This past weekend, pitching great Pedro Martinez was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He looked much rounder than he did in his playing days, but after cracking a few unrehearsed jokes, it was clear that Pedro was still as Pedro as ever. Being a Red Sox fan, Martinez easily ranks among my favorite players ever. I watched him strike out 17 Yankees in 1999. I witnessed first hand as he threw Yankees coach Don Zimmer to the ground, from the right field stands at Fenway Park during the 2003 ALCS. I had his back when in 2004, he infamously called the New York Yankees his "Daddy," and dealt with the resulting "Who's your daddy?" chants for the rest of the season. (For what it's worth, the Sox went onto win the World Series that year anyway.) But even I can't deny the fact that the coolest Pedro Martinez was LA Dodgers/Montreal Expos Pedro, or, more accurately put, mullet Pedro.

Mullet Pedro wasn't a champion, but his swagger was world class. For a rookie to burst onto the scene, especially one not from America, and sport a mullet, took the kind of cajones only Pedro had. It probably contributed early on to his reputation as a hot head, and could have had something to do with why manager Tommy Lasorda didn't think he would be a star. (He claimed it was Pedro's small frame, but something tells me it was classic mullet intimidation.) For batters, the mullet was likely terrifying. Think about not only coping with a 97 mile-an-hour fastball and a devastating change-up, but a black curly wall of hair flapping in the wind. That's enough to make any man's knees buckle, bat-in-hand or not.

MLB Photos via Getty Images

His mulleted numbers are as follows: 21 wins, 10 losses, and a 3.01 ERA. No, they're not the best of his career. But a rookie putting up these stats is enough to make one wonder if in the same way Michael Jordan's shoes helped him jump high, Pedro's mullet helped him throw hard.

By the time the '95 season rolled around, the mullet was just a memory. Maybe it had something to do with losing brother in mulletdome Larry Walker in the wake of the 1994 player's strike. Or maybe he just got tired of it. And when we think back on Martinez today, we really don't think of his hair at all. Yet, call me superstitious, but there's one thing no one can deny: During that magical year in 2004 when the Red Sox won the World Series, Pedro's hair was the longest it had been in ten years. Coincidence? Or evidence of a higher power? Perhaps not even Pedro knows for certain.

MLB Photos via Getty ImagesJake Woolf is a writer who has covered men’s style for over ten years and has contributed to GQ since 2014. A graduate of Parsons The New School for Design (good school, long name), he also has bylines at Robb Report, HighSnobiety, Pitchfork, and the defunct #menswear website Four Pins... Read moreWriterXRelated Stories for GQGQ SportsHairCelebrities