Who could forget the spectacular 1999 Mets of ten years ago — those Mets of Sports Illustrated “Best Infield Ever” cover fame — with their triumphant playoff run and never-quit comeback attitude. That Mets lineup was stacked with hitters and runners and could never be counted out down late in a game, the seeming antithesis of this heartless 2009 team. Better days.
With the 2009 squad decimated by injury and seemingly down on their spirits (not to mention the fans’), the team could use to take a page from the book of the 1999 club. Inspired by the lyric from The Doors song “L.A. Woman,” Robin Ventura, a clubhouse leader if ever there was one, entered the clubhouse one day with t-shirts for the entire team that said “Mojo Risin’” in big, block letters. The phrase became a rallying cry for the team, displayed on the old Sharp jumbotron at Shea accompanied by The Doors tune when the Amazins needed some late-inning magic. The fans loved it, and for all that is holy in this world it did seem to inspire the team.
The 2009 Mets need some Mojo. And they need it to rise. BADLY. The ‘99 team had such fireplugs as Ventura, Rickey Henderson, Roger Cedeno, Mike Piazza and more. The 2009 Mets of June 30th have… Alex Cora. But they could also have mustaches. Think about it. How awesome would it be if the team uniformly started sporting lip-sweaters? It’d be absolutely magical, that’s what. Come on guys, get it together. And David, you’re the unnofficial captain, so lead the way.
"These snow-white uniforms look great with this jet black stache!"
Bernard Gilkey might not be one of the most famous Mets, but for any new Yorkers who lived through the awful Mets doldrums known as the mid-’90s the name should evoke a smile.
After being acquired prior to the 1996 season from the Cardinals in exchange for future superstars Erik Hiljus, Eric Ludwick and Yudith Orozio (who?), Gilkey put up one of the most impressive offensive seasons in all of Mets history. At the time his excellent stats may been overshadowed by Lance Johnson’s team records for hits and triples and Todd Hundley’s team record for homeruns — both also coming in 1996 — but his numbers are undeniable. According to AmazinAvenue.com, Gilkey’s 1996 season ranks near the top in a slew of offensive categories: 8th in OPS, 6th in runs, 10th in hits, 2nd in total bases, 1st in doubles, 3rd in RBI, 8th in OPS+, 2nd in runs created, 3rd in extra-base hits, and 10th in times on base. Gilkey batted .317 with a slugging percentage of .562, the latter of which was good for 7th on the all-time Mets list.
Gilkey was also known for his sense of fashion, shown above sporting the new-look snow-white Mets jerseys debuted in 1997, and with a wicked ’stache no doubt responsible for his epic 1996 season.
Unfortunately the odds caught up with Gilkey, and he fell back to earth in 1997 and 1998 while posting .249 and .233 batting averages, respectively. The Mets shipped him to Arizona at the trade deadline in 1998 along with Nelson Figueroa (who would return to the team 10 years later) in exchange for Willie Blair, Jorge Fabregas and cash. Bernard, it was fun while it lasted!
This has nothing to do with David Wright or mustaches… I’m not even sure it’s real. But holy hell is it funny. George Brett has a story to tell and just can’t hold himself back, despite the visible disinterest of his teammates. Enjoy.
With Misopogal departing for Israel from JFK, the Misopogon took this opportunity to leave the Great Lakes State and come see how things were stachin’ in the city. Meanwhile, the blogosphere blow’d up. This week in blogging, with bullets:
What do fashion bloggers wear on weekends? Wrightstache t-shirts!
Sunday T-shirt spotting: the trendy Brooklynite at right knows clothes; by day she works for a fashion magazine, by night she’s the proprietress of The Haute Fuzz. And on Sundays, she can be seen strutting the balconies of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, demonstrating this season’s classiest New York wear. The Fuzz also had a fashion tip for Wrightstache readers (lifted from Facebook):
“too bad you don’t have giant stache stickers we can go stick on the back of everyone else’s shirts… that other ‘5′ looks so sad and naked”
This is an idea not yet considered: if David were to wear a Wrightstache t-shirt, or even put a mustache over his number, would that have the same effect as real barbs over his lip? We’re guessing, no, but we’re willing to see it attempted.
Want more bloggy bullet goodness? You’ll have to give us a click-through first:
Your mission: Photoshop together your best picture of David Wright sporting a Rollie Fingers-esque mustache. Once you’ve completed your masterpiece, send it in an email to contact [at] thewrightstache [dot] com (formatted like an actual email address of course…we wrote it that way to deter pesky spammers). We’ll post the best entries here on the site and let our fans pick the winner - who we’ll promptly mail the book to. We’ll accept entries up until Monday, June 29th.
With all due respect to my good friends from Long Island (including Mr. Hairy Backman and Mr. Teuffel Stubble, as well as my mom and like, everyone ever) this is some of Jon Stewart’s best work to date. The fact that Long Island wants to secede from New York is funny enough, but The Daily Show takes it to the next level.
Whilst bemoaning the awfully embarrassing disaster otherwise known as “this past weekend,” I resorted to a usual past-time of mine since the American one is letting me down as of late: trawling YouTube for mustache-related videos.
If David’s worried about the potentially time-intensive upkeep of a well-groomed mustache, we’d like to offer this video to him as proof that maintaining your mustache is as easy as catching an infield pop-up boiling water. It’s all about the wink at the end!
"Maybe this shirt will help me get a beer faster."
Speaking of Wright Stache t-shirts, Friend O’ the Stache and OhMurph.com proprietor Craig Kesten spotted someone (pictured, right — apologies for crappy cell phone photo quality) wearing one at yesterday’s riveting 6-5 win over the Phils. Whoever you are, thanks for the support, dude!
D-Wright went 2-4 with a homerun last night, only his fourth dinger of the season — perhaps an upper-lip flavor savor would help those power numbers Jerry is calling for?
Every sports fan has, at one time or another, blamed themselves for a loss by the favorite team. “The Mets lost because I went to the bathroom” or “I sneezed and the Mets blew the lead,” are common phrases in New York this time of year. We all like to think that we have some mystical connection with our favorite teams. Hell, the Mets lost the last six games I attended, so maybe I’m bad luck!
But one loyal Mets fan and Wright Stache reader is so worried about her bad mojo that she’s scared to purchase an official The Wright Stache t-shirt for fear that it will cause David Wright to get hurt! She wrote to us seeking our input before buying this fine piece of apparel (that we recommend you all purchase).
We at The Wright Stache believe that our positive energy, stache-powered karma and cosmic spirit can break any curse. In fact, we believe that purchasing a Wright Stache t-shirt is just the thing that every Mets fan needs to do to inspire David to grow a stache and lead the Mets to the World Series. But we decided to let you all weigh in on the matter. After the jump is the letter we received and a poll that demands your attention.
A few weeks ago, the good folks at Mets Weekly saw fit to feature your favorite mustache aficionados on SNY’s magazine series. We convened at the Mets Clubhouse Shop at Bryant Park to discuss the site, the Mets and, of course, mustaches. In case you missed it when it aired, here, in all it’s glory, is The Wright Stache on Mets Weekly.
Special thanks to Max Siegal and the Tupelo Honey Productions team for making the magic happen.
Legendary Hall of Fame relief pitcher Rollie Fingers recently came out with a new book entitled Rollie’s Follies: A Hall of Fame Revue of Lists and Lore, Stories and Stats from Baseball’s Most Famous Moustache. The book is, like the title says, a collection of some of Rollie’s favorite stories and statistics that he learned of or experienced during his famed 17 year career in baseball. Besides being one of the greatest relief pitchers to ever play the game, Rollie easily solidified himself as having one of the greatest, if not the greatest mustache in baseball history. He kindly spoke with The Wright Stache’s very own Teufel Stubble about the new book, baseball, and of course…mustaches. Check out the conversation below:
TWS: Maybe we’ll start out talking about the book a bit. The book has a lot of anecdotes, the lighter side of baseball, players joking around and things like that. Do you have one favorite story from the book?
RF: Probably the one about striking out Johnny Bench in the World Series on the fake pitchout. Even today people come up to me and ask me “were you the guy pitching on the mound when Bench was hitting and you struck him out on the fake pitchout”. That story is in the book. Johnny and I are real good friends. I never bring it up to him unless he brings it up first. Read more »
The Wright Stache crew had another successful outing at Citi Field on the fine afternoon of May 31st; JCP and Girlfriend O’ The Stache Emily headed out early to hawk shirts (order yours here!) in the parking lot (formerly Shea, R.I.P.) to much success: we had six Wright Stache converts, and two more after the game! Excuse the shoddy image quality and “proof” verbiage; we thank the Mets’ fine “Amazin’ Fan Photos” photographers for their generosity, but we ain’t payin’ no $15 for a print.
…is always hanging out of his mouth. Why? We have no idea. But when we saw the recent shot of him licking a baseball batin Newsday earlier this week, we had to bring it to our readers’ attention. Here are some choice shots of David licking his lips and other things. The bat pic is on the bottom:
Have you ever been in a pub in Goomeri, Queensland, Australia and found your future self? Well, you can imagine my astonishment when, while proudly representing The Wright Stache at Joe’s Grand Hotel in this tiny town (population: 400), I met Doug. Doug works the timber bridges, smokes a pipe and rocks a sweet chops and stache combo. Doug is my hero. And Doug may just be me in 2030.
I’m writing this from the Brisbine International Airport while waiting out a five hour fog delay, but I’ll be Stateside soon enough to get back to fightin’ the good stache fight in the home of the Amazins.
And since we want you all to buy Wright Stache t-shirts and share your photos with us, check out my contribution after the jump.
Frank Selee's mustache was the first to suggest putting Tinkers, Evers, and Chance in the same infield
TheWrightStache.com has already established the link between mustaches and leadership. But while every manager instinctively understands how motivational posters a lip sweater can contribute to productivity, it’s hard to quantify that.
Well, fortunately for us, in baseball you can quantify everything, including mustached leadership.
Unlike a mustache on David Wright, There is no promise of championships for any manager who grows a mustache. As managerial great Sparky Anderson once said (to paraphrase) “Mangers don’t win or lose ballgames. Ballgames are decided in three places: on the field, at the plate, and above David Wright’s lip.”
Can greater facial growth on MLB’s current managers contribute to leadership skills, or will the burden of proper grooming prove too much for the mustached few? Find out, after the call to the bullpen…
The Stanley Cup is annually bequeathed to the hockey team that can grow the most facial hair.
MLB does a lot of things better than the NHL, but one thing hockey has right is a longstanding, well-established connection between facial hair and winning. While players tend to rock whatever they like during the regular season, come the first day of Passover,* the razors get thrown out like so many leftover bagels.
For the 2008-09 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Detroit Red Wings are using the connection as their chief promotional tag-line: “The Beard is Back.” They’re also now just two wins from hoisting Lord Stanley for the fifth time in a dozen seasons. There’s a reason these guys are pro sports’ model franchise.
After the jump: The Beard is Back; The Stache Never Left
In other news, the Mets lost Carlos Beltran and John Maine to a mysterious “stomach bug” this weekend, but not before the latter pitched 6 stellar innings to win the rubber match of the Mets 3-game stand against the Fish. Angel Pagan had no such luck and was removed with a tweaked groin after chasing down a hit in the outfield. Dude’s a gamer, but he’s just got some serious bad luck with injuries… we should start calling him “Moises.”
We’d like to extend a warm Wright Stache welcome to Lance Broadway, the minor league pitcher we acquired in from the White Sox in the Ramon Castro trade. Broadway has been assigned to AAA Buffalo and inserted into the starting rotation. We think that pale, white, clean-shaven face would look mighty fine with a stache. Don’t you?
If you're a student of the game or just interested in baseball history, you may have considered testing
your knowledge through online sports betting. Ask yourself,
what would Ty Cobb do?
Wright Wreasons | Jose's Chin Pubes | 
June 30, 2009 | 
Comments (1) 
Every sports fan has, at one time or another, blamed themselves for a loss by the favorite team. “The Mets lost because I went to the bathroom” or “I sneezed and the Mets blew the lead,” are common phrases in New York this time of year. We all like to think that we have some mystical connection with our favorite teams. Hell, the Mets lost the last six games I attended, so maybe I’m bad luck!
