The New York Yankees have abandoned their half-century prohibition of beards, a policy that was archaic even from its infancy. Now I find myself strangely, unexpectedly bereft, stroking my own beard in contemplation of what the world might lose when a Bronx Bomber goes unshaven. The Yankees, as any Yankee fan will tell you, don't have a mascot. They don't put names on the back of their jerseys. And most crucially, they haven't had a single player with a goatee, Van Dyke, or soul patch since 1976. This was the bedrock of Yankee exceptionalism. Although Joe DiMaggio famously said, 'I want to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee''the quote, printed on a sign, long greeted players as they entered the home dugout'the good Lord himself could never be a New York Yankee. God, per many enduring renderings of him, still doesn't meet the team's grooming standards. Though the white-bearded God on the Sistine ceiling would no longer have to shave to play second base in the Bronx, he would...
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