HOUSTON, Texas -- Baseball Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers made the handlebar mustache famous in the 1970s while pitching for the Oakland Athletics. A generation later, rookie A's pitcher Daniel Mengden has brought it back.
Mengden, the 23-year-old starter with a funky old school over-head windup, has actually done better than his 1-4 record shows. He starts on July 8 in the second of a three-game series with the Houston Astros, the team that traded Mengden last summer in the Scott Kazmir deal.
Fingers, who put the handlebar mustache on the map during his eight seasons with the A's and went to three World Series, hadn't heard of Mengden until last month.