Afro-centric

I have noticed a recent resurgence in interest on the topic of a specific ballplayer hairstyle from the '70s. Discussion of the Afro never really goes away. Wherever there are fans of the greatest decade of baseball ever played, the Afro will eventually come up in conversation. How can it not? It was so apparent.

I applaud discussions of Afro-wearing ballplayers. There needs to be more of them as far as I am concerned. So I am glad that Wrigley Wax brought up Jose Cardenal's huge stack of hair. And I am glad that The Phillies Room furthered the discussion.

Cardenal really may have had the second-biggest Afro of the 1970s. I haven't done a scientific study or anything, but all you have to do is look at his cards to come to that conclusion. It was bigger than Bake McBride's. Bigger than Garry Maddox's. But, the biggest Afro, as everyone knows, belonged to this player, whose locks are forever immortalized:

Sorry, Anthony, it's the only one of these I own. You can't have it. But isn't it out of sight?

The reason that I bring this up is I have always noticed that many of the Afros of the 1970s never were allowed to blossom on cards. There was always a cap mushing it down into a set of Mickey Mouse ears. And if you are wearing an Afro-mushing cap, then you can't answer the question that I have had for literally decades.

And that question is: who featured the highest hair on a baseball card? Oscar Gamble and Jose Cardenal are disqualified, because they refused to let that Afro bloom, like a basketball player in the ABA. Cardenal and Gamble may well have had more hair than anyone, but they can't prove it by any of their baseball cards.

My candidate for the highest hair on a baseball card barely played during the 1970s. He came up with the White Sox, briefly, in 1977. He was acquired by the Cardinals in the offseason and made a bit of noise the next season. He threw a no-hitter in the minors, was called up to the majors, and one-hit the Mets three days later.

He went 15-8 for St. Louis in 1979, then endured a lousy 1980, catching pneumonia in spring training and spending a month on the disabled list with a shoulder issue. He was finished in the majors after the 1981 season.

And Silvio Martinez had the highest hair I have ever seen on a baseball card. Interestingly, this isn't even a card from the 1970s.

Even though this card stopped me in my tracks when I first saw it, I'm not convinced that this is the beginning and the end of high hair. Perhaps I am missing a player. If I am, please let me know. But remember, he can't be wearing no cap. Hair like that must roam free.