Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

 ("About Clint Frazier's Lush Locks, Will the Yankees Let Their Hair Down?")

It was not always this way in the Bronx. For those who were not alive in the BS era (before Steinbrenner), you missed the unforgettable sight of Oscar Gamble trying to stuff a glorious mountain of hair underneath a cap that looked as if it had as much chance of staying on his head while Oscar was legging out a triple as Alec Baldwin now has of receiving a tweet of appreciation from Donald Trump.
 

And even though the 4th of July born King George made all his Samsons shear off their locks before they were locked into their contracts, he could not keep all the personalities under his command buttoned up, even as they cleaned up.
 

Reggie Jackson may have cut his hair but he did not shut his mouth as he, the Boss and the brat of the Brat Pack, Billy Martin had a never ending high profile, high volume feud. And even though Dave Winfield was neatly coiffed, he still managed to get into the head and under the skin of Mr. Steinbrenner.
 

Do the multi-million dollar players of this era feel stifled by their inability to express their first amendment right of freedom of hairstyle? Would Samson now play for the Yankees if they offered him enough money? Did the Oakland A's in the 70's, or more recently the San Francisco Giants, prove victorious because of their dedication and devotion to growing great mustaches and beards or rather growing great farm systems?
 

Yankee Stadium has been filled over the past decades not because of short hair or long, but because of short relievers and long. Not due to big hair, but big salaries, not owing to freedom from constraints but free agency.
 

As for me, I shaved my head accidentally yesterday (that is another story), and maybe this is nothing more than my tale of follicle envy. But the bottom line is that if Mr. Frazier does not make the team ("down goes Frazier" should be the headline) it will not be because of his lack of flaming red hair, but merely a lack of ability to catch up with a flaming fastball.