thelesterlee
After decades of tyranny against male expression and individuality to manufacture some antiquated depiction of “class” and “professionalism”, the New York Yankees have finally ended their fascist policy against beards, allowing their players to now grow facial hair.
High-ranking Yankees officials, including owner Hal Steinbrenner, spoke with a number of players and former players over the past week as they considered changing their facial-hair policy, sources said, and this was a subject that consistently came up in those conversations. https://t.co/rVj6A1yzmR
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 21, 2025
Here’s Hal Steinbrenner’s official statement:
“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. 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.”
I never thought I’d see the day the Yankees stopped pretending to be superior to the other 29 organizations in the league and just let guys grow beards.
The Yankees haven’t won a World Series since 2009 and after getting dunked on by the Dodgers in last season’s World Series, it’s evident the Bronx Bombers are not at their level.
No sense pretending to be high and mighty when Japan has become an assembly line, creating superstars in a lab to be signed by the Dodgers at discounted prices.
Perhaps allowing guys to have facial hair will help add star American players who don’t want to shave every day because who the fuck wants to shave every day?
But my first thought upon hearing this new facial hair policy was Alex Rodriguez—a man who was traded to the New York Yankees in 2004 for Alfonso Soriano—and somehow, spent the next 12 years of his career breaking the team’s no-beard policy right in everyone’s face.
Let me show you guys photos of some of my favorite Alex Rodriguez beards:
A true trendsetter and trailblazer.
Rules don’t apply to the guy with 696 career home runs.
A-Rod was showing up with brand new beards every week and the Steinbrenner family just let him. We will never see another legend like Alex, breaking all of the rules and having more beards than James Harden.
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