As baseball’s All-Star Game approaches, the city of Cincinnati has gotten in the spirt in part by decorating its downtown with eight-foot handlebar mustache benches. Baseball’s Cincinnati Reds — originally the “Red Stockings” — were a team full of mustachioed players, and the city’s new decor reflects that heritage.
Huge mustache-shaped benches scattered around downtown Cincinnati, Ohio will help get guests in the spirit of things as the city plays host to the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game on July 14th. The Reds, the team hosting this year’s big game, went mustache crazy to promote the team, the sport and the city.
Along with the 8-foot, 850-pound handlebar mustache benches decorated in a variety of styles, the team is promoting a mustache-focused logo and otherwise advertising that baseball and mustaches were once so intertwined it would take an experienced barber an afternoon to make sense of it all. City skycrapers near the baseball stadium are getting in the act, too. Already the nearby Scripps Center features an imposing mustache and old-timey baseball cap at the top of the building. Nearby another landmark tower will feature a 30-foot projection of a historic mustachioed player.
Mustaches absolutely dominated baseball in the late 1800s, as exemplified by John Ward of the New York (now San Francisco) Giants. Sadly, by 1895 mustaches had fallen out of fashion, and were essentially vanished by the early 1900s.
There once was a time when playing baseball mustacheless was unheard of. Nose neighbors dominated the sport’s facial fashions in the late 1800s before abruptly vanishing by the 1910s — save for the outlying team manager. Some say batters with mustaches interfered with the pitcher’s concentration. Others said the pitcher’s mustache was at fault, mesmerizing otherwise talented and focused batters. The players formed an agreement that none would wear mustaches during the regular season. At first, mustache-enamored fans revolted, only gradually re-warming to the game we know today as America’s national pastime.
