Anthony Volpe, Jasson Domínguez and Paul Goldschmidt of the New York Yankees speak during spring training in George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, on February 19, 2025.
New York Yankees | Getty images
Start spreading the news: for the first time in almost 50 years, New York Yankees are allowing players to grow beards.
In a statement on Friday, the owner of the Yankees, Hal Steinbrenner, said he spoke with the previous and current players about the long -standing policy that avoids the majority of the facial hair and He has decided that the team will now allow “well -fixed beards.”
“These most recent conversations are an extension of the internal dialogue in progress that goes back several years,” Steinbrenner wrote. “It is the appropriate time to go beyond the family comfort of our previous policy.”
The news comes days after the pitcher Devin Williams, whom the Yankees acquired from the Milwaukee brewers during the low season, wore a forbidden facial hair in an official photo of the team. Williams previously kept a beard during his time with the brewers.
The Yankees' facial hair policy was first implemented by George Steinbrenner, the former Yankees owner and father of Hal Steinbrenner, in the 1970s. The policy banned any facial hair other than the mustaches, with exceptions by Religious reasons, and scalp hair under the necklace for players, coaches and male executives.
George Steinbrenner, who died in 2010, justified the rule as a way of infusing discipline in the team, according to reports, to New York Times in 1978 who wanted to “develop pride in players like Yankees.”
Since then, all players have fulfilled politics, although not without some resistance. Famous, the Yankees captain, Don Mattingly, was banking in 1991 for refusing to obtain a haircut, a mocked incident in an episode of “The Simpsons”. The former Yankee Andrew McCutchen said in 2020 that it would have been difficult to join the team when he still had dreadlocks, that he used during the first years of his career with the Pittsburgh pirates, and asked the franchise to change the rule.
Tradition has also removed some possible Yankees. The general manager, Brian Cashman, said in 2013 that he ruled out the trade for relief launcher Brian Wilson because Wilson refused to shave his beard. Launcher David Price said in 2013 that he did not want to play for the Yankees due to politics.
Many past and current players got rid of their beards when they joined the Yankees of another team, including Gerrit Cole, Johnny Damon and current seasonal acquisitions Baja Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger.
