Anthony Volpe, Jasson Domínguez and Paul Goldschmidt of New York Yankees speak during the spring training at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, February 19, 2025.
New York Yankees | Getty images
Start broadcasting the news: for the first time in almost 50 years, New York Yankees allow players to grow the beard.
Friday, in a statement, the owner of the Yankees, Hal Steinbrenner, said that he had spoken to the former and current players in long -standing policy preventing most decided that the team would now authorize the “well -maintained beards”.
“These most recent conversations are an extension of the current dialogue in progress which dates back several years,” wrote Steinbrenner. “This is the appropriate time to go beyond the familiar comfort of our old policy.”
The news comes a few days after the Devin Williams launcher, the Yankees acquired Milwaukee Brewers during the offseason, sported facial hair prohibited on an official team photo. Williams had previously maintained a beard during his stay with the Brewers.
The Yankees hair policy was implemented for the first time by George Steinbrenner, the former owner of the Yankees and father of Hal Steinbrenner, in the 1970s. Politics prohibited facial hair other than mustaches, Exceptions for religious reasons, and the scalp hair under the pass for players, coaches and male frames.
George Steinbrenner, who died in 2010, justified the rule as a means of integrating discipline into the team, reportedly told the New York Times in 1978 that he wanted to “develop the pride of players as Yankees”.
Since then, all the players have respected politics, but not without resistance. Famous, the Captain of the Yankees, Don Mattingly, was put in the bench in 1991 for refusing to have his hair cut, an incident made fun of an episode of “The Simpsons” in 1992. The former Yankee Andrew McCutchen said in 2020 that it would have been difficult for him to join the team when he still had dreadlocks, which he wore in the first years of his career with the pirates of Pittsburgh, and called on the franchise to change the rule.
Tradition has also taken away from potential Yankees. Director General Brian Cashman said in 2013 that he had excluded exchanges for the emergency launcher Brian Wilson because Wilson refused to shave his beard. Launcher David Price said in 2013 that he did not want to play for Yankees due to politics.
Many past and current players got rid of their beard when they joined the Yankees from another team, notably Gerrit Cole, Johnny Damon and the current acquisitions of the intersaison Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger.