL: Kahoe 47
Chicago AL: McFarland 66
Washington AL: Kittridge 48

Pittsburgh NL: Phelps 94
New York NL: Warner 88
Chicago NL: Kling 118
Cincinnati NL: Peitz 77
Brooklyn NL: Ritter 75
Boston NL: Moran 113
Philadelphia NL: Roth 95
St. Louis NL: O'Neil 64

Stats like these are why I look sympathetically at putting folks like Kling in the HOF.

(Also note that the Highlander's backup catcher had a 37 OPS+)

I don't know what you call it when the chin is shaved but nothing else - when the sideburns come all the way to the mustache.

Would that be the Chester Arthur or the Eddie Murray?

I have always heard that Wally Schang, in 1914, was the last of the mustachioed baseballers until the 1970s. Wikipedia repeats this, but offers no more evidence than I have.

The source I mentioned upthread, A Game of Inches by Peter Morris, lists a couple of guys between Schang and the Finley-era A's, including the bearded Allen Benson, an ex-House of David pitcher who pitched twice for the 1934 Senators, and Frenchy Bordagaray of the 1936 Dodgers; manager Casey Stengel made him shave off his mustache, telling him, "Frenchy, if there's gonna be any clown on this club, it's gonna be me."

Would that be the Chester Arthur or the Eddie Murray?

I think those are Dundrearies.

Here are the best six catchers in 1903 by WAR:

Johnny Kling 4.0
Pat Moran 2.1
Jack Warner 1.7
Harry Bemis 1.5
Fred Jacklitsch 1.3
Ed Phelps 1.1

Note: of the 13 catchers who earned a WAR of 0.3 or greater in 1903, there were two Freds, two Franks and one Fritz. However, there were no Frenchies.

i was going to pipe up that imho the death of facial hair had a lot to do with fashions of the british officer class in wwI, which had an influence on americans once they entered the war. they seemed to all be clean shaven or had a small mustache and only that if they were senior types -- majors and so on.

in wwII it looked like everybody went clean shaven. i expect the fellows who were junior were now asserting themselves by sprucing up the lower ranks in their own image. once the wars were won, it carried over into civilian life.

The guy who inked the names next to the portraits wasn't having all that great a day. Not only do we have "Keiler" instead of "Keeler" (already mentioned above), but also "O'Connors" instead of "O'Connor" and "Griffiths" instead of "Griffith" - and that with Griffith being the centerpiece of the item.

in wwII it looked like everybody went clean shaven. i expect the fellows who were junior were now asserting themselves by sprucing up the lower ranks in their own image. once the wars were won, it carried over into civilian life.

Not everyone, though. Thomas McGuire, the second-highest scoring USAAF ace of WW2, was noted for his pencil-thin moustache.

Charles Lindbergh and Thomas McGuire

And, as noted earlier, many RAF pilots had moustaches, of all types.

Monty had a moustache. No wonder Patton hated his guts...

Not everyone, though. Thomas McGuire, the second-highest scoring USAAF ace of WW2, was noted for his pencil-thin moustache.

yes, i expressed myself poorly. a 'mature' man could wear a well clipped mustache, was even somewhat expected to. and that look held on as those guys got older til you had somebody like mr. drysdale in the 'beverly hillbillies' and lucy's boss at the bank. guys who had the military mustache but were well into late middle age by the 60s.

by the way, those jerseys in the pic really rock.

And, as noted earlier, many RAF pilots had moustaches, of all types.

The British Army had a pretty strong tradition of moustaches that went well into the 20th century. I've seen references to an "army moustache" in British books, meaning the short, neatly trimmed look (Montgomery is a good example; another, George Orwell)

How 'bout some trivia time?

The network brass famously fired back that American viewers did not want to see divorced people, New Yorkers, Jews* and men with mustaches as TV characters.

So they made her best friend Rhoda Morganstern.

I have always heard that Wally Schang, in 1914, was the last of the mustachioed baseballers until the 1970s. Wikipedia repeats this, but offers no more evidence than I have.

There are two pictures of Schang in the 1915 Reach Guide, which covers the 1914 season. No mustaches then, and no mustache in the A's 1913 team picture from the 1914 Guide, either. He probably wore it in the offseason, or maybe Spring training.

I don't know if anybody remembers the flack Sidney Crosby got for his pathetic playoff beard (example here), but I'd have to go four months without shaving to look like that. Going without shaving for two weeks gives me only the slightest tinge of a mustache that you can't see from more than two feet away.

Guess I'm a freak, but at least I'll save on razors.

Okay, the last mustachioed ballplayer I can find in the Major Leagues was John Titus of the Phillies. He's the only player pictured with a mustache in the 1909 Reach Guide (1908 season), but in the 1910 Guide he's clean shaven. The last AL mustachio was Bobby Lowe of the Tigers, who kept his 'stache right up to the end of hte 1907 season, after which he retired. The Guides have either team photos or team composite photos of all 16 teams, and I checked every year. By 1903 there were only seven left in the Majors, and from there it dropped off to 6 in '04, 3 in '05, 2 in '06, until it got down to just Titus in '07.

POSSIBLE CAVEAT: Deacon McGuire may have kept his mustache after the 1906 season, but he played in only a handful of games after that (his last game was in 1912), and he's not pictured in any Guides after 1907.