28 percent of the players in the 1975 Topps set are sporting mustaches, up from 17 percent the year before. Milwaukee, California, Montreal, and Cincinnati remain holdouts for Squaresville; Houston, which boasted four ’staches in ’74, is down to zero, too. These things happened from time to time in the mid-1970s when “old-school” skippers and front-office guys signed on and decided to lower the lameness boom.
I find it most surprising that Milwaukee has a no-facial-hair policy at this point, considering that I identify most of the great 1970s Brew Crew—Gorman Thomas, Darrell Porter, George Scott—as formidable mustachers. Guess I must be mistaken. (Psst…we call this “foreshadowing” in the biz.)
AL EAST
Baltimore (14 mustaches, up 5 from ’74)
Boston* (11, +2)
New York (10, +6)
Detroit (7, +4)
Cleveland (5, -1)
Milwaukee (0, no change)
AL WEST
Oakland* (16, +3)
Minnesota (9, +4)
Texas (8, +8)
Kansas City (8, +3)
Chicago (7, no change)
California (0, no change)
NL EAST
Philadelphia (10, +8)
Pittsburgh* (8, -6)
Chicago (7, +4)
St. Louis (6, +5)
New York (5, +2)
Montreal (0, no change)
NL WEST
Los Angeles (10, +8)
San Francisco (7, +5)
Atlanta (7, +3)
San Diego (5, -1)
Houston (0, -4)
Cincinnati* (0, no change)
*actual division winner, 1975 season