My Take on the Yankees’ Facial Hair Ban

My Take on the Yankees’ Facial Hair Ban

By Derek McAdam

January 3, 2024

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The New York Yankees are known for their traditional values, including the desire and willingness to put a winning team on the field every single season. The team is also known for only having two jerseys that don’t carry the last names of players on the back. Another tradition of theirs, which has drawn plenty of criticism over the years, is their policy on facial hair. While the Yankees do allow mustaches, facial hair below the upper lip is banned within the entire organization, which virtually eliminates players from sporting beards or goatees.

Plenty of players over the years have criticized the Yankees’ practice, most recently Cameron Maybin. The former Yankee said that if the team were to get rid of the policy, they would be able to attract more players to the organization. While Maybin isn’t wrong, the Yankees have still been able to lure plenty of players to the organization, even with the facial hair policy. Johnny Damon is perhaps one of the more famous Yankees that had to cut his hair and shave his beard, but he made the choice to do so when he joined the team via free agency before the 2005 season.

So why is it such a big deal that the Yankees still have this policy? For starters, they’re the only baseball team that still carries this rule, so of course they’ll stick out like a sore thumb. And, in today’s society, beards are becoming more acceptable in the corporate world, So if the corporate world can accept this trend, why can’t the Yankees? It’s certainly a fair question to ask.

But here’s the simple reality: the Yankees are not going to change this policy any time soon. I think it’s fair to say that as long as Hal Steinbrenner is running the team, he will continue to implement the policy that his father created 50 years ago when he purchased the team. And I actually don’t have a problem with this policy, but it’s more of just a personal preference for me.

Here’s one thing I will say about some of the Yankees that grow beards in the off-season, which is that some of the guys look very good with beards, particularly Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres. It’s a good look for both of them, and one reason that I am against the Yankees’ policy.

However, one critical aspect is that not everyone can grow a full beard. There are some players out there, and not just in baseball, whose beards are very choppy or patchy. A simple fix for this problem is to simply shave. Look at it this way: if someone gets a bad haircut where the hair is unevenly trimmed, they won’t just stick with that haircut. They’ll probably ask that the barber finish his job. But why? Because it simply doesn’t look good.

That’s how I feel about patchy beards, and I’m not trying to poke fun at anyone. After all, I am someone who has this problem. But instead of even having to deal with this issue, I stay clean-shaven. Having a patchy beard just doesn’t look right, and I understand why some corporations and the Yankees don’t allow beards for that particular reason. It can definitely look unprofessional.

The Yankees also can’t start a policy where they can dictate who can grow beards and who can’t. It would have to be an all-or-nothing policy, as it is now. And while players want to be able to express themselves with their facial hair, the employer has a right to deem facial hair unacceptable in the workplace. Players know this, and they don’t have to sign with the Yankees if they want to keep their beard or long hair. That’s their right. Just as an employee has a right to not work for a company that demands someone be clean-shave. There are other options out there.

It’s not as if the Yankees have been hiding this policy for years and it’s just now breaking news. Every MLB player likely knows that the Yankees have this policy, and some will gladly shave and cut their hair in order to play for the Yankees. Gerrit Cole is a good recent example, who had to do both when he joined via free agency before the 2020 season. Alex Verdugo is also another recent example. However, players being acquired in trades I look at a little differently, since they can’t always determine where they end up going.

Overall, this is not a concern that I have being a fan of the Yankees. If the Yankees were really concerned that they weren’t getting free agents, they would probably drop this policy. But it’s not affecting them in the slightest. The players aren’t protesting the policy while on the team, so it’s not something that they’re too worried about.

Will this policy be broken one day? I’m absolutely sure it will. But for now, and the foreseeable future, it seems like the Yankees will be keeping the facial hair ban in tact. So we may never see Judge on the field sporting a beard.