Fear the beard?
There aren't many institutions more revered in sports than the New York Yankees. They are synonymous with baseball in so many ways. From their iconic pinstripes to the decision to forgo names on the back of their jerseys, every element of the Bronx Bombers is carefully manicured to create a sort of unusual mystique around the franchise.
With 27 championship flags strung up along the poles that line New York's famous amphitheater, it's hard to argue that the meticulous meddling of New York ownership hasn't proved effective. For better or worse, the Yankeesarebaseball for many of the sport's most fervent fans. That's got to count for something, surely?
Here's the thing, though. The Yankees' commitment to The Brand™ reads clear on the faces of their players. Literally.
Take a gander at New York's rosters, past and present. More often than not, you'll be greeted with clean-shaven chins, jawlines bereft of even the slightest patch of scraggly facial hair.
MORE:How many World Series have the Yankees won?
It was part of an appearance policy enacted by longtime owner George Steinbrenner in 1976, one that required players to maintain a "neat" and "professional" look. That means no gangly beards nor any luscious locks of hair draping down to the shoulders.
It may be an outdated policy, but it has remained in place, in de facto terms, for nearly 50 years.
So, which players have opted to keep a scruffy bit of facial hair on the 2022 Yankees roster? The Sporting News takes a look:
Who has a mustache on the Yankees?
A glimpse at New York's ALCS roster reveals a distinct lack of players sporting facial hair. But there are a few exceptions. Nestor Cortes has rocked a pretty fly 'stache for the 2022 season and it has seemed to pay off; Cortes has gone from home run fodder to ace starter in the past two years, earning his first All-Star appearance with the Bombers in 2022.
Reliever Greg Weissert also has a delicate patch of hair resting between his upper lip and nose, although he hasn't quite reached the heights of Cortes in his short Yankees career.
Star slugger Giancarlo Stanton has a cheeky soul patch. It's not quite the '70s-esque mustache he was rocking in years prior with the Bombers. But it still gets the job done. And given his prodigious power — Stanton has averaged 40 homers per 162 game season in pinstripes — manager Aaron Boone probably doesn't mind too much.
MORE:Bob Costas denies accusations of anti-Yankees bias during ALDS broadcasts
Getty Images
MORE:Aaron Judge vs. Jose Altuve height: How iconic photo created a viral meme for MLB's tallest, shortest players
Then, there's Matt Carpenter. Carp came on in a big way during the 2022 season, his first out of Cardinals red. Fifteen of his 39 regular-season hits were home runs, helping Carpenter put up an incredible.727 slugging percentage.
The 36-year old made his mark in mustachioed style, as well, donning a furry set of whiskers during his surprisingly productive 2022.
Getty Images
Why does Matt Carpenter have a mustache?
Carpenter went full Don Mattingly over the offseason, trading his Paul Bunyan-esque chin strap for a well-shaved layer of bristles in 2022. The reason why? Well, that's just the Yankees Way™.
In the famous words of ace righty Gerrit Cole:
That's the way it is. If you're a Yankee, you shave. That's what's up.
Carpenter trimmed his scruffy face fur, leaving a bushy caterpillar above his lip that evokes memories of Yanks legends of yesteryear.
"This is my first mustache ever," Carpenter told the New York Post's Steve Serby back in June. "From a beard standpoint, I’ve had facial hair pretty much ever since college. I’ve got a 6-year-old daughter who’s never seen me clean-shaven until like a couple of weeks ago."
His new look seemed to be at least somewhat inspired by that of Mattingly, who flaunted a similarly woolly mane of lip hair during his time in the Bronx:
I have it on good authority at Matt Carpenter cloned Don Mattingly’s mustache in a Petri dish. pic.twitter.com/49rC8SkQxr
— 🦋🍂🎃💀🖤👻🍂🏳️🌈Jess 🐻💙❤️ 161 #GoCubsGo (@CubsfanJess) June 12, 2022
Nonetheless, Carp's facial hair has been all the rage this season. That's not just among Yankees fans, either.
[My wife's] a fan of it. … Even outside of Yankee fans, like family and friends back home, it’s been received pretty well.
Can Yankees players have facial hair?
Contrary to popular belief, the Bronx crew can grow out facial hair. They can't, however, rock beards. Steinbrenner made players shave any excess whiskers, giving Yankees a simple choice: either sport a cleanly shaved mustache, or no facial hair at all.
MORE:When is the World Series in 2022?
Yankees mustache rule
The Yankees mustache rule falls in line with the organization's policy on long hair. Players can't wear their hair beyond their collars and can't rock garish beards.
That helps explain why newly acquired reliever Miguel Castro came into spring training looking like an entirely different person:
how it started how it’s going pic.twitter.com/uVL2OhbI5A
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) April 4, 2022
The things we do for love...or the bag...or both.
Other Yankees with facial hair
As mentioned earlier, Carpenter is far from the first New Yorker to rock a solid bit of facial hair. Yankees legends Reggie Jackson and Thurman Munson won titles with bushy caterpillars resting below their nose.
Donnie Baseball nabbed an MVP in the pinstripes. Yet his mustache was perhaps the most popular part of his image.
Hall of Famer Wade Boggs spent part of the latter half of his career in pinstripes. And he did so with a mustachioed smile, manning the hot corner en route to four straight All-Star appearances in the mid-1990s.
And not only did talented hurler David Wells toss a perfect game while hungover with the Yanks back in 1998. Boomer also did so while sporting a scruffy 'stache. Because of course he did.
So it's clear Carpenter is standing on the shoulders of Yankees figures past and present when he opts to rock the mustache. The look is a long-running tradition in the House that Ruth Built. And with the likes of Carpenter, Cortes and company putting up big performances while donning jungly patches, it's clear that it is a tradition that won't be dying out any time soon.
