THE SIDELINES : Trainer Finds Victory Hair-Razing

Yankees trainer Gene Monahan, completing a promise he made just after the All-Star break, shaved his head Monday after the team’s season-high fifth straight victory.

“Sometimes you have to sacrifice vanity for intensity,” he said.

After the Yankees beat the California Angels 2-1, Monahan sat in the trainer’s room while five players attacked his mop of thick black hair. Jesse Barfield started with a pair of scissors, doing “most of the damage,” he said. Mel Hall finished with a razor.

“He cooperated fully,” Barfield said. “He really showed me something.”

Monahan, a Yankees trainer for 17 years, made his promise during the New York-Kansas City series in mid-July. At the time, the Yankees had won as many as four straight only once--in April.