“Never fuck with a winning streak.” – Crash Davis, from the movie “Bull Durham.”

“Get on Torre. Don’t blame me.” – Manny Ramirez, explaining who’s to blame for his recent slump.

As the LA Times’ T.J. Simers explains, “The Dodgers were playing like a powerhouse after Ramirez’s arrival — until the Dodgers’ hair-challenged manager insisted on Samson cutting his dreadlocks, Ramirez complying and hitting .250 ever since, the Dodgers going 4-7 in that time.”

In addition to his reduced batting average, Ramirez has 5 RBI and 1 home run over that period.

The Dodgers just lost four in a row to the Phillies, a team they beat four times in a row prior to Manny’s haircut. They’ve fallen one game below .500. and three games behind the Diamondbacks.

Come on, Joe. Don’t you know? Never fuck with a winning streak.

George Steinbrenner has never been afraid to poke fun of himself. He hosted Saturday Night Live, appearing in a sketch where he dreamt of a Yankees team managed, coached, and entirely played by himself. Later, after a public chastising of Yankees shortstop Derrek Jeter for “partying too much,” the two appeared in a Visa commercial club-hopping. And in 2004, he appeared in another Visa commercial, where he was shown wearing a cast, unable to sign any checks, including that of manager Joe Torre.

But there are some things that Steinbrenner does not joke about. And one of those things, apparently, is his hair. Steinbrenner is offended by the way that his hair has been depicted in the ESPN series, The Bronx is Burning.

From the AP:

Oliver Platt plays Steinbrenner in the eight-part series, adapted from Jonathan Mahler’s “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning,” about the summer of 1977 and the Yankees’ quest to win the World Series.

“He doesn’t want to knock the guy’s acting; he wants to knock his clothing and hairdo,” Steinbrenner spokesman Howard Rubenstein quipped in Friday editions of Newsday.

“George’s hair is more neatly trimmed,” added Rubenstein. “He doesn’t wear a wig; people think that because he’s perfectly barbered. He doesn’t have a hair out of place.”

Glad we set the record straight on that one. Steinbrenner’s hair, for those who were wondering, is real. And it’s spectacular.

But is it a little TOO spectacular? Steinbrenner’s hair is 77 years old. Most hair starts to thin and fall out long before 77. Even men with great hair genes hit their hair peak around 55. I’m almost afraid to say it, because I don’t like to speculate about things like this. But Steinbrenner’s ability to sustain his fabulous hair well into old age almost forces us to ask — could he be on hair steroids? Or maybe hair HGH?