The Central Baseball beard decoded

Beards in baseball have become more popular than ever. Many major league teams have become more lenient about allowing players to grow facial hair, only requiring a few restrictions.

Beard popularity in baseball grew in 2013, when the Boston Red Sox players all had beards. The beard trend started by Red Sox players Mike Napoli and Johnny Gomes.

The Sox were winning and their beards kept getting longer. The entire team joined in on growing their beards out. When a player would score for the Sox, they would tug on their beard, which then became a huge tradition for Red Sox Nation.

The Central baseball team had a few players with beards this past season. Kasey Bielec, senior exercise science major and leader on the baseball team, had the most notable beard.

Bielec, with his beard, earned 1st Team All GNAC, was voted to the Daktronics All-West Region Team, named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association All-West Region Team and earned Honorable Mention All-American Honors by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Bielec ended his senior year on the diamond leading the GNAC with a .409 batting average. He had five home-runs and 40 RBIs. The standout senior started growing a beard during the season because of the Boston Red Sox.

“It is fun to have a beard,” Bielec said. “Especially when you get a couple of guys to grow one with you. The Boston Red Sox, when they did the whole team thing a few years ago, was kind of a cool thing. Beckman and me did it together this year, and we both had some pretty good beards going on at the end of the season. I love facial hair and I think beards are great.”

The New York Yankees are one of the only professional teams in baseball with facial hair restrictions. Players have to have clean haircuts and are not allowed to grow facial hair.

According to Bielec, head coach Desi Storey doesn’t mind his players having facial hair, as long as the beards aren’t too extreme.

“Desi likes us to keep it trimmed,” Bielec said. “He will let us grow what we want to grow, but we just have to keep it clean. I kind of went away from that a little bit, but if you keep it tight he doesn’t mind.”

According to Bielec, he played with a trimmed up beard at Central his junior year, and during his senior year, he decided to just let it grow out. His teammates like to give him a hard time with his beard.

“They usually make fun of me,” Bielec said laughing. “I can’t grow it above, like, my jaw line. So they always comment on my neckbeard. They mess with me a little but it’s alright.”

Bielec loves that more and more baseball players are growing beards. He feels that it really fits the sport and embodies what baseball is all about.

“I think it had a big thing to do with the Red Sox that one year. I think people thought that it was a good look,” Bielec said. “Baseball is such a gritty sport. I think everyone was just like we are going to have fun with it and show it off.”