Mike Clevinger did not hold back after a Twitter user criticized his long hair

Staff writer

Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 12:00 p.m.

Mike Clevinger, starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, has a head full of flowing, dark blond locks. He has some of the best hair in the majors, and he doesn’t just love it, he’ll defend it. Hard.

Case in point: on Monday, Clevinger responded to a guy on Twitter who criticized his hair and smacked him down through several layers of the Earth’s crust.

Mike Clevinger didn’t take too kindly to a guy calling him out for having hair longer than his daughter’s.

Well OK then! Mike Clevinger really loves his hair! He loves it with such intensity that he implied that people who want to stifle his brand of self-expression are Nazis. To be fair, Nazis in that time period didn’t like long hair, but that’s quite the extreme to go to after someone on Twitter criticizes your hair. Clevinger deleted the tweet about a half hour after he posted it.

Clevinger found his way out of the weeds after that part of the tweet, though. “Sorry I don’t look like what you think a dad should look like” is the best response he could have given to someone knocking him for being a dad with long hair.

How did that even start? Why did a random Cleveland sports fan decide to criticize Clevinger’s choice of hairstyle? It began with a video that SportsTime Ohio tweeted on Sunday afternoon.

.@Mike_Anthony13 had another great outing but his daughter didn't seem to care 🍭 pic.twitter.com/7rqxiIf8bT
— SportsTime Ohio (@SportsTimeOhio) August 19, 2018

Clevinger, fresh from another fantastic outing, had the locks flowing as he talked to the press about his start, and was holding his baby daughter while he answered questions. It was adorable because she was going to town on a lollipop and was just happy to be with her dad. But someone really didn’t like the visual of the long-haired dad holding his shorter-haired daughter.

Maybe I'm old school, but dad having longer hair than his daughter is not a good look! Get a haircut Clev!
— Thomas Zeliznak (@TZeliznak) August 20, 2018

Clevinger wasn’t the only one struck by the dumbness of that tweet. There were more than a few good responses to “get a haircut” guy.

Jesus had long hair, Tommy.
— WillT (@GladVuerreroJR) August 20, 2018

Yea because his hair totally defines him as a father!!! What the hell Clev!!
— J Gibbs (@Jgibbons86) August 20, 2018

Hey man ….thats Sunshine….thats who he is….Would ya tell Evil Knievel to shave his sideburns too…..
— Double D (@dsquare77) August 20, 2018

Clevinger has a 3.25 ERA over 25 starts and 157.2 innings this season. He’s been a vital part of Cleveland’s success. What does his hair have to do with any of that? Nothing. And it also has nothing to do with him being a dad.

Thankfully, most fans seem to understand that, even if one guy doesn’t.

Mike Clevinger didn’t take kindly to someone calling out his long hair on Twitter. (Getty Images)

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter at @lizroscher.