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" For all the fanfare surrounding the bearded men of the Boston Red Sox, who once again used the power of facial hair (and the League&amp;#039;s fourth highest payroll) to propel themselves into the World Series, closer and ALCS MVP Koji Uehara is a rare hold-out who&amp;#039;s been able to impress throughout the post season despite his complete inability to grow facial hair\u2026 or so his teammates assumed. &amp;quot;We just thought he couldn&amp;#039;t grow one,&amp;quot; Boston back-up catcher David Ross admitted to The New York Times after Saturday&amp;#039;s win.  This is typically where I&amp;#039;d commiserate with the star athlete for being just like those of us who claim to shave ourselves clean because we like how it looks, except that not only did the Japanese star &amp;amp;lt; target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt;sport an unkempt, yet dapper, beard for three seasons with the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles, but the roguish mess was actually one of the most famous around back in his home country. He was wearing it the day he signed with the Red Sox in December, and he&amp;#039;s even got some version of it happening in his official team picture.  The problem was that, along with the handsome fuzz, Uehara was also carrying a massive 33.75 ERA (earned run average) over from the 2011 playoffs, and the the weight of a international fan base who regularly and publicly criticized the look. They thought it was ugly and defiant, and he admittedly &amp;quot;just didn&amp;#039;t know where I was going with that beard.&amp;quot; So the 38-year-old shaved it on Japanese television back in January \u2014 and then went on to throw the best season of his life, totaling 21 saves after becoming the everyday closer in June, and keeping his ERA down around 1.09 for the season.  Maybe it&amp;#039;s some twist on the power of the beard. Or a reverse-jinx. Hell, maybe there&amp;#039;s no mysticism to facial hair at all and it&amp;#039;s just good timing. Curt Schilling was pretty clean-shaven when he helped the Red Sox &amp;quot;Idiots&amp;quot; to their 2004 title, while his teammate Johnny Damon could have passed as Teen Wolf. It seems the only rule to the combination of beards and sports is that there are no rules; just the fewer fucks given, the better, whether that means refusing to shave in order to bond with the boys and take the pressure off millions watching you fail at what amounts to a child&amp;#039;s game, or shaving so a billion people get off your back and let you pitch.  So beard on, Boston. Or don&amp;#039;t. Whatever works.  Follow The Style Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQStyle "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/a31184/koji-uehara-beard-1013/>