New York Yankees appearance policy

Since 1973, the New York Yankees have had an appearance policy regulating how their players must be presented. It states that players must have their hair cut above the collar of their baseball jersey and no beards are permitted. The policy has raised some controversy and there have been calls for its abolition.

History

The policy was brought in in 1973 by George Steinbrenner, reportedly after seeing several players' hair covering their numbers during performance of the "Star Spangled Banner" and noting down their numbers (as he did not know their names) to instruct them to cut their hair. As a result, he introduced an appearance policy for the Yankees.^[1] The official policy states "All players, coaches and male executives are forbidden to display any facial hair other than mustaches (except for religious reasons), and scalp hair may not be grown below the collar. Long sideburns and 'mutton chops' are not specifically banned."^[2] This was because Steinbrenner wanted the Yankees to adopt a corporate attitude.^[3]

The policy raised some objections from the team. Don Mattingly openly defied the Yankees' management's requests for him to cut his hair. In response they removed him from the starting lineup and fined him repeatedly until he promised to trim it.^[4] An incident that had mirrored a story in The Simpsons episode "Homer at the Bat" where Mattingly was a guest star and was benched in the episode for having long sideburns (that only Mr. Burns, the team manager, could see) was written months before the Yankees incident.^[5] Lou Piniella challenged the rule during spring training in Fort Lauderdale, citing that Jesus had long hair. Steinbrenner responded to this request for exemption by pointing at the nearby swimming pool and saying "If you can walk on water, you can wear your hair any way you want."^[6]

The policy has become a prominent symbol of the New York Yankees.^[7] An example of the symbolic clean-shaven look came when Johnny Damon cut his "caveman" hair and beard when joining the Yankees from the Boston Red Sox with Steinbrenner commenting "he looks like a Yankee, sounds like a Yankee, he is a Yankee".^[7] This policy has led to media speculation that when a player cuts his hair, he is going to sign with the Yankees. One example of this was San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum.^[8] Some players, such as David Price, have openly stated that they would never join the Yankees as long as the policy was in place.^[3]

Calls for abolition

There have been several calls for the New York Yankees to drop the policy. The New York Yankees players themselves skirted around the policy in 2015 by adopting the practice of growing moustaches in line with the wording of the policy.^[9] Manager Joe Girardi stated that he would join the players if they won 10 in a row.^[10] This was despite Girardi stating that he would continue Steinbrenner's policy after Steinbrenner had died.^[3]

Other clubs

Other baseball clubs also had an appearance policy. Until 1971, there were no MLB players that had facial hair due to fashion dictates at the time.^[11] The Cincinnati Reds had a policy against beards as an unwritten rule until 1999.^[12] In 2016 when Mattingly became the field manager of the Miami Marlins, he introduced a complete ban on any facial hair on any players.^[13]

See also

• Rangers F.C. signing policy
• Athletic Bilbao signing policy

References

New York Yankees
Formerly the New York Highlanders – Based in The Bronx, New York City, New York
Franchise	History Seasons Records No-hitters Awards Players Managers Coaches Owners and executives Broadcasters Opening Day starting pitchers Team captains Members of the Hall of Fame First-round picks YES Network
Ballparks	Hilltop Park Polo Grounds Yankee Stadium (opened 1923) (Events) Shea Stadium Yankee Stadium (opened 2009) Spring training: Whittington Park West End Park Barrs Field Bader Field Al Lang Stadium Fort Lauderdale Stadium George M. Steinbrenner Field
Lore	Curse of the Bambino Johnny Sylvester Murderers' Row Babe Ruth's called shot Ed Lucas Don Larsen's perfect game M&M Boys Harmonica Incident 1978 AL East tie-breaker game Pine Tar Incident Jeffrey Maier The Yankee Years The Core Four David Wells' perfect game David Cone's perfect game
Culture	Monument Park New York Yankees Museum New York Yankees appearance policy Old-Timers' Day Bleacher Creatures Yankees Universe Eddie Layton Jim Hall Logos, uniforms and dress code "Holy Cow!" Robert Merrill John Sterling Ronan Tynan "Here Come the Yankees" "New York, New York" "God Bless America" The Pride of the Yankees The Babe Ruth Story Damn Yankees musical film The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant Safe at Home! 61* The Bronx is Burning Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning The Bronx Is Burning The Bronx Zoo The Scout Bronx Bombers The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty Everyone's Hero Gene Monahan Dandy Freddy Sez George Costanza Paul Olden Yankee Stadium Legacy Yankees HOPE Week
Rivalries	Boston Red Sox New York Mets Los Angeles Dodgers San Francisco Giants Subway Series
Monument Park honorees	Mel Allen Ed Barrow Yogi Berra Bill Dickey Joe DiMaggio Whitey Ford Lou Gehrig Lefty Gomez Goose Gossage Ron Guidry Elston Howard Miller Huggins Reggie Jackson Mickey Mantle Roger Maris Billy Martin Tino Martinez Don Mattingly Joe McCarthy Thurman Munson Paul O'Neill Andy Pettitte Jorge Posada Willie Randolph Allie Reynolds Phil Rizzuto Red Ruffing Jacob Ruppert Babe Ruth Bob Sheppard George Steinbrenner Casey Stengel Mel Stottlemyre Joe Torre Bernie Williams
Key personnel	Owners: Yankee Global Enterprises Hal Steinbrenner Hank Steinbrenner General Manager: Brian Cashman Manager: Joe Girardi
Championships (27)	1923 1927 1928 1932 1936 1937 1938 1939 1941 1943 1947 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1956 1958 1961 1962 1977 1978 1996 1998 1999 2000 2009
American League Pennants (40)	1921 1922 1923 1926 1927 1928 1932 1936 1937 1938 1939 1941 1942 1943 1947 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1955 1956 1957 1958 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1976 1977 1978 1981 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2003 2009
Division titles (18)	1976 1977 1978 1980 1981 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2009 2011 2012
Wild Card titles (5)	1995 1997 2007 2010 2015
Minors	AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders AA Trenton Thunder A Adv. Tampa Yankees A Charleston RiverDogs Short A Staten Island Yankees Rookie Adv. Pulaski Yankees Rookie GCL Yankees West GCL Yankees East DSL Yankees1 DSL Yankees2
Seasons (115) 1900s 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Book:New York Yankees