Brothers From Another Mother – Mike Huff/Hough

1992 Topps – Mike Huff

1989-90 O-Pee-Chee – Mike Hough

So, they may have spelled their names differently, but Mike Huff and Mike Hough might very well be related to each other.

How we know they’re different people:

Mike Huff was a marginal Major League Baseball player who played in 369 total games for the Dodgers, Indians, White Sox and Blue Jays.  Mike Hough was a pretty regular NHL’er for over a decade, retiring after the 1998-99 season when he realized that playing for the New York Islanders, Utah Grizzlies and Lowell Lock Monsters in one season wasn’t fun anymore.

How we’re not sure they’re different people because we’ve never seen them in the same room together:

Both of the Mike Huffs/Houghs were born in 1963.  The baseball version was born in Honolulu, and the hockey version was born in Montreal.  Yeah.  Honolulu.  Sure, Mike Huff.  Also, both are listed at 6 feet 1 inch tall.  Convenient.  The kicker here is that Mike Huff, again, conveniently, never became a regular Major Leaguer, which made it much easier to manage his professional hockey career in the NHL.  He just joined his baseball team midseason once he was done on the ice.  I’m convinced this is true and I won’t listen to your reasons why it’s not.

Manly, Magical Mustaches – Craig Lefferts

1992 Topps – Craig Lefferts

By 1992, the mustache was becoming more and more a thing of the past in Major League Baseball.  Players everywhere were becoming significantly less masculine by shaving their facial hair and chopping off mullets left, right and centre.

However, clearly, Craig Lefferts would have none of it.  Instead of going Full Monty and removing the mustache completely, he went for a short-cropped haircut along with a perfectly manicured mustache – the kind of mustache you might possibly see on a highway patrolman, or maybe someone who spends a lot of time in front of the camera.

Interesting Craig Lefferts fact: He started five games in his rookie season, 1983.  Then, he pitched in 526 Major League Baseball games as a reliever, including an NL-leading 83 in 1986, before oddly starting all 32 games he appeared in during the 1992 campaign.  In 1993 and 1994, he was primarily back in the bullpen.

Craig Lefferts, we salute you for fighting the good fight when many had already accepted defeat and moved on.

Manly, Magical Mustaches – Gene Nelson

1992 Topps - Gene Nelson

If I had a mustache like that, I’d be smiling too.  Gene Nelson was one of those relievers that don’t exist anymore.  You know, the ones that would pitch in 50-60 games and rack up 100-120 innings.  Nelson achieved a reasonable amount of success, helping Oakland to a World Series sweep over San Francisco in 1989.  Well, I’m not sure he really helped that much – his ERA was 54.00 and he allowed two homers in a total of one inning of work, but I’ll bet with a ‘stache like that and the hockey-style flow that he was still able to par-tay after the A’s won.

Speaking of that, if I ever stole the DeLorean from Doc Brown and Marty McFly, and I was only allowed to take it back in time to a World Series party from the 1980’s, the 1989 A’s party would be the one I’d go to.  Just think about all those egos, all those steroids, all that beer, all those Camaros and probably all that cocaine (well, maybe that was a bit earlier, who knows…) combining into one perfect storm of victory and douchebaggery.  Tell me you wouldn’t sit in the corner with a Miller High Life and enjoy that one.