SI Update
CLICK THIS, JULY 23, 2007
The 11 straight Gold Gloves, the 1979 NL MVP Award, the two World Series rings. That's all nice, but something was missing from Keith Hernandez's résumé. The former Cardinals and Mets first baseman, now a SportsNet New York analyst, grew up loving Charlie Finley's mustachioed Oakland A's and always wanted a soup strainer to rival his heroes'. "When I was 18, I would shave it over and over until it came back thicker," says Hernandez (below, in 1980). His efforts were recognized last week when he won the American Mustache Institute's Top Sports Mustache of All Time online poll, with 31.7% of the vote. "If I had a vote, it would have been Rollie Fingers," says Hernandez, who beat out 12 others, including Fingers, as a write-in candidate. Why wasn't he on the ballot? "The mustache community is split on his involvement with mustache performance-enhancing drugs," says AMI director Aaron Perlut. Hernandez, 53, stars in Just for Men hair-coloring ads and admits, "Without it, my mustache is completely gray." Still, Hernandez's dedication can't be questioned. "I shaved it on a lark in '87," he says. "I looked in the mirror and said, 'Oh, God, what have I done?'"
PHOTO
HEINZ KLUETMEIER (HERNANDEZ)