“YOU CAN KEEP THOSE SIDEBURNS!”
One of the most antiquated policies in sports is dead. On Friday the New York Yankees announced that they were rescinding their 49-year-old policy of banning facial hair for players and team employees, now allowing “well-groomed beards.”
The Yankees’ “appearance policy” first started when George Steinbrenner took over the team in 1973, and made an official team rule in 1976. While facial hair was baked into the history of baseball, by the 1960s and 1970s it had largely fallen out of favor in tight-laced circles. At the time facial hair was seen as indicative of counter-culture, rock and roll, and hippy movements. Steinbrenner adopted his version of the policy from the Cincinnati Reds, who had banned all facial hair for players in 1967 — though it was the Yankees’ policy that became maligned over the years due to their prominence in baseball.
Cincinnati dropped its facial hair policy in 1999, with the Yankees being the last bastion of “decency” in baseball. It quickly became indicative of managerial overreach, with players sacrificing their personality to embrace “The Yankee Way.” One of the most notable recent examples was when Johnny Damon left the Red Sox in 2006 to join the Yankees, losing his signature long hair and five o’clock shadow to become the ultimate sellout company man.
The policy had been the source of ridicule over the years, especially as player agency arose in sports. The grooming standards the Yankees upheld became a point of ridicule, routinely being mocked in media — including most notably The Simpsons in the seminal episode “Homer at Bat,” written in 1992. In it Mr. Burns plays the Steinbrenner role, yelling at Don Mattingly to “GET RID OF THOSE SIDEBURNS!” poking fun at a real-life incident from 1991 when Mattingly was pulled out of the lineup for refusing to cut his hair.
Now the policy is dead, and we wait to see who the first Yankees will be to grow out their beards and celebrate their individuality.
