Of course, the Red Sox don't hold a monopoly on baseball beards – here's Brian Wilson of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Not that this behemoth is a playoff beard, per se. He really means it. That earns respect, as does Wilson's '00' number, which of course puts one in mind of James Bond, who though not hirsute himself was once played by the generally bearded Sean Connery. That could be a contorted link to saying Wilson's beard is worthy of an appearance in a remake of the non-Bond classic Zardoz – only in that Sir Sean just had a moustache and spent the entire film in some sort of designer red nappy. So no.

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