Sexual libertine Todd Jones insists “Jason Giambi is not the first baseball player to grow facial hair.”  Sounds like somebody’s jealous the Tigers haven’t scheduled a Todd Jones Underwear Day.  From Jones’ Sporting News blog :

The Yankees have a strict facial hair policy. You can have a mustache, but it can’t go too far below the sides of your mouth. For whatever reason, some clubs still think you can’t be a good baseball player with a Fu Manchu.I beg to differ.

I know the Yankees do it so that one guy doesn’t stick out. Their concept is for everyone to blend in behind the pinstripes. That’s cool, I guess, but it works for only the Yankees. The Yankee mystique has enough street cred that players don’t fight the rule and actually enforce it internally.

If you want to talk sweet ‘staches, don’t forget to look at me. I’ve got one and work hard at keeping it straight. Doug Brocail and several teammates gave me a hard time years ago because my Fu Manchu was crooked. But I thought I was mean-looking, so I rocked it. To be honest, when I was learning how to be a closer, I thought I needed something to make me look the part.

I remembered the looks of Goose Gossage and the Mad Hungarian, Al Hrabosky. Then I met Rod Beck — God rest his soul — and I was in. I’ve gone about three weeks in my entire career without my once slightly crooked and now-graying mustache. I guess it’s me.