Stubble Jeopardy

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A clean-shaven Cody Bellinger on Yankee picture day on Tuesday, three days before the club announced its players may now grow beards.

Hi friends-

Some housekeeping before we dive in:

• Our book club selection for February/March is Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball by John Helyar. Our book club discussion will take place over zoom the first week of April, exact date and time will be announced soon.

• We sold through the block of 40 tickets I bought for Dodgers vs. Red Sox at Fenway on July 26th. We are also looking at going to lunch earlier that day, and then possibly doing a guided tour of Fenway before the game if there’s enough interest. If you would like to join us for any of these outings, please email me at molly.knight@gmail.com and I can give you our seating section or put you on the waitlist in case someone drops out. You can also buy your own tickets and join us for lunch and the stadium tour, or one or the other. Whatever works! Last year we had a blast in Queens at the Mets game. Lifelong friends were made. People go to ballgames and other events together now. It’s such a great group of all ages and I hope you’ll join us. <3

Earlier today, the Yankees shocked the baseball world by finally giving up one of the dumbest team policies in the history of professional American sports. Yes, I am talking about beards. The Bronx Bombers have not been allowed to grow chin or cheek hair since 1973 when George Steinbrenner purchased the team, then looked down at his players standing shoulder-to-shoulder along the first base line on opening day and panicked because he couldn’t recognize their faces to better yell at them later. “Instead, he focused upon their hair -- unkempt mustaches, mutton chops and shaggy locks,” Bryan Hoch wrote on MLB.com today.

“He scowled, scribbling uniform numbers on a scrap of paper urgently dispatched to manager Ralph Houk. Tell these men to get a haircut, Steinbrenner commanded. “Sparky Lyle, Thurman Munson, Bobby Murcer, Fritz Peterson and Roy White all made Steinbrenner’s list that day. Though waves of rebellion occurred over the years (Munson’s 1976 Topps baseball card shows the catcher sporting a full beard, and Goose Gossage’s distinctive mustache stemmed from an order to shave), the appearance policy was largely abided.”

Steinbrenner’s grooming policy feud with franchise icon Don Mattingly grew so stupid and so notorious that The Simpsons even did a famous sketch about it—with Mattingly voicing his own character—after the Yankees benched him in 1991 for failing to cut his mullet.

When I opined that Mattingly is now entitled to compensation over the Yankees’ follicular about-face on Bluesky, another user was quick to point out that at least Mattingly still looked handsome with cropped hair and a gorgeous mustache.

It’s true. I’m thinking of all the recent-ish players who went to New York and shaved their beards and looked, uh, weird. Alex Verdugo, Gerrit Cole, CC Sabathia, and Jason Giambi come to mind. (Johnny Damon looked better, sorry).

But more to the point, I always found it a little uncomfortable that a team like the Yankees dictated how a grown man could grow his facial hair. I don’t know what it’s like to have facial hair, but I love wearing my hair long. I feel I look my best with long hair, and wearing it wild and curly also makes me feel young and confident and free. If a potential employer told me I had to cut it shoulder-length if I wanted to join their company I probably wouldn’t do it, not only because I prefer it long, but because how I wear my hair isn’t any of my employer’s business.

I am thinking right now of NFL quarterback Sam Darnold who has a little birthmark on his face and has grown a soft beard to cover it up. None of us notice the birthmark, but maybe it’s bothered him his whole life and the beard makes him feel like his best self? I don’t know. All I’m saying is men’s rights! Let them have beards if they want!

One of the main reasons Prince Harry and Prince William fell out—and I kid you not—is because Queen Elizabeth II did not let William wear a beard during his royal wedding, but allowed Harry to keep his when he tied the knot. It’s true!

Men are emotional about facial hair, and I get it!

Anyway, the Yankees seemed to finally grasp that this archaic policy was hurting the team more than helping. Manager Aaron Boone even said today that the Yankees invited a non-roster player to spring training this year whose agent told the club his client was deciding whether he was willing to shave or sign someplace else instead.

Obviously, the Yankees did not change this 47-year policy over a non-roster invitee, but something must have spooked them, because Steinbrenner’s son Hal ultimately decided that keeping the beard ban in place wasn’t worth risking losing even one potential free agent.

It’s funny to me that the Yankees three biggest off-season acquisitions all have beards from Cody Bellinger’s caveman, to Max Fried’s peach fuzz, to Devin Williams’s short boxed.

I’m actually wondering if Williams—who snuck what we’ll call the “Mookie Betts” in to team picture day as maaaybe an act of protest before shaving it off—had anything to do with the rule change.

Williams looks absolutely unrecognizable in the photo on the left—Mortal. Vulnerable, even— to the point where I wonder if he can even still throw the Airbender clean shaven.

Thank God we’ll never have to find out.

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AROUND THE LEAGUE

• Speaking of Max Fried, before we continue any further I need you all to know that his dog’s name is Apollo. Apollo Fried. And it was apparently unintentional.

• The Blue Jays and Vladimir Guerrero failed to reach a contract extension before spring training began. Guerrero had set this week as a deadline to make such a pact, and now says he will become a free agent this November.

• The Yankees, however, reached an extension with manager Aaron Boone through the 2027 season.

• ESPN will end its broadcast deal with MLB after this season.

• The Dodgers’ Bobby Miller took a line drive off the forehead in the sport’s first spring training game of the year yesterday. He is in the concussion protocol, but otherwise managed to avoid escaping catastrophic injury.

• Mookie Betts insisted that not only will he play shortstop for the Dodgers this season, but that he is busting his tail to become a great shortstop.

• The Cubs’ Cody Poteet became the answer to a trivia question yesterday when he tapped his cap after a pitch to Max Muncy to challenge the umpire ruling of “ball.” A quick video review showed the pitch was, in fact, a strike. Poteet became the first player in MLB history to successfully have a pitch call over turned using the Automated Ball-Strike System.

And finally, if you’ve ever come to one of our Saturday baseball zooms you know long-suffering White Sox fan (and all around brilliant baseball mind and author) Don Zminda, Don has a new book out called Justice Batted Last: Ernie Banks, Minnie Miñoso, and the Unheralded Players who Integrated Chicago’s Major League Teams, which has just been published by University of Illinois Press.

If you are interested in this book, as a Long Game reader you can get a 30% discount by ordering directly from the publisher www.press.uillinois.edu, and entering the discount code S25UIP.

That’s all for this week! Will be back with a piece early next week called “How Many MLB Owners Actually Want to Win a World Championship? Eight?”