Don Mattingly agrees ‘Times change’ as Yankees change facial hair policy

TAMPA — I’m worried about the Yankees. They finally get rid of that half-century-old, no-sense no-beards rule, and Aaron Boone tells us, “It’s not a decision made lightly, obviously.”

He’s not lying about that. But of course, this is a decision that should have been made lightly because it always was a non-serious rule that no Yankees player was known to support.

Boone, who said he agreed with the decision (as apparently did anyone else found Friday), added that discussions about the rule have been going on a very long time. He wasn’t lying about that, either. For some reason, they wanted to tell us how much work they put into something that should be obvious.

“Debating and deliberating this topic is something I’ve been doing with members and staff … for years,” Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner told Yankees writers.