Meet Jose Lopez. He owns a barber shop in the Bronx called Jordan Sport barber shop. A reporter from the New York Times stumbled upon his joint looking for a story and found out the Mr. Lopez is the unofficial fader of some of the most famous Dominican ball players in the big leagues.

Mr. Lopez, a Dominican immigrant, said that, through his Dominican ballplayer friends, he has managed to become something of an official barber of Latino baseball stars, and also travels to Shea and Yankee Stadiums to cut Mets and Yankee players’ hair.

Before we divulge whose hair he cuts, we have to step aside and indulge in the nostalgia of our high school fade. /Tilts [Machochip] head towards the heavens. Sigh. Proceed.

He described how various players like their trims. Pujols likes a tight “skin fade” with his goatee neatly trimmed. A-Rod likes it tight on the sides with the #1 electric shears to trim the top. Yogi Berra has only a little hair left, so just a trim around the back rim, please.

Pedro Martinez, whose recognizable loose curly locks are immediately recognizable to any baseball fan, is very protective of his hair.

“He is like Sampson – he says, ‘My hair is where I get my strength,” Mr. Lopez said. “He only lets me clip a little bit to keep it neat.”

We have no doubt that Mr. Lopez’s adeptness to cutting hair is clear, but did this reporter just identify the culprit responsible for Pedro Martinez’s injury?

Barber to the baseball stars [NYTimes]