The Mets' third base coach is named Razor Shines. He's the only razor anywhere near the team right now, and that's the best news the Mets have had all season. The Mets won their fifth straight game on Thursday afternoon, and they're 5-1 since they decided to make a team-wide pact to forego shaving until they hit .500.
The idea came, ironically enough, from clean-shaven head of infielder Alex Cora on the team's flight from Washington to Houston last week.
"When the Mets were doing well two years ago, they cut off their hair. This year, I thought growing our hair would bring us good luck," Cora said.
Cora was right, because their luck has been growing like, well, facial hair. Since dropping the opener of that series with the Astros, the Mets have outscored their opponents 36-9 in what's been, by far, their most effective stretch of all-around play all season. They're 49-51 entering the nightcap of Thursday's doubleheader, which raises the question of whether or not the shaving cream should be put away for the rest of the season altogether.
It's worth a shot. It's pretty clear that nothing else has worked this season, so why not see if a little stubble can stop your stumbles? Do you think a team of grizzly mountain men are going to fall apart in September? Not bloody likely. If the fans jump on the bandwagon as well, Citi Field could be a whiskered palace of wins that winds up turning this team from a disappointment into the Miracle-Gro Mets.
The only downside to this whole idea is that it would have been so easily avoided. David Wright was urged to grow a moustache in the early part of the season, but refused and possibly started the series of karmic events that led the Mets to such dire straits. We can be thankful that he's finally come around to a hirstute point of view, but we'll always wonder if all the pain could have been avoided if he hadn't angered the gods earlier this season.
So, with all apologies to Tug McGraw, it appears that this year's Mets team has finally found it's slogan: YA GOTTA BEARD-LIEVE!!!
Sports
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
