Today (1982): Rollie Fingers Notches Save #300

In the first 14-years of Rollie Fingers’ Hall of Fame career, he had pitched in 814 games and had dazzled hitters with a combination of precision, stuff and curly mustache tips.  In 1981, he had taken home not only the AL Cy Young Award but also the AL MVP. On April 21, 1982, Fingers, having already passed Hoyt Wilhelm’s record for career saves, pitched two innings to finish out a game against the Blue Jays and take his total saves count to 300, becoming the first to hit what would ultimately become a milestone number for closers. 

Baseball people remember Rollie Fingers as the man who defined the role of the modern day closer.  Pretty much everyone else remembers Rollie Fingers as “the dude who had the curly mustache”. 

According to Wikipedia, his trademark lip art came about through a relatively non-traditional way – basically to win a contest amongst teammates…

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“On the first day of spring training for the 1972 season Reggie Jackson showed up with a beard. In protest Fingers and a few other players started going without shaving to force Jackson to shave off his beard. They thought that management would also want Jackson to shave.

(Oakland A’s owner Charlie) Finley, ever the showman who would do anything to sell tickets, then offered the prize money to the player who could best grow and maintain their facial hair until Opening Day (April 15 versus Minnesota). Fingers went all out for the monetary incentive offered by Finley and patterned his moustache after the images of the players of the late 1800s.[9] Taking it even further, Finley came up with “Moustache Day” at the ballpark, where any fan with a moustache could get in free.”

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The prize money?  $300.  Basically this story tells us two things:

1.) Probably the most famous mustache in the history of sports mustaches was done so to win a measley $300. 

2.) Charlie Finley sounds like the most awesome owner of a sports franchise ever

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