Does Wally the Green Monster Have Boston’s Sexiest Beard?
via Facebook
Years before the Red Sox started growing beards as a team bonding activity, facial hair had become the subject of fawning coverage in the wider world of men’s style. “Hollywood is full of designer stubble … The fashion world has embraced the hirsute look, too,” The New York Times wrote in May of 2012. Hollywood, fashion… it couldn’t have been too long before the trend got picked up by the professional mascot community, right?
Move over Ben Affleck. It’s all happening for Wally the Green Monster these days, ever since he picked up a must-have accessory in the worlds of Boston baseball and Hollywood fashion: a bushy beard.
Wally, though a ginger up top, debuted a big brown beard at a Yankees game on Saturday, as if to rub it in the faces of the clean-cut, mascotless losers. Wally’s goals seem twofold: he’s joining in on the spontaneous beard-growing competition being put on this season by the actual Red Sox roster, and he’s also pimping a Fenway promotion pegged to the beard phenomenon: $1 tickets on Wednesday for anyone with a beard, real or fake.
Even Wally the Green Monster has a beard. (From a friend) pic.twitter.com/GiQwimNnuP
— Bill Dennen (@wjdennen) September 14, 2013
As that old New York Times Style article on beards noted, with the state of men’s fashion where it is these days, a beard can really open doors for you:
Tom Bull, a 22-year-old model, was on the cover of Ralph Lauren’s look book for the Purple Label this spring with a full chestnut thatch. Since growing the beard last January, Mr. Bull said he has booked more jobs and with higher-end labels like Armani and Brioni. “The money jobs come to you when you have the beard,” he said.
And so it’s been for old Wally. Since posting it to Facebook, he’s received hundreds of Facebook likes and compliments from fans. And look, he even got to meet a former U.S. Senator:
Wally. Wally’s beard. The Cowans. Fenway Park. Hanging out. #justsayin#gosox@redsox pic.twitter.com/rujFpo8UX3
— Mo Cowan (@mocowan) September 14, 2013
We hope he doesn’t mind the itching too much. He’s keeping that thing through the playoffs.
