Gomes: 'The Beard Is Coming Off'
BOSTON (CBS) - When the Boston Red Sox gathered for Spring Training last season, Jonny Gomes was already sporting a pretty epic beard.
That ended up becoming the team's rallying cry; a band of bearded brothers leaving it all out on the field every night.
Red Sox fans fell in love with the furry faces throughout the World Series run, but Gomes is ready for a new look for 2014.
"The beard is coming off," he said Wednesday night. "Oh yeah."
The beard may have survived all those tugs from the likes of David Ortiz and Mike Napoli following a Gomes home run during the regular season, but it'll meet its match when Gomes takes a razor to it before Spring Training.
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Gomes still had his beard at a Red Sox Town Hall event Wednesday night at Northeastern University, but said with a new season will come a new look.
"Baseball season is not like a cookie cutter," Gomes told reporters. "You can't win last year. I mean, it's a clean slate, you know. You've got to highlight the good, bad and in-between."
Gomes isn't sure what his role will be in 2014 as the Red Sox defend their title, but like the past campaign he'll be ready to do whatever the teams asks of him.
"I can't prepare for playing time, but what I can do is prepare to be healthy for 162 (games)," said Gomes. "I've just got to be ready when No. 5 is called, and that's what I'll do. I always say if you look at my numbers at the end of the year, that doesn't justify even one-tenth of the fingerprint I put on the season."
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And as for that new look and rallying point will be, that is still to be determined. But even Gomes admitted it might not be as simple as what he did his first season in Boston.
"I'm running out of shenanigans," he joked.