The Red Sox, Unbearded?; Make Sense of the Blade Runner's Fall from Glory
ANNOUNCER: Tonight on UNGUARDED WITH RACHEL NICHOLS, unbearded. Some Red Sox players kept their World-Series-winning beards, while others shaved.</s>DAVE ROSS, BOSTON RED SOX PLAYER: I was like, what did I just do?</s>ANNOUNCER: Unhappy. Two years ago the Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius was a hero the world over. Now he's on trial for murder.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He took a gun, and he shot this girl Reeva Steenkamp; and she is dead now.</s>ANNOUNCER: Unmatched. A girl set a school record for most wins on the wrestling mat, every one coming against a boy.</s>JULIA ERNST, WRESTLER: They're coming into the mat with this sense of superiority. Those are the ones that are going to go out on the corner or have parents that come and yell at them.</s>NICHOLS: Welcome to UNGUARDED. Last fall, the Boston Red Sox didn't just become World Series champions; they became a phenomenon. The bushy beards, the free- spirited approach, the way they uplifted their city in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. Even Yankees fans were impressed. Now spring training has arrived, and the boys are back. I spoke with three of the players who make up the heart of that Red Sox clubhouse: Jonny Gomes, Mike Napoli and David Ross.</s>NICHOLS: What's it like to be all back together again?</s>JOHNNY GOMES, BOSTON RED SOX PLAYER: You know, as cliche as it sounds, it was like being away from your family for four months. It's good to be back in the little -- the little safety nest that we've built.</s>NICHOLS: You seem so close.</s>ROSS: I'll be talking to these guys, you know, hopefully when I'm 70, if they're still alive.</s>NICHOLS: I like that. You think you're alive.</s>ROSS: Yes.</s>NICHOLS: Your manager, John Farrell, says that he had to do a little bit of a double take, though, when he walked back in the clubhouse, especially seeing the difference. We got the side by side of Jonny here. I mean, you know, this is not the same person when you look at the side-by-side photos.</s>GOMES: We're in free agency here, you know. So I had to shave some years off, you know. So yes, the whole thing was a setup.</s>NICHOLS: Did anybody have to say, "Wait. I don't quite recognize you?"</s>MIKE NAPOLI, BOSTON RED SOX: Yes. I had to pick him up on one of the first days, and I was driving. I couldn't even look at him. I wanted to talk to him, but I was like -- I was like driving and looking out the side and look at him and it was just different.</s>NICHOLS: You didn't shave. You trimmed a little bit, but you didn't shave.</s>NAPOLI: I mean, I like it. I don't know. It's just -- it's part of me, and I mean, I don't think I have a wife like these guys.</s>ROSS: I did shed a tear when I cut mine off. I was like, man, what did I just do? It was a lot of work to get that thing where it was.</s>NICHOLAS: Did you think if you hit a rough patch in the season, maybe the beards are going to start to come out again?</s>GOMES: No. I mean, there was a couple of rough patches with the beards, you know? So I mean, we didn't want to take it off. But...</s>NAPOLI: My career is a rough patch.</s>GOMES: Yes. I mean, I tell you what, at the end of the day, you know, it is time to turn the page on the beard. I mean, there are some great athletes and ball players behind these beards.</s>NICHOLS: You guys had so many reasons to need the beards for team unity. You have those things to bring you guys together. And then of course, the Boston Marathon bombing so early in the season. What do you remember about that day and how the news kind of filtered to you?</s>NAPOLI: The first thing that came to my mind is somebody left the gas on or there was an explosion or electrical box blew up. Everybody's on the bus. We're trying to call our families. We didn't know what was going on. Cell phone's not working. It was just a weird feeling. We didn't really know what to do.</s>GOMES: We had two buses going this way and just getting past by fire trucks and ambulances and police cars.</s>NICHOLS: You guys were heading out to Cleveland.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were going to Cleveland.</s>GOMES: And obviously the bombing explosion, and now we're getting on an airplane, the one thing that you fear the most if you're in the air.</s>ROSS: And then, by the time we got to Cleveland, I've never seen as quick of a turnaround of a group of guys. I mean, the responsibility that we felt as a team to come together and hey, like this is a tough time, let's go out here and show them what the Red Sox are all about and let's represent Boston in the right way.</s>NICHOLS: You guys represent Boston in such an intrinsic way in that fact that you were there, day after day. Baseball happens every day. You were something reliable that people could hold onto.</s>NAPOLI: We were going out there to do something good so they could get their minds off of it for a couple of hours.</s>GOMES: And I thought there was a good chance after that bombing, like you know, civilian, coming to the game, "Oh, I don't want to go to the game; it's not safe." I mean, that thing was just packed. That northeast, that Boston area, they don't shy away from anything.</s>NICHOLS: And after you guys won, of course, one of the great traditions in Boston, the duck boat parade. And you laid down at the marathon finish line that trophy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I mean, that was unbelievable.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): God bless America</s>GOMES: There's not many championship parades that, you know, come to a halt. The fact that we put that World Series trophy, kind of put a Band-Aid on that area and the bad thoughts. I mean, now people can walk into that area and be like, that's where we put the World Series trophy, versus that's where the bomb went off. You know? So I think that was extremely important for the city.</s>ROSS: And it was a moment that, during our celebration and all the parade and everybody screaming for us, everything stopped. Like I said, this is what it's really all about. This is how important this was to us.</s>NICHOLS: And you guys are going to be playing again when they run the Boston Marathon again. And just a few weeks from now. It's a tradition in Boston. Patriots Day, they run the Marathon. The Red Sox play. That's how tied up you guys are in that event. What do you think that's going to be like?</s>GOMES: It's going to be a lot. It's definitely going to be a lot. I know for me personally, I'm about the non-runner of any of the guys on the team. And if I wasn't playing baseball, I would want to run. That's how -- that's how, like, I feel tied to this city and this marathon now. I would want to be part of what's going to go on there.</s>NICHOLS: When they do run the Boston Marathon next month, the start is going to be timed for the leaders to pass by Fenway right around the fifth inning. Don't be surprised if you see some of the players turn around and wave. All right. Coming up, we will have much more from the Red Sox, including just what led to this from late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon.</s>JIMMY FALLON, HOST, NBC'S "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": Thereby earning your new nickname, Mike Nipoli.