Pirates Ray Searage Bets His Stache, Eyebrows, and Hair

The dog days of

August in Pittsburgh have always been hot and sticky.  Perhaps Ray Searage thought about that when he made the bet with his starters that he would shave his head, eyebrows, AND that mustache that makes Ron Jeremy jealous.

After all, who would have ever dreamt that five Pirates starters could win 10 games?

Last year’s Pirates starters combined for 34 wins.  It’s hard to even dream up a number that low in the most pessimistic of Pirates fans nightmares.  The thought of five starters with ten wins in 2011 was a pipedream, but Searage believed it and wanted to motivate his staff.

Searage believed.  We had two items, among a number of things, that lead us to believe that Searage would have an impact, but we could have never predicted that the Pirates pitching would be this good, for this long.

Watch Searage working with Paul Maholm this Spring….listen for the key words “that’s when you get into trouble.” He spent a great deal of the offseason focused on re-tooling the only lefthander in the Pirates rotation.

The work Searage did with Morton is well documented now, but here was our take back in Spring Training in case you missed it. The line Searage drew was important for Morton as he developed his new mechanics. Morton told me that it is drawn for his alignment in his remade delivery.

Here is the excellent story that Jen Langosch wrote about the bet Searage made with the starters. In the article Kevin Correia, who could get his tenth win tonight in Toronto, had this to say about his coach….

"“I hope it happens,” joked Correia, “because I know he doesn’t want to shave his mustache at all.”"

The starter with the most wins will be the barber.

"“It’ll grow back,” consented Searage. “Either that or I’ll get a Sharpie.”"

Let’s just trust that Pirates fans get to see it become reality.

A tip of the hat to @edwordtoyourmom for hitting us up on twitter with the link