Oakland Athletics outfielder Josh Reddick cut his hair and trimmed his beard over the weekend. That might not seem like news -- or cause for concern -- but for those who pay attention to Reddick's life off of the diamond, it's not only relevant, but crushing to hear.
Josh Reddick gets a trim, beard-off with WWE’s Daniel Bryan in jeopardy
Is Josh Reddick’s new look too short to catch up with Daniel Bryan’s year-old beard?
Ezra Shaw
Josh Reddick likes wrestling. Like, a lot. He also enjoys an overly large beard, and had been working on one all off-season long.
This is Daniel Bryan.
Photo credit: WWE Active
He is a WWE wrestler. He also -- as you can see -- enjoys an overly large beard, and has been working on one even longer than Reddick. In early March, the two began feuding on Twitter over who had the greater beard. No, really:
Going to Poland to learn beard growing techniques from eastern Europeans. determined to win #BEARDOFF @joshreddick16 twitter.com/WWEDanielBryan…
— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) March 19, 2013
The plan was to see who had the larger beard by the end of the 2013, and then fans would vote to determine the winner of #BEARDOFF 2013, with the loser shaving (or, per WWE tradition, possibly being shaved by the winner). While Reddick started late, you can see his facial hair might have been growing a bit faster than Bryan’s. Here’s Reddick picking up his Gold Glove award at season’s start:
Photo credit: Thearon W. Henderson
Post-trim, though, things aren’t looking quite as beardly, at least not for the world of competitive bearding:
Photo credit: J. Meric
Susan Slusser, Athletics’ beat writer, reports that Reddick is known to cut his hair while struggling. He had just two hits in his previous 22 at-bats before taking scissors to his head, so the time was right in that regard, especially since he’s at just .113/.226/.208 on the season. If he starts to hit, one wonders if he’ll keep things cleaned up on his face, or if he’ll dive back in to the beard-off with Bryan once more in the hopes of a late-hour, bearded victory.
Since the terms of the contest were that the loser had to shave, and Reddick has already cleaned up, new terms should be negotiated in the wake of what might be Reddick’s concession. Our collective vote, should we be given one, should be for Reddick to have to use Daniel Bryan’s entrance theme as his walk-up music*, because, well, just listen.
*More often than he does, I mean. How can you go wrong with a metal rendition of “The Flight of the Valkyries”?
It’s pretty likely Bryan only had one thing to say when he heard the news:
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