Yankees throw out one of baseball’s most notorious traditions: Players can now grow beards

Start spreading the news: For the first time in nearly 50 years, the New York Yankees are allowing players to grow beards.

In a statement Friday, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said he spoke to former and current players about the long-standing policy preventing most facial hair and has decided the team will now permit “well-groomed beards.”

“These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years,” Steinbrenner wrote. “It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.”

The news comes days after pitcher Devin Williams, whom the Yankees acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers during the offseason, sported some forbidden facial hair in an official team photo. Williams previously maintained 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 mustaches, with exceptions for religious reasons, and scalp hair below the collar for players, coaches and male executives.

George Steinbrenner, who died in 2010, justified the rule as a way of instilling discipline in the team, reportedly telling The New York Times in 1978 that he wanted to “to develop pride in the players as Yankees.”

Since then, all players have abided by the policy, though not without some resistance. Famously, Yankees captain Don Mattingly was benched in 1991 for refusing to get a haircut, an incident mocked on a 1992 episode of “The Simpsons.” 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 during the early years of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and called on the franchise to change the rule.

The tradition has also turned some prospective Yankees away. General manager Brian Cashman said in 2013 that he ruled out trading for relief pitcher Brian Wilson because Wilson refused to shave his beard. Pitcher David Price said in 2013 that he did not want to play for the Yankees due to the policy.

Many past and present players got rid of their beards when they joined the Yankees from another team, including Gerrit Cole, Johnny Damon and current offseason acquisitions Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger.