Great Moments in Philadelphia Phillies Grooming History

The Phillies are one of Major League Baseball's oldest franchises. Naturally, we'd wind up with a ton of different "looks" throughout team history. The Phillies, more than most, have had a bizarre assortment of haircuts, facial hair arrangements, and general weirdness, with one pennant winner being particularly infamous for its dumb hair. Let's start at or near the top, however...

Ben Sanders

The heck if I know about this guy, but he pitched for the Philadelphia Quakers in 1888 and 1889, and probably died of Yellow Fever or something. He threw eight shutouts in 1888, but to be fair, the hitters of that time weren't allowed to swing at the first pitch because it was "ungentlemanly."* Check out that moustache, though. Tight.

*Not actually true.

Ed Delahanty

The legendary "Big Ed" played for the Phillies in the late 19th Century, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. Sure, he looks like a clean-cut fellow, but he had undoubtedly one of the top five great/awful baseball deaths. From Wikipedia:

Delahanty died when he was swept over Niagara Falls in 1903. He was apparently kicked off a train by the train's conductor for being drunk and disorderly. The conductor said Delahanty was brandishing a straight razor and threatening passengers. After being kicked off the train, Delahanty started his way across the International Bridge connecting Buffalo, NY with Fort Erie (near Niagara Falls) and fell or jumped off the bridge (some accounts say Ed was yelling about death that night). Whether "Big Ed" died from his plunge over the Falls, or drowned on the way to the Falls is uncertain.

Clearly a good egg! And a sign that no beard = TROUBLE.

And now a quick interlude, with a total lack of interesting facial hair for decades. One can thank America's culture of conformity during the Depression through Post-War Years for that. In the 1970s, though, things got fun.

Steve Carlton

The great Lefty isn't particularly remembered for his facial hair, but for periods off and on throughout the 1970s and 80s, the Hall of Famer sported a pretty sweet mustache. The decision to wear the Flavor Saver probably was synched to some kind of Bildeberg/Rothschilds conspiracy Ham Radio get-up that Carlton was listening to in his Compound at the time.

I enjoy the contrast here between the no-nonsense "I'll kill your baby for the inside half of the plate" look on Nolan Ryan's face, and Lefty's more ostensibly good-natured "I got the new ELO record" visage.

Garry Maddox and Bake McBride

What more really needs to be said? Maddox and McBride each had to cover about half of the outfield a piece thanks to that slug, Greg Luzinski, in left. Starters on the first World Champion team in franchise history.

Cy Young Award Winners Tribute

Four Phillies pitchers have won National League Cy Young Awards - the above-discussed Carlton four times, and the following gentlemen once apiece. See a pattern?

John Denny, 1983

Steve Bedrosian, 1987

Roy Halladay, 2010

1993

A perfect storm of scumbags, the fashionability of the "mullet," and a predisposition toward rocking said hairstyle, the 1993 Phillies might be more closely aligned with one hairstyle than any franchise in professional sports history. I present this cultural artifact for your consideration:

I was 15 years old in 1993 and loved every minute of that summer. Although history has not been inclined to certain members of that squad on an Internal Revenue Service scale, it's hard to overlook how great that offense was. A real "SABR" dream before the concept had entered the popular consciousness.

Steve Jeltz

With apologies to the great Juan Samuel, there was not a better jheri-curl in Phillies history. That said awesome 'do was attached to arguably the worst regular position player in MLB history is cosmic sadness.

Jayson Werth

Jayson Werth arrived in Philadelphia with little fanfare. He became an icon. And he left for a whole heck of a lot of cash. But we'll always have the 2010 season, when Werth appeared in Spring Training sporting one of the greatest beards in the history of the sport, leading to one of the greatest outbursts of creativity the baseball blogosphere had ever seen.

Good times.

... and finally

MIke Schmidt

A top-five iconic baseball mustache (Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Eddie Murray, Don Mattingly, and Dennis Eckersley all up there, too), sported by the best all-around player at his position in baseball history. Inner-circle Baseball Grooming, this guy.

That's all from me. Do you have your own favorite Phillies mustache? Beard? Haircut? Discuss!