Not Pirate related, but that last part about Giambi and Damon reminds me; why do the Yankees keep signing guys known mainly for their hair related exploits and making them change it? Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, Nick Swisher, Chad Gaudin, etc. If you sign the player you’re signing the facial hair as well. I’ve also noticed that CC Sabathia’s hat isn’t quite as sideways as it used to be.

This ties into the general idea of them pushing a more military approach to the minors — Stark was at West Point this summer and got the mental-conditioning coach from there as another example that kind of drives that home.

I think it’s one of the most refreshing and encouraging philosophies I’ve heard in years.

First and foremost, there’s a reason it’s called a “uniform.” The idea is that everyone wearing it should meet the same standard of appearance, regardless of their status or ego. As dehumanizing as it may sound, baseball is a business and players are the product. Consequently, there’s nothing remotely unreasonable about ensuring the product is presentable.

But even more fundamentally, the whole point of the minors is to teach the player to be a big leaguer, and structure is an essential part of the education process. We teach our children to make their beds every morning, for example, even though probably no one would ever know if they didn’t. Why? Because we want to reinforce the concept of orderliness and accountability. If you take a sloppy, haphazard approach in one aspect of your life, you’re apt to do so in every other aspect as well.

The same concept applies to baseball. Minor leaguers aren’t there to express their individuality. They’re being paid to learn how to do things correctly. At this stage of their careers, it’s vital they understand that their way of doing things isn’t necessarily the right way, and that message must be consistent in every aspect of their experience if you expect them to accept it.

There’s plenty of time later to grow a beard and look like a homeless person. If they earn the right.

this is just dumb. I think there’s probably a fair number of players who are inclined to keep their hair short and not wear bears and keep their pants high, and that’s fine. I think there’s also a number of players who want to grow a beard, wear their pants low, and “look like a homeless person,” to borrow a phrase. It hasn’t hurt Manny Ramirez much, and he was a cretin when his hair was short, too.

It’s disappointing to see an organization that is almost hyper-rational take pains to create, let alone enforce, a policy that is completely irrational.

“This is who we are and what we’re about, and if you don’t like it, you’re not going to hurt our feelings. You can go somewhere else,” he said. “If we can’t expect a guy to keep his locker a certain way, how can we expect him to go out and execute in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the game on the line?”

Count me with bucfaninwa. I think this is a good thing. Making sure that our minors are oriented toward getting the players head screwed on straight is a very good idea. Uniformity allows you to focus on the stuff you’re supposed to be thinking about, performance. It’s got an impressive record of success in a wide range of contexts. Now the next step falls on the organization itself of course. They have to teach well and be accountable.

You’ve nailed it!

from ‘08 ever get back from the wars, and into the organization, they’ll feel right at home.

in that this would offend me personally. In fact, I make a pretty deliberate effort to subvert the dress code at my job on a daily basis.

That said, this kind of stuff does work for a lot of people. There are certainly others who are creative or pathologically individualistic (I’d count myself in both categories) who would resent these kinds of rules, perhaps enough that it would hinder their development. Something tells me that the concentration of these people playing pro ball is far less than it is in other fields.

I’d rather they forgo most of the top-down uniform stuff and focus on developing a player-driven culture of discipline. That might be harder to do in MiLB (players have different career paths and are bounced around quite a lot), but I think that a 20 year old kid is more likely to buy into this stuff if his community of peers is holding him accountable.

Now, Johnny Unitas — there’s a haircut you could set your watch to!

huh, 90% of them won’t sniff the majors , just teach the other 10% how to play baseball. This is not friggin rocket science.

Having recently been an 18-24 year old male, I feel pretty confident in saying that the thing 18-24 year old males most need is a disciplined sense of responsibility to something greater than themselves. If there are aren’t reasonable and necessary rules that need to be enforced, then unreasonable, arbitrary rules should be created and enforced so that these children can learn what it means to sacrifice their narrow self-interest for something more important and far more rewarding. I am totally in favor of these new minor league policies, and I respect Huntington and Stark an awful lot for putting them in place, not just as baseball men but as humans.

Also, I totally agree with RDV that Langosch is a really great beat writer. She works hard, writes well, and sticks to reporting (as opposed to amateurish analysis). Dejan is really great too, and I’m glad we have both of them covering the Bucs.

I don’t care about anything except the W. just win baseball games and leave their sox, lockers, and facial hair alone. Also remember this is a team sport played by individuals .

Yea coach sorry I was late for practice ,“I was straightening up my locker ,it was out of control”