PHILADELPHIA — Editor's note: The above video is from Oct. 4.
Every sports star worth their salt has a signature identifier.
James Harden has his bushy beard. Jimmy Butler has his ever-changing hairstyles.
For Brandon Marsh, it's his flowing mane of hair. Coupled with his Harden-eque beard, Marsh has been compared to everything from a werewolf to a caveman for his somewhat untraditional appearance on the diamond.
Some fans shake their (considerably less encumbered) heads at Marsh's look, wishing the centerfielder would embrace the more clean-cut style that seems to pervade baseball. Other die-hard Philly fans live for Marsh's mane.
It makes sense—the player's hair makes him look almost as furry as the beloved Phillie Phanatic mascot.
Bad news for the fans who, well, aren't a fan of Marsh's not-so-luscious locks—he works hard to maintain the 'do, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
"I was never able to have it in high school and in the early years of pro ball, and I told myself when I got it, I'm going to let it ride out for a long time," Marsh declared.
"And it's washed, it's clean, the beard's clean, we're clean," Marsh goes on to insist. "It's not dirty. I had to clear that off the record."
The ballplayer says he dumps water on his hair throughout baseball games to make sure it stays wet and slicked back, just how he likes it.
"If I don’t wet it, it gets super bristly out there," he explained to Fox Sports' Jake Mintz. "I don’t like it that way. I like it wet."
Hopefully the fact that his hair isn't laden with grease and the sweaty buildup of hundreds of baseball games makes it easier for the nay-sayers to accept.
Or maybe his impressive stats are enough to keep the attention away from his hair. Marsh finished the 2023 regular season with a .372 OBP, .458 SLG and .829 OPS.
If all else fails, the young Phil can always distract baseball watchers from what's going on on top of his head with his antics in the Phillies Daycare.