Ex-MLB closer Brian Wilson re-emerges, beardless and on a British car show
Back when Brian Wilson was The Man, we used to “Fear the Beard.” Well, the beard is gone these days and he’s got the need for speed instead.
Wilson, the ex-Giants and Dodgers closer, hasn’t pitched in MLB since 2014, back when the beard was at its most bushy. He tried, not too long ago, to make a comeback as a knuckleballer, but it looks like he found a better way to find his thrills.
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Wilson was a contenstant on “The Grand Tour,” a British car show on Amazon Prime that’s a spin-off of another popular car show, “Top Gear.” You can see Wilson in this trailer, both beardless and behind the wheel:
Wilson is in the second episode of “The Grand Tour’s” second season, which is streaming now. Along the way, he shares this story about his need for speed — which goes all the way back to when he was a 16-year-old who had just gotten his driver’s license. This, he said, happened on the second day:
“It was 1 a.m., (and) apparently we had a curfew. I was supposed to be in bed by a certain time as a 16 year old. I’m thinking, ‘No I don’t.’ So I rolled a stop sign and I see the blue lights and I think, ‘I’m in a ’94 Thunderbird. This is a V8 engine.’ So I speed. Now I’m getting in a police chase. Now the adrenaline’s going. I’m driving around my neighborhood and I accidentally hit an electrical box, power goes out and I feel really bad, but I left this guy in the dust. I got all the way to my driveway but because I turned the keys off — the car was automatic lights — so the cop just followed the lights and arrested me in my front yard, the driveway.”
Turns out the pitcher’s mound wasn’t the only place Wilson clocked those MPH.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
