Stormin’ Gorman: The Man Who Set Brewers Facial Hair Standards

[Jason Wang]

In addition to having a mustache for the ages, Thomas spent 11 years as an outfielder with the Brewers, and his playing days were almost as glorious as his flavor saver.

Image courtesy of © The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel-USA TODAY NETWORK

Born in South Carolina, Gorman Thomas had an upbringing similar to many current and future major leaguers. His father was a former minor league pitcher, and Gorman was a generally gifted athlete, earning varsity letters for football, basketball, track, and baseball. His professional career started in 1969 after being drafted in the first round by the Seattle Pilots, the newest faces in Major League Baseball. After just one year of logistical errors and plumbing mishaps, the Pilots moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers we know and love today.

Despite being their first-ever draft pick, the team would collapse before Thomas could make it out of rookie ball. With the Brewers, he quickly rose through the ranks of the minor leagues and debuted in 1973. In 1975, he officially graduated from minor league farmhand to major-league bench player and had only 547 plate appearances in 1975 and 1976 combined. On the bright side, he got to hang out with a pretty cool guy named Henry Aaron (not sure if you’ve heard of him; I think he hit a couple of home runs or something like that) during the last two years of his career.

Every year in the 70s was funky, but 1977 was especially so for Gorman Thomas. He spent the entire year in Triple A and then was traded to the Texas Rangers as part of a “player-to-be-named-later” deal that brought outfielder Ed Kirkpatrick to the Brewers. Dan O’Brien Sr, the general manager of the Rangers at the time, saw the deal as a simple, friendly gesture and had no intentions of actually using Thomas. Instead, Brewers general manager Harry Dalton needed to open a roster spot over the winter and asked O’Brien to hold onto Thomas for a few months. He returned to the Brewers in February 1978, just in time to start the season in Milwaukee.

For the next five years, Thomas was the starting center fielder for an upstart Brewers team that went from the laughing stock of the division at the beginning of the decade to Game 7 of the World Series in 1982. He was pretty productive, slashing .245/.339/.505 over his nearly 3,000 plate appearances. He was a great power threat for the team, leading the American League in home runs in 1979 with 45 and 1982 with 39. He also led major league baseball in strikeouts in 1979 with 175 and in 1980 with 170. Essentially, he walked so Kyle Schwarber could run. Despite his valiant efforts, he received just one All-Star nod in 1981 and some MVP votes in 1979 and 1982. In total, he would hit 208 home runs for Milwaukee.

One black spot on his legacy is undoubtedly his lack of playoff success. Of his 65 playoff plate appearances in his career, he slashed a measly .102/.169/.203. Game 2 of the 1982 World Series against the Cardinals was a one-run game, so if Gorman had hit a little better instead of going 0-3 at the plate, the Brew Crew have had enough to claim their long-awaited World Series trophy. 

His career with the Crew ended in June 1983 after he was dealt to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for Rick Manning and Rick Waits. His hitting had quickly started to decline, and he’d have one more good year with the Seattle Mariners in 1985 before returning to the Brewers as a designated hitter in 1986 and hanging up the cleats at the conclusion of the season.

Overall, Gorman Thomas ranks 17th all-time in Baseball-Reference WAR with the Brewers at 18.4 and is known as a franchise great. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Brewers Wall of Honor in 2014. For much of his life and personality, it seems he was created in a facility to embody all the ideal characteristics of a Brewers player. He opened a bar with teammate Pete Vuckovich called Stormin’ & Vuke’s. He spent much of his time in retirement doing manly things like hunting, carving duck decoys, and collecting artwork. Sure, he never won an MVP, a Silver Slugger, or dated Marilyn Monroe, but that’s not what baseball’s about, is it?

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