After reading a very disheartening article on ESPN.com and realizing that this writer's favorite baseball player has signed his soul to the Devil.

Sorry what was meant was that Randy Johnson, the Big Unit, signed with the New York Yankees, a squad equally if not more despised than any team coming from the University of Notre Dame.

With this transition from sunny Arizona to frigid New York, Randy Johnson has opened himself up for comical satire now mainly because he has a mullet.

The mullet – a great hair style popularized in the late 1970's 1980's and even into the early 1990's by music groups such as Flock of Seaguls U2, David Bowie, Allan Jackson, Tracy Lawrence, Dwight Yokam, Meatloaf, Eddie Rabbit and Billy Ray Cyrus, (who still rocks the mullet on the PAX Network.)

The Mullet however, did not only lend it's self to the music industry. It made a home in the entertainment industry as well.

Mel Gibson (pre-Passion), Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Dean Anderson (the guy that played MacGyver. ), are some of the stars that began their career with this hairstyle. Some have kept it, some finally decided to concede to reality and get it cut.

For those of you who are scratching your heads about what exactly is a mullet here is the definition.

Basically a mullet is a hairstyle where it is short in the front and long in the back. Now for it to be a true mullet, it's got to be short-short in the front and in the stages of growing longer in the back.

Some define it as being business in the front and having a party in the back. But that just boils down to a matter of linguistics and area of the nation.

While lists could be made of the top mullets in pretty much any industry from music to computer design, even millionaires

As a tribute to the Unit's bad taste in hair, this writer has composed a list of some of the top mullets in the world of sports.

No. 10-5 – (Insert Professional Wrestler Here) Professional wrestling has been known for keeping up with various trends throughout time. But probably the one that has stuck around the longest is the use of the Mullet as the hairstyle for some of the industries top draws. Everyone think back to the late 1980's and early 1990's.

Remember such great "rasslers" as the Ultimate Warrior, Ric Flair (when his hair was big) Hulk Hogan Mr. Perfect, Bret "The Hitman" Heart, Eddie Guerrero and oh, so many more.

This is just proof that a person does not have to have good hair to be successful in sports.

While some people may not be convinced, here's more proof about that.

No. 4 – Andre Agassi. This guy is probably one of the most prominent players in the history of tennis. He gained notoriety for his dominance on the clay, but also for dating Brooke Shields for a number of years. His decline came after his return from retirement. He apparently retired his brash style when he retired his mullet and returned with a shaved head.

No. 3 – Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins had probably the only uniform matching mullet in professional sports. The Czech Republic's Jagr skated into American's hearts in the early 90's as a member of the Penguins. Over the past 11 season his game has improved and he has become one of the legends in the sport. Unfortunately, his jet-black mullet has not changed with his skills. It has been neatly maintained.

No. 2 – Randy Johnson of the Seattle Mariners.

While most people will still put a 41-year-old Unit on their fantasy team, the truth is that the 6'10" ace was it his best when he was in the Pacific Northwest.

It was when he also had the mullet that came down past shoulder length. When you are nearly seven feet tall and you've got hair coming down to your shoulders, that's a lot of hair. Watching the guy pitch, while as intimidating as it was, gave a new term to the phrase "goofy-lookin'".

No. 1 – Brian Bosworth. The "Boz" as he was termed in the mid 80's was an anchor on the Oklahoma Sooner defense that won multiple national championships and advanced to the ranks of the National Football League. "Boz" also went to try his hand at acting. (Quick, name one successful Brian Bosworth movie.) Probably the most notable moment was when he got ran over on the goal line by some guy from L.A. I think his name was Bo Jackson, maybe. No, seriously.

Bo and the Boz banged heads when the Raiders traveled to Seattle. The Seahawk defense had managed a goal-line stand for two plays, but on third and goal Jackson took the handoff and exploded across the line, leaving the former Sooner, his trademark mullet and head band in his wake.

In 10 years to see some sportswriter writer another column about bad hairdo's that were cool at the time. They just happened to be attached to great moments in sports.

It's that simple.

Griffin Pritchard is the sports editor of the Greenville Advocate. He can be reached by phone at 382-3111 or via email at griffin.pritchard@greenvilleadvocate.com