Randy Smith: Long Hair And Athletes

The New York Yankees may be the only team in professional sports that prohibits long hair and beards. It's been that way for years and years...and every player who signs with the Yankees knows about the policy from day one. I remember watching Johnny Damon hammer the Yanks in the 2004 playoffs, winning the World Series. His hair was really long and he also had a very unkempt beard. He didn't look like a good example of a major league baseball player. In 2005, a little more than a year from the Red Sox snapping the "Curse of the Bambino" and winning the Series, Damon signed a five-year deal with the Yankees and immediately the beard came off and the hair was trimmed. At his welcoming press conference, he looked nothing like the player he was with the Red Sox.

I have never liked long hair on athletes, though when I was no longer trying to play sports, I wore my hair pretty long. In 1973, when my wife Shelia and I got married, my hair was down on my collar and I had those long "pork chop" sideburns. I thought I really looked cool and I wore my sideburns pretty long until my barber called me "Fonzie", so I allowed him to cut them way back.

I guess the reason I don't like long hair on athletes is the fact that I can't imagine sweating and playing ball with all that hair on my head and with a beard. I would have been very uncomfortable trying to catch a fly ball and keep the hair out of my eyes. Of course when i was living at home, my dad refused to allow me to have long hair. He would have gone ballistic if I ever told him I wanted to grow my hair out. When I let for college my hair started to grow and while he was never happy with my longer locks, he never really said anything about it...other than to ask me questions like, "Don't they have barbers in Murfreesboro?"

I see more and more players with longer hair and beards now both in the college and professional ranks and that includes the "mullet" that was so popular a year ago. I still see guys wearing a mullet every now and then but for the most part its day has come and gone. I imagine that everyone became tired of looking like "Joe Dirt." My youngest grandson wore a mullet for a while last summer but had it cut back to normal after a few months. Both my grandsons now wear a short hair style and that makes me happy. Recently I was reminded of perhaps the oldest story ever about wearing long hair. Samson lost his strength when his hair was cut, allowing him to be captured. After a while his hair grew back and he destroyed the temple. I guess that proves that we should never underestimate an athlete with long hair.