History of The Cincinnati Reds - How To Groom The Big Red Machine

How To Groom The Big Red Machine

Under Bob Howsam's administration starting in the late 1960s, the Reds instituted a strict rule barring the team's players from wearing mustaches, beards, and long hair. (This rule, with a mustache exemption, is also enforced to this day by the New York Yankees.) The clean cut look was meant to present the team as wholesome and traditional in an era of turmoil. Over the years, the rule was controversial, but persisted under the ownership of Marge Schott. All players coming to the Reds were required to shave and cut their hair for the next three decades or more. On at least one occasion, in the early 1980s, when the Reds were hurting for pitching, strict enforcement of this rule lost them the services of star reliever Rollie Fingers, who would not shave his trademark handlebar moustache in order to join the team. The Reds thus took a pass on Fingers. When Pete Rose became player-manager in the mid-1980s, he grew a "rat's tail", fashionable among the youth of the time, but the rule was not officially rescinded until 1999 when the Reds traded for slugger Greg Vaughn who had a goatee.

The Reds' grooming rules also included guidelines for wearing the uniform. In major league baseball, a club generally provides most of the equipment and clothing needed for play. However, players are required to supply their gloves and shoes themselves. Many players take advantage of this rule by entering into sponsorship arrangements with shoe manufacturers. Through the mid-1980s, the Reds had a strict rule that players were to wear only plain black shoes with no prominent logo. Reds players decried the boring color choice as well as the denial of the opportunity to earn more money through shoe contracts. A compromise was struck in which players were given the opportunity to wear red shoes.

For years, club management and players throughout Major League Baseball have been involved in a struggle over how uniform pants and stockings are to be worn. Generally, baseball players wear a double layer of socks—underneath, the regular socks or "sanitaries" (traditionally plain white) and over that, a stirrup-type stocking (traditionally bearing team colors). Some clubs, such as the Reds, require that the pants and socks be worn so that the team colors on the stirrup are visible. However, since the 1990s, players have generally preferred to pull down the cuffs of their trousers all the way to the ankle, thus covering up the colored stockings.