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Keith Hernandez Threatens To Shave Famous Mustache For Mets' Finale

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Say it ain't so, Keith!

Mets fans may soon be subject to something so startling we refuse to believe it: a bare-lipped Keith Hernandez.

On SNY last week, the analyst and former Mets first baseman chewed on the possibility of shaving his famous mustache.

New Yorkers may have chalked it up to Hernandez's trademark quirkiness. But then came the bombshell. Hernandez told the New York Times that his lipwear could be going, going, gone for the Mets' season finale on Oct. 3.

"I don't want to draw attention to it," he told the paper. "I'll do it, and whoever's watching the game will see it."

Hernandez told the Times that he's no longer using "Just for Men," the coloring product used to combat gray in mustaches and beards. Once a commercial pitchman for the company, the 58-year-old apparently decided to go for an older, more peppered look this season -- one he's "not totally happy with."

"It's something I have to get used to," Hernandez said. "I have more people, on the female side, who tell me they prefer it gray."

Hey, there could be a silver -- pun intended -- lining. Maybe the Mets, in the midst of another lost season, would get a nice bump in viewership from fans eager to take in Hernandez's new look.

After all, we're talking about facial hair so gloried that it won Newsday's "Mustache Madness" in 2007. That same year, he took home the American Mustache Institute's top sports 'stache award as a write-in candidate. In celebration, again in '07, the Mets gave away thousands of fake lip whiskers on "Slap on a 'Stache" night.

"I'm Keith Hernandez," a 19-minute film by Rob Perri, was even released, which in part explored the Mets great's mustache "as a symbol of male virility."

So we'll say it again: Say it ain't so, Keith!

And yes, no matter how the Mets finish out September, we'll be tuned in for 'stache watch.

Yikes! Make your 'stache-saving plea to Hernandez in the comments below...

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