Yankees Part With Tradition: Beards Are Now Allowed

Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams had to shave. So did Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.

But now Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and the rest of the current Yankee roster can grow “well-groomed beards” if they so choose, after the club announced a change to its longstanding grooming policy.

“After great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniformed personnel to have well-groomed beards moving forward,” the team’s managing general partner, Hal Steinbrenner, said in a statement on Friday. “It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.”

Since the 1970s, the Yankees have barred their players from having beards or long hair. The policy was started by then-owner George Steinbrenner, Hal Steinbrenner’s father, who believed that neater appearance would increase professionalism and discipline among his players.

While some other teams in major North American sports have policies regarding dress or appearance, the Yankees’ beard policy was among the strictest, and certainly the most famous.

Hal Steinbrenner said he had consulted with “a large number of former and current Yankees, spanning several eras” before changing the policy.

The policy has occasionally rankled members of the team. In one of the most remembered incidents, Don Mattingly, the team’s best player and captain in 1991, was pulled from the lineup because he declined to cut his hair.

“I’m overwhelmed by the pettiness of it,” Mattingly told reporters then. He relented soon afterward.

“You’d be surprised how much more attractive the Yankees would be if they got rid of that facial hair rule,” Cameron Maybin, a former Yankee, said in 2023.