MESA, Ariz. – The news is great, and the Chicago Cubs quickly spread across the clubhouse on Friday morning, so they struggled to figure out how they felt about it.
For the first time in almost 50 years, the New York Yankees announced they will allow players to advance “well-kept whiskers.”
“I don’t know how I’ll feel about it,” Cubs veteran Shortstop Danceby Swanson told USA Today Sports, who had a whisker for the past eight or nine years. “Dan.”
“I mean, it was the Yankees. That’s what they were, they were clean shaved. It was pretty cool.”
Baseball Ron Coomer, former Cubs broadcaster and former All-Star who played for the Yankees in 2002, had no complicated feelings. He hates the Yankees removing policies that have been in effect since 1976.
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“I think that’s awful,” Coomer said.
“When we went there and played, three of us, Robin Ventura, Jason Gianbi and I were all signed in the same year, and we knew. “(Former manager) ) When Joe Torre called us, “You know you have to shave, right?” I said, “We know. We’ll be clean as whis .”
It was part of Yankees lore. There is no name on the back of the uniform. There is no beard. There is no hair past the uniform collar.
“I fully respect the reason they did that,” said Jed Heuer, Cubs president of the baseball business. “But it has always been an attractive element of their culture, and it feels like a bigger change than it actually is.
“When I saw people with beards go there and clean shave, it was tradition.”
Hal Steinbrenner, son of George, the Yankees managing partner, said Friday that he had been considering the change for years. Ironically, it happened a few days after Devin Williams arrived.
“Good for Devin Wiliams!” Cubs manager Craig Counsel said of his previous closer.
And when the Cubs joked, it seemed like no one would shave worse than outfielder Alex Verdugo last year, saying he couldn’t recognize him.
“I played with Brian Wilson,” infielder Justin Turner said of his former Dodger teammate.
“He says, “When I’m done playing, I’m going to shave my beard, and no one’s going to know who I am, and I’ll leave it alone.”
“I said, ‘Hey, that’s a good point. I like it.”
Turner, whose red beard is trimmed, says he still doesn’t know if his beard will pass the Yankee standard. He called for the beard policy, but wondered whether he would refuse a free overture from the Yankees if he hadn’t had the opportunity. Certainly, the Yankees had to lose some bearded free agents.
“I think it’s time,” said Turner, drafted by the New York Yankees in 2005, but instead went to Fullerton California State. I’m an expert, but it’s 2025. You should be able to express yourself a little. ”
Turner has been growing a beard since 2011 and shaved it only once. It was for Halloween costumes, he said. He was “Chucky, not a manga, not a murderer.”
“Why did they make them change their minds,” Turner said. Was it Alex Verdugo?
“I said, ‘What’s the short, well-maintained whisker? Do you count mine?” I was on the side of my whiskers, as guys do with their hair. Maybe they had to put the bolts on. I’ll be like PCA (Cubs outfielder Pete Crow Armstone) and have the blue star put into my beard.”
Cubs players believe the e-order, which forced Williams to shave his beard, played a role in policy changes, especially as he was traded to New York and didn’t sign as a free agent.
“I just saw a picture of Devin Williams with a slightly mustache,” said Cubs veteran savior Ryan Bradger. “And I didn’t even know who it was. Last year Verdugo called him.
Bra, who came up with the Los Angeles Angels and was banned from growing beards until they reached the major leagues, has been growing beards since 2013. He hasn’t been clean shaved since then and says he can’t recognize either from his photos or from Minor League Day.
“I think I smoked it for them, but it’s the Yankees,” Braja said.
And if you declared you didn’t want to shave, you weren’t going to sign with the Yankees.
“If you have two options, I wouldn’t say I’d go somewhere above the Yankees for facial hair,” Braja said. , “The team is pretty even, but I don’t go because I don’t feel like shaving.” Still, it’s the Yankees.
“But I know there were people who didn’t go there because they didn’t want to shave.”
Steinbrenner said at a press conference in Tampa that it is legitimate concern that players may have snubled the Yankees in free agency because players banned beards and did not allow hair past the collar of their uniforms. I admitted there was.
Still, it is the Yankees, the 27-time World Series champion Yankees, baseball’s most iconic brand.
“It was kind of cool and unique that the Yankees made it different,” said Cubs bailer Julian Maryweather. “There’s no name on the back of the jersey. Shaved.
“It’s fine not to see (former teammate) Mark Lighter Cleanshave. That’s probably the best thing to do. It’s cool to see what everyone looks like this year.”
But for other veterans it marks the end of an outdated, yet glorious era.
“I grew up in a military family that constantly reminds me of my dad (Kurt) shaving every day in high school,” said Matthew Boyd, a veteran Cubs starter. It’s just too normal for me that someone would want it.
“I remember growing up watching everything about the Yankee team. You have no tight hair, no whiskers. It was synonymous with the Yankees growing up. Its clean look.
“But I think it’s going to change the times, right?
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