The New York Yankees will no longer prohibit players from having beards, managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner announced in a statement on behalf of the team on Friday (February 21).
"In recent weeks I have spoken to a large number of former and current Yankees -- spanning several eras -- to elicit their perspectives on our longstanding facial hair and grooming policy, and I appreciate their earnest and varied feedback," Steinbrenner said. "These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years. Ultimately the final decision rests with me, and after great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniformed personnel to have well-groomed beards moving forward. It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy."
The Yankees enacted a strict appearance policy prohibiting players' hair from touching their collars and only allowing mustaches but no other facial hair in 1976 when Hal's late father, George Steinbrenner, owned the team. The policy led to several player going through dramatic appearance changes after being acquired by the franchise and resulted in star first baseman Don Mattingly being taken out of the team's lineup for a day in 1991 because he refused to cut his hair, which was parodied when he and other top MLB stars appeared on the animated series The Simpsons in 1992.
The Yankees have won seven of their American sports best 27 world championships since enacting the policy.