DETROIT, April 25 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co on Wednesday outlined a plan to cut costs and boost profit margins at a faster pace than previously announced, which includes dropping traditional sedan models in North America that have become increasingly unpopular with consumers.
The No. 2 U.S. automaker said it now plans to cut $25.5 billion in costs by 2022, up from $14 billion in cuts it announced last fall.
Ford Chief Executive Jim Hackett told investors the company is undergoing "a profound refocus" of its operations and may exit unprofitable businesses.
"We'll restructure as necessary, and we'll be decisive," he said. "We're going to feed the healthy part of our business," and dispose of marginal operations, Hackett added.
Ford said it expects pretax profit margins of 8 percent globally and 10 percent in North America by 2020, ahead of a previous target of 2022.
Responding to a shift in consumer demand to SUVs and pickup trucks, Ford said it planned to trim its North American car portfolio to just two models: the sporty Mustang, which debuted 50 years ago this month, and a new compact crossover called Focus Active starting in 2019.
Ford "will not invest in next generations of traditional Ford sedans for North America," including the midsize Fusion and full-size Taurus, the company said.
The automaker has been under pressure from Wall Street investors to improve its product lineup and lift flagging profit margins. In 2017, the company's pretax profit fell to $8.4 billion from $10.3 billion.
In March, Ford executives unveiled ambitious plans to shift the struggling automaker's product portfolio from passenger cars to SUVs, add more hybrid and pure electric vehicles, and reduce development and manufacturing costs - aimed at boosting profits and the automaker's share price.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday as the company reported first-quarter results, Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said "we have looked at every single part of the business . . . We are driven to turn this business around."
Ford reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit, with a 7 percent increase in revenue and a lower effective tax rate offsetting a jump in costs, especially higher commodity prices.
The company reported a first-quarter net profit of $1.74 billion, or 43 cents per share, up from $1.6 billion, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts had on average expected earnings per share of 41 cents.
Despite the higher profit, Ford's adjusted pretax profit margin fell to 5.2 percent from 6.4 percent in the same quarter in 2017.
CFO Shanks said the company expected that commodity costs would represent a $1.5 billion "headwind" in 2018, $500 million of which came in the first quarter.
The lion's share of the automaker's quarterly profit was driven by high-margin pickup trucks and SUVs in North America. Europe was the only other region to turn a profit for Ford.
The company's loss in its Asia Pacific region was driven by slumping sales in China, where Ford has just begun to introduce new models.
Shanks said the Lincoln brand still is losing money in China, where it launched in 2015, but now plans to begin local production there in 2020.
Joe Hinrichs, president of global operations, said Ford plans to build a new product its Hermosillo plant in Mexico when it quits production of the Fusion sedan, and will also build a new battery electric vehicle in Mexico.
Steven Kapor and I at the ball park in Cincinnati during a fun evening event out for Funddriver’s annual Planning Retreat. Congratulations to Steven for completing his first year of the Entrepreneur’s Masters Program! | Coach to The Best
Steven Kapor and I at the ball park in Cincinnati during a fun evening event out for Funddriver’s annual Planning Retreat. Congratulations to Steven for completing his first year of the Entrepreneur’s Masters Program!
← While in Monterrey, I accompanied Hayden to this collaboration for the creation of exciting new labels for Evolution Salt. The new labels give Evolution Salt products a luxury high end and cohesive brand look. This year Kat Edmonson helped to produce Mike Flanigin’s ‘The Drifter’ featuring legendary rockers Jimmy Vaughen, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, and Kat herself on vocals. Kat is currently deep in the creative process of writing songs for next album. →
This paper discusses the problems experienced in areas of Burkina Faso that are used for pastoral purposes. It considers what the ongoing process in this zone has achieved so far.
Groups and individuals interested in promoting interesting and rewarding volunteer opportunities for seniors in Hamilton at this event are asked to contact Shelagh Kiely at 905-777-3837 ext. 12238 or kielys@hhsc.ca
Older Adult Inclusion and Isolation: Sackville Hill Seniors Centre, Thursday November 22, 2018, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. OR Stoney Creek Recreation Centre, Monday January 14, 2019 2 – 4 p.m. For more information visit hamilton.ca/seniors or call 905-973-0891
On Friday September 21, 2018, HCoA hosted its 11th Annual General Meeting & Community Forum at St. Peter’s Hospital, Hamilton. The HCoA Board extends special thanks to the Honourable Filomena Tassi, Minister of Seniors, Member of Parliament for Hamilton-West-Ancaster-Dundas for providing a heartening keynote address for our audience of 150+ community members! Please click here to view the Hamilton Council on Aging 11th Annual Report to the Community. Thank you to all members, volunteers, funders, partners, and supporters for making our work possible and for supporting us in working towards our vision to make positive aging a reality in Hamilton!
GERAS-Women4Change Positive Aging Series: With support from the Hamilton Community Foundation, Women4Change Fund, HCoA – in partnership with GERAS is pleased to launch a NEW POSITIVE AGING SERIES for women & men. GERAS – Women4Change is an evidence-informed Workshop Series modeled after the highly regarded GERAS-TO-GO. A series of 6 interactive workshops for seniors are led by retired women, with backgrounds in health & education. Workshops are interactive, designed to enhance wellness, community knowledge & empower participants to create positive changes to age well. Topics in the Series include What to Expect as we Age, Nutrition Tips & Advice, Mental Fitness, Social Fitness, Strategies to keep your Independence & Physical Fitness. We are currently in the process of hosting 2 series (Stoney Creek and downtown Hamilton.) Please watch the website for information about Spring Sessions that will take place in Dundas & Flamborough in the Spring- COMING SOON!
As I indicated earlier, the con is a blur, so I'm going to combine the trip reports by park, rather than by day. This simplifies things for me, since we spent multiple days at some of the parks.
Hershey gave us evening ERTs on Sunday and Tuesday, and morning ERTs Monday, Tuesday, AND Wednesday. We hit all the ERTs, as well as spending some time in the park on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday during GP hours.
This was my first time at Hershey, and overall I was very impressed. The park was very clean, the employees were friendly (especially during the ERTs). Food was Ok. The stuff in the park didn't stick out as GREAT, but the sitdown place just outside the park (blanking on the name right now, sorry) was pretty good, and the diner-esque place inside Chocolate World was VERY good.
The park has an interesting and cool layout. I love how well certain coasters interweave. I wasn't quite as impressed with the Midway America section (where Wildcat, Lightning Racers, and the Wild Mouse live), but it wasn't too bad.
Comet (7 laps) -- Not a bad woodie. You can ALMOST feel the air this ride WANTS to give, but for the overbraking. Still, this wasn't a bad coaster.
Great Bear (15 laps) -- This may not be the most intense B&M inverted, and it has a pretty lame (IMHO) ending, but it's still a damn good ride. The swoop turn into the first drop is cool, and there's just enough forces in the coaster (try 2nd or 3rd row, left seat) to keep things interesting. The sheer number of times I was willing to ride it should say something ;)
Lightning Racer (8 laps on Thunder, 7 on Lightning) -- My favorite coaster at Hershey, by far. The two sides are slightly different, but similar enough that I decided to only count it in my track record once. I preferred Thunder to Lightning by a bit, but they're both excellent. FUN is the best word to describr them. The trains are incredible, as well, although I would like it if the lap bar springs were a bit stiffer to keep them up a bit better. The pacing on this ride is excellent, and the timing in the race/duel aspect is incredibly well done.
Sidewinder (1 lap) -- I hate Vekoma. Or rather, I hate certain stock Vekoma designs. Boomerangs are one of them. That doesn't stop me from riding each one once for my track record, but it DOES stop me from making the same mistake too often. Enough said.
Sooperdooperlooper (7 laps) -- I don't care what some critics may think, I liked this ride. It certainly wasn't my favorite new-to-me coaster of the trip (which, as it turned out, wasn't an official con stop, but I'll get to that in another report), but it wasn't bad either.
Trailblazer (2 laps) -- This isn't a bad Arrow Mine Train, but it isn't good enough to keep me coming back over and over.
Wildcat (5 laps) -- my 2nd GCI (Roar at SFA was the first), and my 100th coaster for my track record! I like this ride. Some Con attendees commented that it was running better this year than it had in the past. The layout was good, giving a fairly intense ride, but not overwhelming. Not a bad coaster to call #100 (the plan had been to make Lightning Racer 100, but it was closed when we walked over due to the same inane laser show that many parks insist on putting on nowadays)
Wild Mouse (5 laps) -- Best summary I can say is, it's a mouse. Fun, short ride that takes up a small footprint. Hershey braked it a bit, but I've seen worse.
I'll have to go to Hershey again at some point when there ISN'T an event going on, to see how the experience compares, but I came away very happy.
Did you go to SFGAd with other people? Someone said to me that a group of ACErs planned a trip to New Jersey?
In Short: Inferno Grill’s fantastic location is right in the heart of Maroubra with ample parking nearby. Its American diner-style menu, with ice-cream, and mind blowing thick-shakes are the perfect treat, but their burgers are truly worth the journey, no visit is complete without one.
For many years I have been coming to Maroubra in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Its beach is long and inviting, and seldom overly crowded as many other eastern suburbs beaches can get. Mahon Pool on the northern end can be an exciting place to be when the swell is up. There’s a real relaxed, family friendly vibe to the suburb. Less than 5 minutes from the beach on Anzac Parade is Inferno Grill. Opened in December 2013, designed and owned by two brothers, Michael and Anthony Parzakonis. The diner is fitted with dark wood custom-made tables, solid black circular lamp shades, with vintage posters of classic cars and retro themed vignettes of Maroubra hanging on the wall.
With years of experience in running cafe’s, including Chicane in the CBD and Altitude Espresso in Mascot, the menu is innovative and quite alluring. The alluring bit, is just few paragraphs down, trust me! We had the opportunity to sit down with Anthony and talk to him about Inferno Grill and what brought him to Maroubra. He saw the site as an opportunity to have an eatery on the busy Anzac Parade, with lots of foot traffic passing by. Anthony and Michael split managing the restaurant with a one-day-on, one-day-off approach, and in talking to Anthony he is all about work life balance, which many of us aspire to. What I learned about Anthony was his passion for food. There’s an excitement when he talks about his menu and when presenting food to his customers. He also takes time to talk to his customers and engage with them. He’s traveled extensively and draws on that when designing the menu. Little innovations like maple glazed bacon, or fried pita bread and crumbed mozzarella really does elevate each of the dishes that contain these ingredients and techniques.
Anthony has pedigree with making coffee, so I ask him to do his thing and make me up a flat white. Served in a latte style glass, it’s handsome to look at. Robust flavours at first, with a creamy finish, it’s all a coffee should be. There are small pangs of acidity, but in no way does it tend towards bitterness.
Feeling nostalgic from time spent in North Carolina and Texas, and visits to diners in those states, I am compelled to pick out a thick shake to complement our food choices. I have a soft spot with anything related, so the Choc Peanut is an easy choice. The familiar flavours of chocolate and peanut combined with milk makes this a rich, sweet yet slightly salty milk shake that is both sweet and savoury at the same time. It doesn’t get too pasty, and I love the flavour of the roasted peanuts that is prominent with each sip.
To start off our food adventure at Inferno Grill we go with the Greek Nachos. I am blown away with the delicious pita bread, seasoned with oregano, fried ’til crispy golden brown and cut into long triangles. It seems so simple, I wonder, why didn’t I think of that? It’s the out-of-the-square approach that allows this dish to transcend most other nacho dishes. It’s topped with red onions, fresh salsa, feta and home make tzatziki sauce and a whole lot of delicious tender pulled beef that has been slow cooked for 6 hours. To describe these nachos, phrases like “finger licking good” and “nacho heaven” would come to mind.
Inferno Grill are renowned for their burgers. From beef to chicken and even a veggie burger, they have it all covered on the burger front. But these are not your ordinary burgers. Inferno Grill’s burgers are usually so full of ingredients, it would need to be held together by a skewer running through the middle of the burger! But size aside, the flavours of these burgers are out of this world good!
Take for example, The Boss Hogg burger. If you are a beef burger lover, this is the burger that may sit above all others. With two beef patties, double bacon, crumbed mozzarella, topped with Inferno Grill’s signature Big Yakk sauce, relish and pickles, this is a burger lover’s dream come true. The beef patty is rich and juicy, and the bacon nicely cooked with a maple glaze to give it an additional contrast of sweetness.
What makes this burger stand out though, is the huge square of crumbed mozzarella sitting in between the patties, which means this burger needs to be eaten hot, within seconds of it arriving at your table. The reason being, when you cut into the burger with the knife, the melted mozzarella cheese will ooze out of its crumbed shell, coating the knife and burger with cheesy goodness. Sounds heavenly and decadent? That’s because it is just that. This burger is definitely da boss!
If it’s a chicken burger you are after, one of Inferno Burger’s signature is The Clucking Pig. In case you are wondering why a chicken burger has pig in its name, its because crispy fried pieces of chicken, seasoned with Inferno Grill’s own secret herb and spices, are paired with maple glazed bacon and complemented with coleslaw, chilli and aioli. Speaking of chilli, this burger packs a punch that creeps up on you gradually, but in a good way. It’s another epic burger with a ton of flavour.
All of Inferno Grill’s burgers are made with a bun that is a cross between a Turkish pide and Italian ciabatta. While soft milk buns are all the rage at the moment, Inferno Grill experimented and accounted for the fact that all of Inferno Grill’s burgers usually have sauces to complement the meat, hence they opted for a bread that is soft yet still able to keep its form, despite being stacked with ingredients.
For a little extra, you can turn your individual burger meal into a combo by choosing from onion rings, thick cut chips or salad, and a can of soda or water. Inferno Grill has a large selection of salads to choose from and you can hardly go wrong with a side of thick cut chips, but if you are up for something different, I would highly recommend Inferno Grill’s onion rings as they are some of the best I have tasted, outside of America! Crunchy, crispy, golden batter coated around rings of seasoned onion, it was so good that I even managed to convince little Coco and Viner Sammi, who doesn’t usually like onions, to try it and she actually asked me for seconds!
If burgers aren’t your thing, and you’ve worked up an appetite, then it has to be the Greek Tasting Plate. It’s a real spread with lamb souvlaki, calamari, grilled haloumi cheese, Greek salad, fresh salsa, pita bread, and rosemary chips. It’s a generous serving of food with every element perfectly cooked. Souvlaki are tender pieces of marinated meat with a nice level of spice, and acidity of lemon cleansing the palate. Calamari, like the onion rings, are crispy and golden. The accompaniments all add up to a stomach filling, energy infusing and supremely satisfying meal.
We only skimmed the surface of the menu. We really appreciated the Mediterranean flavours and the chilli in some of the dishes. With BBQ chooks, salads, standout burgers, fish, including healthy grilled options and even home made ice creams for dessert, Inferno Grill is one stop that you should definitely make on the way back from the beach. It’s open late, so even if you’re reading this of an evening and the clock is showing 8pm, no problems, you have ’til 10pm to get to Maroubra to get a feed at Inferno Grill!
Say what you want about Mr. Jackson and his brash attitude and high strikeout rates, yet without my grandfathers’ fondness for the man I would have never found my love for the game of baseball and the Oakland Athletics.
To me Reggie was ALWAYS a legend, and a mystifying one at that since he was retiring just as I was learning to love and appreciate the game. He was a Ruthian figure; and honored by someone who I loved– which made me open my eyes to try to figure out just what made this guy so special.
When my grandfather died I watched from a distance, sadly, as his children argued and bickered over his possessions. I decided then, because of their behavior, that I didn’t need an earthly remembrance of this man who was the biggest father-figure in my life. A couple of months later my grandmother came to me and handed me an autographed Reggie Jackson ball. I knew it well as it had once had the most prominent spot in the case where he kept his baseball memorabilia. It was the gem of the collection.
I love when the baseball existentialists come together to sing their anthems of praise about the serene rhythms and mystic qualities of the game. It gives me a warm feeling. And as much as I love and adore the game, sometimes I feel as if these are all illusions because of a time and an innocence that I miss and cherish — and that I’ll never see again.
Tags: art, baseball, coco crisps afro blog, family, life, oakland a's, reggie jackson, sports, writing
I’m assuming the penis and cigarette has lowered the value quite dramatically. Perhaps done by a jilted Reds or Dodgers fan?
At 12 years old my interests were the same as your average kid from the 80’s era as I enjoyed playing with Star Wars toys with friends, re-creating scenes from Return of the Jedi and eating the latest sugary cereal concoction that hit the market. Seeing that we were boys and enjoyed rough-housing, there was also the random broken window from a baseball being batted which is decidedly why my friends and I began making balls with newspaper and duct tape– in retrospect this was a genius move as we couldn’t care less if we lost the ball and there were no more broken windows and the inevitable grounding and ass-tanning that came with it.
This was the year I went to my first Major League Baseball game which was on September 26, 1987. I know this because my Grandfather took me because it was “Reggie Jackson Day,” and Reggie being his all-time favorite player made this game matter-of-course. The Oakland Coliseum wasn’t the out-dated monstrosity that it has become today and back then you actually had a view of the Oakland hills behind the bleachers, a view akin to Dodger Stadium today. The details of the actual game have been blurred through time, yet I remember being disappointed that Reggie batted only once (on his day!) in a pinch hit role, popping out. After a bit of research what had once been in my mind’s-eye, indeed, the above date held true. Ol’ Reg had stepped in the box once–popping out with runners on second and third in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox and their new pig-tail “C” caps.
“I’m not into talking about how wonderful things are for me when we’ve lost four in a row,” he said. “I’m embarrassed.”
“If we had won, it would be different. But right now, my esteem is low. My self-importance is microscopic.”
The box-score is interesting to me as I remember my 12-year-old self wondering, “Who in the hell is Walt Weiss?” (Regular short-stop Alfredo Griffin must have been hurt or taking the day off) Weiss was in his third month in the league, and went on to win Rookie of the Year the next season. Long time Oakland A’s pitching coach Curt Young started the game, pitching 7 strong innings and giving up 1 run. (This wasn’t part of my memory, as the only one I remember is Reggie batting once and popping out which probably destroyed my belief in predestiny and prepared me for the heartbreak and disappointment of being an A’s fan for years to come) Overall, I don’t remember much as far as feelings or any other waxing “ball park details”, except the expansiveness of the field, my grandfathers chain-smoking of Marlboro “Reds”, and pissing in a trough for the first time. Yet, I must liken this experience to a crack head’s first hit as it led me a life-long obsession that still exists to this day.
Tags: baseball, childhood, Coco crisp afro blog, life, memories, MLB, oakland a's, poetry, reggie jackson, sports, Star Wars, writing
PALM SPRINGS, March 23rd 1985 — Reggie Jackson and Brian Downing were involved in an altercation with an unidentified man following the Angels’ 8-1 exhibition victory over the Cleveland Indians at Tucson Friday.
The incident took place in the parking lot at Hi Corbett Field as Jackson and Downing were preparing to return to the Angel training base at Mesa, Ariz.
Jackson, reached by phone Friday night, said he was merely responding to the man’s belligerence by trying to restrain him. He said no punches were thrown and that the man ultimately apologized as he and Downing left in Downing’s car.
Witnesses told the Arizona Daily Star that the man had heckled Jackson throughout the game and continued to do so in the parking lot. They said that while there were no punches, the heckler suffered a cut lip, apparently in the jostling near Downing’s car.
My buddies and I took a trip to Palm Springs in 1985 to get away from our wives, kids, jobs and the everyday hustle and bustle. I was working in real estate at the time and had the persona of a world class douche-bag. (hey, it was the 80’s!) We had been partying voraciously all week and had all downed a few “hair of the dog” bloody marys that morning before Dave looked in the newspaper and found that the Angels were in town for Spring Training.
“I want to see that .220 hitting son of a bitch play!” Dave screamed as he buttoned his Hawaiian shirt.
We all climbed in the car, eyes bloodshot and ready for some beers, sun and some good times. Of course, we parked ourselves in the right field bleachers and proceeded to heckle Jackson mercilessly, as only 10 year olds can. FINALLY in the 8th inning, he turned around and gave us the finger. It was a triumphant moment of immaturity.
After the game I approached Reggie in a drunken stupor in the parking lot and tried to shake his hand.
“You and your friends were the assholes in the bleachers!” he said as he grabbed my wrists and shoved me to the ground.
Jackson then jumped in fellow player Brian Downing’s car and they sped off. It was later reported that I was shoving kids and offered him cocaine…in Spanish. I am not proud of my actions and have always regretted every moment, but that statement simply wasn’t true.
Tags: baseball, baseball cards, Brian Downing, Coco crisp afro blog, confrontation, drugs, life, MLB, oakland a's, poetry, reggie jackson, sports, spring training, writing
Reggie Jackson had always gotten along with Bill North, and publicly praised the young center fielder several times for his fielding prowess. Sometime in mid-April, however, Bill failed to run hard to first on a routine ground-out. When he returned to the bench, Reggie harshly berated him in front of his teammates for not hustling. The seeds of The Fight were sown.
“He had crossed me, in some way, a couple of times,” Bill recalls without going into detail. “I tried to set him up for a month.” He gave Reggie the silent treatment despite Jackson’s torrid start, and refused to talk to him on or off the field. He would not congratulate Reggie after home runs. During this period, North lifted his average above .200, swiped seventeen bases in the month of May alone, and played exceptional defense. By the day of The Fight, he was batting .228 and leading the league in stolen bases. Jackson remained hot, batting .390 with a league-leading 15 home runs, and the A’s were first in the A.L. West.
Finally, prior to a night game on June 5, in the locker room at Tiger Stadium, Bill made a remark that infuriated Reggie and ignited the brawl. The superstar, who was not yet dressed for the game, charged North and the two wrestled on the floor, in full view of teammates and sportswriters. Catcher Ray Fosse, pitcher Vida Blue and others were able to separate the two, only to have the combatants tangle again a few minutes later. “It wasn’t a regular clubhouse fight,” said an A’s teammate anonymously. “There was no backing off. They went at it hot and heavy — twice.” When the dust settled, the consensus was that North had won the fight. Jackson ended up with a bruised shoulder and battered ego. Fosse suffered a separated cervical disk in the melee and was out of action until late in the season. Both North and Jackson played against the Tigers that night. Bill went 2 for 3 with a double, run scored and RBI while Reggie went 0 for 4. For the rest of June, the powerful right fielder batted .197 with just three doubles, no home runs and four RBI.
Bill looks back upon the incident with much more humility than braggadocio. “I had extracted my ounce of retribution,” Bill admits, but believes the path chosen to settle their score was from youthful ignorance. The Fight and its aftermath enabled Bill and Reggie to move forward as teammates with renewed respect for each other. Today, North says, they maintain a genuine friendship. Reggie Jackson wrote this about Bill in his autobiography: “North was a feisty little guy with a hair-trigger temper, and one of the reasons he was such a winner on the field was because he had a lot of piss and vinegar in him.”
Tags: 1970's, 1970's oakland a's, art, baseball, baseball cards, Bill North, books, Charlie O. Finley, coco crisps afro blog, fights, humor, life, MLB, oakland a's, ray fosse, reggie jackson, sports
Rollie Fingers has the most famous mustache in baseball history…although he wasn’t the trend setter.
Reggie Jackson reported to spring training in 1972 replete with a fully grown mustache, the origins of which had begun to sprout during the 1971 American League Championship Series. To the surprise of his teammates, Jackson had used part of his off-season to allow the mustache reach a fuller bloom. In addition, Jackson bragged to teammates that he would not only wear the mustache, possibly a full beard, come Opening Day.
Such pronouncements would have hardly created a ripple in later years, when players would freely make bold fashion statements with mustaches and goatees, and routinely wear previously disdained accessories like earrings. But this was 1972, still a conservative time within the sport, in stark contrast to the rebellious attitudes of younger generations throughout the country. Given that no major league player had been documented wearing a mustache in the regular season since Wally Schang of the Philadelphia A’s in 1914, Jackson’s pronouncements made major news in 1972.
In the post Schang era, several players had donned mustaches during spring training, yet, in each case the player had shaved off the mustache by Opening Day, either by his own volition or because of a mandate from the team. After all, there existed an unwritten rule within the conservative sport, one that strongly frowned upon facial hair. In addition, several teams had more recently instituted their own formal policies (most notably the Cincinnati Reds in the 1960’s), policies that forbade their players from sporting facial hair.
Baseball’s conservative grooming standards , which had been in place for over 50 years, were now being threatened by one of the game’s most visible players. Not surprisingly, Jackson’s mustachioed look quickly garnered the attention of owner Charlie O. Finley and manager Dick Williams. “The story as I remember it,” says outfielder Mike Hegan, “was that Reggie came into spring training…with a mustache, and Charlie didn’t like it. So he told Dick to tell Reggie to shave it off. And Dick told Reggie to shave it off, and Reggie told Dick what to do. This got to be a real sticking point, and so I guess Charlie and Dick had a meeting and they said ‘well, Reggie’s an individual so maybe we can try some reverse psychology here.’ Charlie told a few other guys to start growing a mustache. Then (Finley figured that if) a couple of other guys did it, Reggie would shave his off, and you know, everything would be OK.
According to Sal Bando, Finley wanted to avoid having a direct confrontation with Jackson over the mustache. For one of the few times in his tenure as the A’s owner, Finley showed a preference for a subtle, more indirect approach. “Finley, to my knowledge,”says Bando, “did not want to go tell Reggie to shave it. So he thought it would be better to have us all grow mustaches. That way Reggie wouldn’t be an ‘individual’ anymore.”
Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter, Darold Knowles and Bob Locker followed Reggie’s lead, each sprouting their own mustache. Instead of making Jackson feel less individualistic, thus prompting him to adopt his previously clean-shaven look, the strategy had a reverse and unexpected affect on Charles Finley.
“Well, as it turned out, guys started growin’ ’em, and Charlie began to like it,” says Mike Hegan in recalling the origins of baseball’s “Mustache Gang.” Finley offered a cash incentive to any player who had successfully grown a mustache by Father’s Day. “So then we all had to grow mustaches,” says Hegan, “and that’s how all that started.” By the time we got to the (regular) season, almost everybody had mustaches.” Even the manager, Dick Williams, known for his military brush-cut and clan shaven look during his days in Boston, would join the facial brigade by growing a patchy, scraggly mustache of his own. Baseball’s long standing hairless trend had officially come to an end.