So George doesn't like long hair and beards

George Steinbrenner that is.

According to CNN (and I'm paraphrasing from memory), "Steinbrenner doesn't allow long hair and beards, so Johnny Damon will have to cut his long hair and beard off." Damon is being traded to the NY Yankees, and to make a little extra money (as if he needs another cent), he's willing to say bye-bye to the wild look that makes him so famous...and unique.

What goofballs both these guys are - Steinbrenner for his policy and Damon for selling his soul if he agrees to bow to Steinbrenners demands of a shave & a haircut. No wonder this country has taken up such a neocon look when you've got mega-millionaire sports owners like this dictating Middle Age policies to have their teams looking like something out of a prep school boot camp. Thank goodness some of the other owners of professional sports let their players have a little freedom of expression.

Glenn Sather did the same thing when the pompous ASSHOLE was hired to run my beloved NY Rangers several years ago. The first thing he did was outlaw whiskers and long hair. The Rangers, the highest-paid team in the NHL by far under Sather (until the salary cap, haha), went on to become the laughing stock of the league for 4 years in a row, short hair and all. I think after 4+ years of utter futility he finally woke up a little.

AFAIC, policies like this contribute as much to this country's fucked-up personality as anything else. Not too many things influence young people more than their sports heroes, and when they see their favorite teams looking like a sea of mundane uniformity it's no surprise that they follow suit themselves. Diversity? What's that? It's not "in" right now I guess.

BTW, as a lifelong Yankees fan, all I can say is...if Damon finalizes the deal and agrees to shed his shaggy image in order to walk in lockstep for Steinbrenner, I hope he's a total flop, and I hope it all backfires on the team. This country doesn't need to add anything else to its image of military sameness with stupid policies like George Steinbrenner's. Gimme a little hair!

I can't wait until diversity and freedom of expression are "in" again. How about you?

and they don't pay SQUAT compared to the millions a year these guys are pulling in.

Damon didn't have to join the Yanks because he couldn't afford to put food on his family while at the Sox, so I don't have a single iota of sympathy for people who have to cut their hair in order to conform. At least they don't look like a bunch of dirtbags from the 70s

Beards interfere with respirators (at least they can sometimes) and most places like that won't allow beards as a safety issue. However, i've seen some guys with VERY long hair, ponytails, corn rows, dreads, and the like. Just can't have a beard. So, it's one from column A, but one from column B.
The Professor

Or Jesus, for chrissake!! :hippie:

What a rebel. I'm surprised a baseball field can contain the power of such an iconoclast. I'm sure that such a fellow is no doubt mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Long hair. Jeez, what will these crazy kids think of next.

Ha, ha, Yankee fools.

Those punks are lucky to get Damon, seeing how most marquee NYY players are either pompous jerks or blatant cheaters. Or both.

Except for the 6 times in the last 27 years when he did. :evilgrin:

I hope you're not saying that appearance determines or has a great deal to do with one's political leanings. I'm a lot farther to the left than most Democrats, and I have a relatively short haircut. Live and let live, don't judge a book by its cover, and lots more cliches.

I don't believe that the Yankees, or corporations for that matter, need to be involved in telling their employees how to wear their hair. At the same time, I don't want to be identified with the "neocon look".

Thanks for permitting this brief editorial.

if you really want to.

It doesn't matter whether it's long or short. When you've gotta fall in lockstep to look like everyone else, then it lends to the country having such a "neocon look". It's about conformity, uniformity, and everything else that lends toward the climate we're in now. I only used the prep school boot camp example because it's the first thing that popped into my mind to compare the look that these owners want to emulate, and as far as I know there aren't too many prep schools promoting long hair and beards. I could edit my post but I doubt many people here will take offense to it, considering they know the point I'm making. Like you, my hair right now is a little on the short side, too. Last month it was a little shabby. Next month I might let it grow again, but at least I've got the choice. Fuck Steinbrenner and any of the other sports owners who demand such triviality out of their players.

I, too, was able to discern the point you were making, while at the same time seeking clarification from you on the 'neocon' aside. And I didn't take offense--there would be no room for doubt if I had.

I couldn't agree with you more about conformity for the sake of conformity, to its own ends or to those of the corporate entity. In my adult life, I surprise people from time to time when they cannot reconcile their prejudgements about my appearance with my mostly-iconoclastic worldview and my lifestyle choices.

So thanks for the clarification--it lets me know we're pretty much talking about the same thing: I'd never judge a baseball player based on his hair, just as you wouldn't lump someone with short hair into a neocon grouping.

and no, I never would lump someone with "short hair into a neocon grouping" even though this is where people like Steinbrenner and Sather are coming from when they do this. They are both such spoiled brats, attitude wise, that they have no room for differing opinions...and looks. It's all about control, and it spills over into mainstream society too often. The "neocon look" I'm talking about is a the look of lockstep.

Giambi used to be long-haired and scruffy before leaving Oakland for the Yankees as well. Money will make most anyone do almost anything.

Damon is officially dead and gone in New Elgnad's eyes if he signs with the Yankees. It is one thing to be a former Sox player that is traded there (Clemens), but going there as a free agent is the worst. They still call Wade Boggs "Bennedict Boggs" around here.

Neither Clemens or Boggs brought a World Series title to Boston. Damon was a big part of the team that did, which mitigates things somewhat.

RIP

Steinbrenner doesn't want any more of his players to die, because mustaches, beards and long hair naturally lead to death in plane crashes. It's a scientifical fact.

And it totally sucked.

Damon? Hmmmmm.

With Disgruntlement, SH

I like how they supposedly worhsip a long hair bearded liberal but condemn those that look like him (assumption being that they're "christians").

Having a substantial amount of unique individuals is what makes a community or even a nation great. To seek to clone us all into the same regulation style haircut personality is to risk the loss of culture for stagnation in the name of profit and clean lines. Once a culture stagnates in its creative output that culture is slowly corrupted, overtaken, changed and assimilated to the point of a few holdover traditions and stereotypes of what it "used to be like".

A great amount of fear and disgust has been building in me over the last five years as I watch our country not only stagnate but reverse course culturally speaking. Just about all areas of creative expression are suffering. The level of cannibalism within the arts has never been so absurd or blatant. Our invention rate is dwindling to the point of vanilla quickly. Our school system is indeed still laughable to the rest of the developed world.... it goes on and on... and it gets sadder and sadder.

Its all about vanilla and it aint made from beans... its the synthetic emotional fulfillment topped with regurgitated cycles of yes-isms over the same old circle jerk.

and the whole anti-hippie thing one hears often from all sorts of people.
How come 'alternative' types are so conformist?

I have the rest of my life to have a naturally bald head. Why shouldn't I enjoy my hair while I still have it?

I will wear my hair
As long as I can
As long as I can
*

You gonna eat those anchovies?

that's hysterical. :rofl:

I remember what Michael Stipe did to his hair all through the 80s. I suspect he, for one, isn't bald by choice.

n/t

I'm soooo confused :crazy:

he had to waLk from JFK to the bronx. a superstar, shouLd not haLf to waLk far at aLL - especiaLLy with commoners.

bring me constanza!

First, we should all support labor making whatever money they can make. First, in big, commercially supported, entertainment entities, talent is paid very well. I always find it funny that people bitterly complain about athletes getting paid, but they have no problem with Mick Jagger's, Tom Cruise's, or Bruce Springsteen's salaries. If players like Damon weren't getting this kind of money, it would stay in Steinbrenner's pockets. It's not like the public is going to get the money.

Second, every business, private and public, have dress and appearance codes. The NBA requires suits for the players when they're not in uniform. The Rockettes have weight rules. Actors and actresses have physical appearance rules. The Yankees have a professional look. It's their tradition, and if you don't like it, then don't sign with them.

"The Yankees have a professional look" they have to live up to. HAHAHAHAHA!!!
:rofl:

BTW, you're sorely mistaken if you think my post was very much to do with player's salaries. Read it again; it was about ANYTHING BUT THAT. There was only a slight reference made to the amount of money Damon was making and that was only an aside. If and when I do a post about the OBSCENE amount of money that some of these OVERRATED, EGOMANIACLE SPOILED-BRAT CANT-DO-A-FUCKING-THING-FOR-THEMSELVES-IF-THEIR-LIVES-DEPENDED-ON-IT athletes make, you'll be sure to know about it! YEAH, BABY!!! :smoke:

or that third parties are "silly" for commenting that it's stupid.

For you not to be previously aware of this haircut and no beards thing indicates you are not a Yankee fan let alone a lifelong one.

This policy has been in place since Big Stein took over. It has been tabloid fare for years most famously with Don Mattingly and more recently Jason Giambi.

I quoted CNN, did I not?!!?...."Steinbrenner doesn't allow long hair and beards, so Johnny Damon will have to cut his long hair and beard off."

That wasn't me acting surprised about it, like I wasn't aware of it ore something, Mr Jackknife Detective who instinctively can tell who's a fan or not,...I was stating that fact to set the basis of my post. Geez!

I've known about Steinbrenner's IDIOTIC policy just as I knew about Glen Sather's similar dumb policy. I only brought it up NOW because it's so relevant when someone like Johnny Damon is concerned.

And don't go telling me without knowing squat that I'm no lifelong Yankees fan, pal. Being a lifelong Yankees fan doesn't mean I'm going to bow down and kiss ass to them 100% of the time FROM HERE ON IN just BECAUSE I happen to be their fan, past or present. Having been a lifelong Yankees fan also doesn't mean I've gotta CONTINUE being one anymore either, so Aunt Fanny THAT, detective. Good gawd...

...that led me to believe you weren't a Yankee fan. It was the disbelief at a policy that has been around forever. I didn't see much talk about Randy Johnson or Jason Giambi when they had to shave and get haircuts.

"And don't go telling me without knowing squat that I'm no lifelong Yankees fan, pal. Being a lifelong Yankees fan doesn't mean I'm going to bow down and kiss ass to them 100% of the time FROM HERE ON IN just BECAUSE I happen to be their fan, past or present. Having been a lifelong Yankees fan also doesn't mean I've gotta CONTINUE being one anymore either, so Aunt Fanny THAT, detective. Good gawd..."

Where did I say you must kiss George's ring. It had to do more with awareness and your outrage felt very manufactured in light of the fact that this has happened quite a few times before. As recently as just last year, when RJ has to get rid of the goatee and hideous mullet.

Glen Slather did many a stupid thing but the haircut policy was far down the damage list.

I want our Johnny back!!!!

He is a free agent. He is signing with the Yankees of his own free will. I think the clean cut image enforced by George is simply a marketing ploy and his little to do with his social, religious or political views. He thinks clean cut all american boys will bring families to the ball park. Personally I think he's wrong. All studies show winning brings people to the ball park and nothing else matters all that much.