Gresh & Zo: Was Jonny Gomes' White House Attire Disrespectful?
BOSTON (CBS) - While the Red Sox failed to win their opening day game against Baltimore on Monday, losing 2-1, the focus on Tuesday was all about the Sox trip to the White House to meet President Obama.
While he didn't play on Monday, Jonny Gomes was front and center at the White House, showing up in an American flag suit.
Dan Shaughnessy is down in the Beltway covering the team, but was not a part of the media press core that followed the team to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, so he spoke with Andy Gresh and Scott Zolak on Tuesday morning.
"It's kind of an interesting thing because there are older Americans who don't like this in general, making clothes out of the flag," Shaughnessy said. "You can look at it multiple ways. Most people these days think it's cool and a sign of respect, but there are some Americans who really aren't that good with it."
Zo wasn't impressed with Gomes' stunt of wearing the American flag suit. He saw it as disrespectful, and was glad that none of his teammates followed suit.
"Not many times you get invited to the White House," Zo said. "I would term it as disrespectful, somewhat. The fact that nobody else elected to wear it, even though Jonny got them for everyone, says everything and I applaud the rest of the team for not doing that."
"He looks like the guy who runs a car dealership doing a President's Day commercial," Gresh added.
"That's what you wear when you go to Nantucket not when you're at the damn White House visiting the president," Zo concluded at the end of the segment.
Gomes talked about his unique piece of clothing after meeting the president.
"[Obama] approved and made sure to tell me he liked it," Gomes said. "He thanked me for his and the team signing it. He definitely approved. He looked me right in the eyes and said, 'Nice jacket.'
"Not too much went into it. I'm just a patriotic person, whether it's my outfit or what I stand for. I didn't want to be too much of distraction and I hope it's not. I'm just truly blessed for my freedom and what the flag stands for."
For what it's worth, David Ortiz gave his stamp of approval on Twitter:
[tweet https://twitter.com/davidortiz/status/450997915751043073]
Moving away from Gomes, Shaughnessy didn't want to nitpick everything from opening day, he did find Mike Carp failing to get to third base in the second inning off a fly ball a mistake.
"The greater transgression was Carp not getting to third base on the long fly ball in the second inning," Shaughnessy said. "That's just not good baseball by them."
During Monday's game, David Ortiz appeared hurt at one point. He ended up playing the entire game, but Shaughnessy is keeping an eye on the designated hitter going forward.
"I'm watching Ortiz carefully too, because his running looked really labored to me yesterday," Shaughnessy said. "Not that he's ever fast, but it didn't look good. And I worry that if he's on the bases and has to do something to get first to third or to home. I think he's a little bit at risk."
What are your thoughts from opening day? Listen below for the full discussion:
Was Jonny Gomes' White House Jacket Disrespectful
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