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The Red Sox’ Rollie Fingers? 03.27.11 at 4:38 pm ET
By Alex Speier

Red Sox right-hander Caleb Clay features a sinking fastball, slider, curve, changeup and lip warmer. (WEEI.com)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — It’s just policy.

Like most organizations, the Red Sox have a number of rules about appearance that their minor leaguers must follow. Some govern the appearance of a player’s uniform — no baggy pants, no untucked shirts. Others govern aspects of personal appearance, including a prohibition on beards or goatees.

It’s a very standard aspect of most organizations’ approach to player development. While teams don’t want to strip their players of their individuality, there is a desire to create rules that help to establish expectations for the professionalism of player conduct.

Not all teams implement such standards. The A’s famously have permitted their minor leaguers to make the 2004-05 Johnny Damon look clean-shaven by comparison. But by and large, the rules are part of baseball’s old-school tradition; enough coaches come from that old-school tradition that it can benefit players to follow them.

That said…While the Sox have the rule in place preventing their minor leaguers from growing beards and goatees, prospects are perfectly free to grow mustaches. And some Sox minor leaguers are trying to seize the opportunity for hirsute pursuits in noteworthy fashions.

Josh Reddick has often featured a lip warmer in his minor league career (though he was told by then-Portland manager Arnie Beyeler to shave it immediately and to shed a mohawk when he received his first big-league call-up). Of the players currently navigating the minor league complex, Lucas LeBlanc and Tyler Wilson have cultivated what the American Mustache Institute might describe as momentous mouth gardens.

But of the impressive mouth brows featured in camp this year, it would be difficult to find one superior to that proudly worn by pitcher Caleb Clay.

Clay, 23, bore a beard for the better part of four months during the winter. When it was time to return to Fort Myers for spring training, he recognized the necessity of whittling some of his whiskers. Yet after achieving facial follicular freedom for several months, the 2006 sandwich pick (who spent last year at Hi-A Salem, where he went 4-13 with a 4.57 ERA in 26 games) decided against a total eradication of his growth.

Instead, he elected to stylize his facial hair, embracing the handlebars look made famous in baseball by Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers and, more recently, former AMI (American Mustache Institute) “Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year” award winner Clay Zavada.

Clay employs wax to mold his mustache into a formidable feature. Yet while it is a visually striking element, the ‘stache could yet serve a pragmatic purpose. The right-hander is hopeful that he might pitch in Double-A Portland at some point this year, where facial insulation could prove a boon.

Read More: american mustache institute, caleb clay, clay zavada, Johnny Damon Print  |  Email  |  Bark It Up!  |  Digg It
  • matt

    haha, instantly makes him look about 38. I love the stache…good work my boy, now run and grab yourself a sarsaparilla.

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