The New York Yankees have a long-established policy that limits the length of their players' hair and facial hair. On Monday night in Cleveland, it was pointed out that one of their bat boys had hair that extended well beyond his shoulders, a clear violation of the team's policy, with the announcing team talking about it for a few minutes during the game.
Some changes were made for Tuesday.
On Monday, the Yankees’ bat boy was the topic of conversation because Yankees players aren’t allowed to have long hair or red colored cleats.
— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) April 11, 2023
On Tuesday, looks like he got a haircut and a navy blue pair of cleats pic.twitter.com/HonAGDsKdm
It is important to keep in mind that bat boys, bat girls, ball girls and ball boys do not travel on the road with teams. Thus, this person is almost certainly not a Yankees team employee. The road teams typically use people from the host team and city.
It is still amazing to see that change happen just 24 hours it was a topic of discussion on the broadcast.
Hopefully the hair is just tucked up under the hat for the game and not actually cut because that would be ridiculous if the Yankees made him do that. Hopefully it is all just part of the joke, and he is in on it.
It is also worth pointing out that the Yankees' hair and facial hair policy is very outdated and antiquated. The Yankees and their fans will say it looks professional and is a tradition. It was not always a tradition, and it really does not impact how players play or coaches coach — or how the bat boy does his job.
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