“Charlie Hustle” is finally being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
No, not that one. The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame in Milwaukee.
Bet you didn’t see that coming.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Bobblehead Hall said Friday that former major league baseball great Pete Rose’s bobblehead will be its first inductee. Co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said Rose was picked for the inaugural induction ceremony after an online poll.
Some of the organization’s bobbleheads are on display at RedLine Milwaukee as part of a preview exhibit. The Journal Sentinel reports Sklar says he expects the Hall of Fame to open officially in a permanent location this fall.
Rose, a 17-time All Star, threetime National League batting champ and two-time Gold Glove winner, agreed to a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball in 1989 after an investigation found the career hits leader placed numerous bets on the Cincinnati Reds to win while playing for and managing the team.
A ceremony is being held in April at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. Because where else would you have it?
Call him ‘Samson’
Iowa wrestler Sammy Brooks, who recently won the Big Ten title, is headed to the NCAA Championships at Madison Square Garden this week, and he has no illusions about how he came by his success: his mullet.
The junior wrestler appeared to be all business as he gave all the credit to his short-in-the-front, long-in-theback hairstyle in a post-match interview with the Big Ten Network, especially when talking about the party atmosphere at the tournament.
“It did get loud in here,” Brooks said after winning the 184-pound division at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. “I think these fans just respond really well to a good haircut. So that’s what I was working on coming in here, making sure it was fluffed and feathered the right way, and I think the fans saw my hard work.
“I gain trust every time my hair grows a little more,” Brooks added. “I trust in myself and my mullet. It’s a process. You can’t grow a great mullet in a day and you can’t win a Big Ten title in a day.”
There you have it. The mullet — hairstyle of champions.
Shooting for beardie
Baseball has Brian Wilson. Basketball has James Harden. Football had Brett Keisel.
Now professional golf has a beard of its own, attached to Canadian golfer Graham DeLaet.
And, as Golf.com’s Gary Sickle put it, “He doesn’t just have a beard, he’s got a mountain-man beard.”
“He’s been growing it since just after the British Open in July,” DeLaet’s wife, Ruby, told Sickle. “He normally grows a beard every offseason or every winter.”
That would be a Canadian thing, no coincidence.
“He was growing one like normal and he says, ‘I think I’m going to commit to it this time and see where I can go with it.’ He went online and watched videos on how to grow and maintain a good beard.”
DeLaet’s playing partner at the Valspar Championship, Bill Haas, had a different take.
“Is there such a thing as a good beard?” said Haas, son of former PGA tour player Jay Haas. “When I was younger, my dad was always asking me, ‘Did you lose your razor, Bill? Did you forget your razor?’ He’d say, ‘Did Arnold Palmer have a beard? Did Jack Nicklaus have a beard?’”
As DeLaet finished signing autographs for fans, Sickle asked if he had a name for his beard: “He and his beard gave me a quizzical look, followed by a quick answer: ‘No.’
Steve Stricker had a name for it.
“Sasquatch,” Stricker said. “People are calling me Sasquatch, but his beard — that looks like Sasquatch.”