Please tell me this is a joke

Joe Girardi:  Super Genius.  The new manager of the Marlins is making his players lose all the facial hair.  Let’s hear from Joe.

"I want players to look neat and responsible," Girardi said at a media luncheon Monday. "Maybe it’s old school. But it’s kind of neat when people are always clean, and I like it."

"It’s kind of neat when people are always clean"  Is this guy for real?  In what world is having facial hair considered ‘unclean’?  If Joe wants to work for the Yankees, maybe he should go back to s*cking up to Steinbrenner instead of trying to turn the Marlins into New York south.

Last time I checked, the Marlins won 2 World Championships with facial hair (Josh Beckett says ‘hi’, Joe).

It isn’t like Girardi is Lou Pinella or Joe Torre.  A rule like "absolutely no facial hair" when you join a new team is just a power play.  "I’m the manager and you’ll listen to me".

Joe says:

"You have a responsibility of what you look like," he said. "You find out which players want to be disciplined in the little things. And if you can be disciplined in the little things, a lot of times you can be disciplined in the big things."

Ah.  So if you want to grow a moustache a beard or some other form of facial hair, you have no discipline.  Has nothing to do with, oh, being an adult and wanting to make your own decisions in life.   Everyone knows baseball players can’t succeed if they have facial hair getting in their way.