Hair Makes a Winner: O's Relaxed Facial Hair Policy Can Only Be a Good Thing

Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter confirmed to The Baltimore Sun yesterday that he had gotten permission from President of Baseball Operations Andy MacPhail and owner Peter Angelos to relax the no facial hair policy that has been in place for much of the time that Angelos has owned the team.

However, there is a provision.

"It's kind of, 'Can they keep it presentable?'" said Showalter. "They're going to police themselves."

After the Orioles brought in first baseman Derrek Lee and designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero, who have both worn goatees for most or all of their careers, Showalter told the team early in spring training that if it was important to them, he would talk to the men higher up and see if he could get them to change the rules.

Showalter and MacPhail then proceeded to approach Angelos on the issue, who agreed to relax the policy a bit.

"I asked Derrek how long he had that, and he said he couldn't remember when he didn't, and he's one of the really good clubhouse-presence guys," explained Showalter.

Additionally, many current Orioles players, such as right fielder Nick Markakis and left fielder Luke Scott, are known to grow beards over the offseason.

As ex-Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen might say, this situation can only be a "win" for the Orioles clubhouse. A happy clubhouse can go a long way in supporting the team morale, and when a team is happy and believes in itself, the team can make things happen, a la the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

Please don't misinterpret—I'm not saying that because the O's can now wear some hair on their face, they'll take home the World Series trophy. But for the players who have been hoping for this since 2006, when former Oriole Kevin Millar was brought to the team and began the "facial hair movement," it must feel good knowing that they can wear their facial hair the way they want (to a certain extent), and that will only boost how the players feel about themselves and the team.

As well as being given the liberty to police their facial hair, they also have been shown that Angelos will listen to the players, something which has been in question the past few years, more so by fans than the players themselves. Knowing that the team owner takes into consideration how the team feels on a certain subject will also help in the clubhouse.

If Angelos had said no to relaxing the policy, that could have been a bad situation, making the players feel defeated before the season had even begun. Angelos deserves credit for making the right decision and giving his team even more to be excited about after a very successful offseason.

Mentality goes a long way in performance. I, for one, know from experience that if you're frustrated with how you've been performing, or if there are outside factors that distract you when you're at the plate or fielding your position, it'll hurt your game. Now, with one more thing to make the players happy, such a thing is that much less likely to happen to the players.

Team morale fuels how a team performs in key situations. For example, if a team is up to bat in the bottom of the ninth and down by one run, it's more likely to believe that it can win if its 3-4-5 batters are due up than if its 7-8-9 batters are. If one believes they can do something, that belief will push them the extra mile to make that success happen and therefore makes it more likely to happen.

All in all, I'm sure that the Orioles feel great about being able to have some facial hair during the season, and hopefully they can use that feeling to their advantage.

The manager indicated that the most the players can really keep is a goatee. It is important to remember that the policy is at the discretion of ownership, and if the O's let themselves go a bit, Angelos can tighten up the policy again in a snap.