Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dom ínguez and Paul Goldschmidt of the New York Yankees talk throughout springtime training at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, onFeb 19, 2025.
New York Yankees|Getty Images
Start spreading out the information: For the very first time in virtually half a century, the New York Yankees are permitting gamers to expand beards.
In a statement Friday, Yankees proprietor Hal Steinbrenner stated he talked with previous and present gamers concerning the long-lasting plan stopping most face hair and has actually chosen the group will certainly currently allow “well-groomed beards.”
“These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years,” Steinbrenner composed. “It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.”
The information comes days after bottle Devin Williams, whom the Yankees gotten from the Milwaukee Brewers throughout the offseason, showed off some prohibited face hair in a main groupphoto Williams formerly preserved a beard throughout his time with the Brewers.
The Yankees’ face hair policy was very first applied by George Steinbrenner, the previous Yankees proprietor and dad of Hal Steinbrenner, in the 1970s. The plan outlawed any type of face hair apart from mustaches, with exemptions for spiritual factors, and scalp hair listed below the collar for gamers, trainers and male execs.
George Steinbrenner, that passed away in 2010, warranted the guideline as a method of instilling self-control in the group, apparently informing The New York Times in 1978 that he intended to “to develop pride in the players as Yankees.”
Since after that, all gamers have actually followed the plan, though not without some resistance. Famously, Yankees captain Don Mattingly was benched in 1991 for rejecting to obtain a hairstyle, a case buffooned on a 1992 episode of “The Simpsons.” Former Yankee Andrew McCutchen said in 2020 that it would certainly have been hard for him to sign up with the group when he still had dreadlocks, which he put on throughout the very early years of his occupation with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and gotten in touch with the franchise business to transform the guideline.
The custom has actually likewise transformed some possible Yankees away. General supervisor Brian Cashman stated in 2013 that he eliminated trading for alleviation bottle Brian Wilson since Wilson declined to cut his beard. Pitcher David Price said in 2013 that he did not wish to bet the Yankees because of the plan.
Many previous and existing gamers removed their beards when they signed up with the Yankees from an additional group, consisting of Gerrit Cole, Johnny Damon and present offseason procurements Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger.
