Analyzing the Yankees’ Recent Shift in Traditions
By Derek McAdam
February 26, 2025
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The New York Yankees have been a team that is known for its long-standing traditions. But everything took a turn last week when owner Hal Steinbrenner announced that he was rescinding a policy that his father, George, began in 1976, which was the ban of facial hair below the upper lip. Shortly after, the Yankees announced that they would no longer play Frank Sinatra’s “Theme from New York, New York” after losses at Yankee Stadium, which has been a tradition since 1980.
These couple of changes have sparked a lot of commentary online and throughout the Yankee community. But do either of these decisions by Yankee management mean anything for the franchise going forward?
First, let’e examine the facial hair policy. This has been a subject of debate for many years not just among Yankee fans, but amongst the sports community. Many MLB players have made it clear that they do not like the Yankees’ former policy, with some even saying that they would not want to play for the team since they would have to shave. And I can definitely understand their frustration.
However, I can also see the other side of this argument. For many years, being clean shaven was a commodity in the corporate world and symbolized professionalism. This is exactly what George was going for when he created the rule nearly a half-century ago. He did not want his baseball players with long hair and messy beards, because that was a direct representation of the club’s identity, and he did not want to jeopardize that.
It is noteworthy to say that there have been several Yankees that came over from other teams that looked completely different without their beards, most recently including Gerrit Cole and Alex Verdugo. But there have been other players that have looked good with full beards, including Gleyber Torres, Austin Wells, and even Aaron Judge, who has said he will remain clean-shaven throughout the season.
Players have their right to decline to sign with the Yankees because of this rule, but the Yankees also had the right to enforce it. So I thought it was a nice medium that the team created. They would allow beards, as long as they are “well-groomed.” The “well-groomed” term is definitely subjective, but I think it is pretty obvious what Hal means: beards should not lengthy like Charlie Blackmon’s or Johnny Damon’s before he came to the Yankees.
While the new beard policy was a nice surprise, I was very stunned by the team’s changes to its decades-long tradition of its music following the conclusion of games. And while I have never attended a Yankee game at Yankee Stadium (or anywhere at all), I was familiar with this ongoing tradition.
In fairness, it is not as if the Yankees are getting rid of Sinatra’s song altogether, but just whenever the Yankees lose at home. This makes me believe that they want the song to be more of a celebratory anthem and not just a typical song that you’re guaranteed to hear when leaving the stadium. Maybe Hal’s idea is to bring a more positive connotation to the song, as it will now only be associated with winning.
The team has also announced that it will play a mixture of songs after each loss and not one specific song, which is probably the correct move going forward. If there is a song that will only be played after victories, I do not necessarily want a song that is connected to losing.
But what exactly is Hal trying to accomplish with these couple of moves? To me, it seems as if he is trying to bring a new culture to the organization. He is not entirely getting rid of either tradition, but is only tweaking a couple of key aspects. Maybe it is a sign of what he hopes the franchise can become in the near future. Specifically regarding the beard policy, maybe Hal has decided that he does not want to lose out on free agents going forward, especially as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is slated to hit the open market later on this year.
This is a team that is fresh off a World Series, its first in 15 years. Yes, they were outplayed by the Los Angeles Dodgers over the five games, but they needed some sort of starting point. Maybe the World Series appearance was a starting point and Hal is hoping that this can help turn a page to even greater successes. It does sound a bit weird, but everybody in life needs a fresh start at some point.
Maybe this is his idea for the Yankees that can give them that fresh start.
