(not the 2006 Florida Marlins)

From the Miami Herald’s Clark Spencer.

Old manager Joe Girardi prohibited it. New manager Fredi Gonzalez is permitting it. The question becomes: can any of the puberulent Marlins grow it?

”Some of these guys it might take eight months just to grow a mustache,” said Gonzalez, who is lifting the ban on facial hair, a restriction Girardi put in place when he was hired a year ago.

Girardi and his Sgt. Carter burr are gone, snip-snipped by the Marlins after only one season as manager. In his place arrives Gonzalez, who has nary a strand on his shaved head but doesn’t mind if the young Marlins sprout whiskers on their chins and cheeks – to a degree.

”None of this ZZ Top stuff,” Gonzalez warned, referring to the long-bearded rockers. “They have to keep it nice and trim.”

By order of Girardi, last year’s Marlins couldn’t grow beards or mustaches. The Marlins’ raw rookies looked like Marine recruits on Parris Island. A couple of players — reliever Taylor Tankersley and outfielder Cody Ross — took it to the extreme, going hairless from the neck up, while a few of the others, such as Miguel Cabrera and Hanley Ramirez, had close-cropped hair by season’s end.

Now they can let it all hang out, up to a point.

”That’s cool,” Tankersly said. “We’ve got a few guys on our team who probably need to grow some facial hair to cover our ugly faces up.”