Baseball, Beards and 50 Years of Yankees' Reporting
The New York Yankees are known for their success, tradition, deep pockets and pinstriped uniforms.
And every so often, their hair becomes a subject of conversation — or an article in The New York Times.
Last month, the Yankees announced players would be permitted to grow 'well-groomed' beards, softening a 50-year policy on appearance that prohibited beards and long hair. Baseball players like growing out their facial hair, apparently, and the team felt it was time to loosen up.
Journalists have been writing about the Yankees' grooming standards since the mid-1970s, after George Steinbrenner, the team's owner, introduced a rule: No beards or rowdy mustaches would be allowed, and hair couldn't fall below the collar.
In 1976, Murray Chass, a Times baseball writer, reported on the novelty of hair cuts during spring training, just one more point of tension in an acrimonious Yankee clubhouse. Sparky Lyle had his long hair curled, apparently to evade the rules (to no avail). Thurman Munson briefly grew a rogue beard in the summer of 1977.
Soon, the Yankees' policy was more than an amusing anachronism, but a gift that journalists could use to write about an old game that was full of stories. Think fresh-cut grass and dirt stains with a hint of after-shave.
'Anytime you're writing about sports and you can find an element that resonates culturally in a broader way, I think you go for it,' said Billy Witz, a Times reporter who covered the Yankees from 2015 to 2018.
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