⚾️ Yankees Enter the 21st Century, Kinda

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What to know: Since 1976, three years into George Steinbrenner’s tenure as the owner of the New York Yankees, the organization has enforced a no-facial hair policy. Inspired by military background, Steinbrenner stuck to his guns throughout his tenure and the policy has stayed since his son, Hal, took over. Well that all changed today, but only kinda.

The Yankees announced yesterday that players and uniformed personnel will be able to have beards, but theirs a caveat, they must have “well-groomed beards”. Not very specific, but okay. Not really sure how you plan to enforce this, but I suppose a trimmed beard is better than no beard.

Players in recent years have expressed their distaste for the policy, calling it “outdated and somewhat unreasonable”. Active roster members have privately expressed their gripes on the policy as well. In 2013, San Francisco Giants All-Star closer Brian Wilson famously refused to sign with the team because he wouldn’t shave his beard.

While no player has ever refused to follow the policy while they are actively under contract with the Yankees, some players, like CC Sabathia, frequently pushed the envelope and played with a 5 o’clock shadow.

The Yanks also current have a policy that players cannot have hair that goes below their shoulders, but there’s no word on whether that’s changing or not. Hal wasn’t willing to go ALLLLL the way into the 21st century.

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