July 29, 2008 / Sports / Brooklyn Cyclones / Ups & Downs

Cyclones try to find something to grow on

By Ed Shakespeare

The Brooklyn Paper

The Brooklyn Paper / Julie Rosenberg

Cyclone outfielder John Servidio shows off his freshly shorn upper lip — and then promptly hit a solo homer.

Similar stories

Williamsburg: Hairs to the winners!

Event: Hair they are! The best beards — and the men beneath them — are coming to Brooklyn

Tools

Print this story

Facebook this

Tweet this

Digg this

Del.icio.us

Email to a friend

Your name

Your email address

Recipients’ email addresses (Up to ten, separated by commas.)

Recognizing the Cyclones is hard enough, but this year’s crop is making it even harder.

Several members of the starting line-up, perhaps inspired by this reporter’s mustache (though, more likely, inspired by a desire to turn around the team’s early season struggles), stopped shaving for a fortnight.

John Servidio explained the origin of the ’staches.

“After the Oneonta series [when the Cyclones were swept by the Tigers], we decided we needed a change, so a lot of us started growing mustaches,” the right fielder said.

It was certainly working; Servidio was 11-for-29 with five RBIs during his shave-free eight games.

Reliever Jimmy Johnson also refrained from razoring.

“We all wanted to try something new,” added Johnson, who gave up just two hits in his 4-2/3 innings with facial hair. “I called my girlfriend and said I’m growing a mustache, and she said, ‘No, you’re not!’ And I said, ‘But you’re not here.’

“I guess I’m keeping it until we go bad, and then that thing is gone as soon as we get in here [the clubhouse].”

The team was 5–4 during the shaving haitus, but that wasn’t good enough, Servidio said.

“I was doing OK, I guess, but the team wasn’t, so I shaved it off.”

The new strategy appeared to be working, too; during Monday night’s win in Staten Island, Servidio hit a monstrous solo homer.

It was certainly not a close shave, either!

©2008 Community Newspaper Group