With the emergence of Giants reliever Brian Wilson and his fabulous glue-on beard, facial hair is big again, especially for closers. A generation ago, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley, Goose Gossage and Rod Beck were known for their mustaches. As for beards, here are five classics from closers past and present.
5. Jeff Reardon » Difficult to tell where his thick, dark beard ended and his chest hair began. As a closer for hire throughout his seven-team career, his beard always seemed to figure prominently in the postseason.
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4. Ryan Franklin » Maybe the key to the success of the Cardinals’ late-blooming, 37-year-old closer is the preposterous scruff hanging from his chin. He often gets the “goat” of opposing hitters.
3. Bobby Jenks » The White Sox closer has been known to color his asymmetrical, paintbrush goatee blonde and pink.
2. Bruce Sutter » On the subject of the Hall of Famer’s beard, David Roher of the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective put it best in this caption: “Leo Tolstoy‘s beard, seen here, giving Bruce Sutter’s beard a run for its money.”
1. Steve Bedrosian » The longer his career lasted, the more unkempt his beard became. Think Will Farrell in “Anchorman.” Actually, the chances are great that at any given time, Bedrosian’s beard contained meatloaf.
