Red Sox beards? So last season.

Red Sox beards are going, going, Gomes. Red Sox outfielder Jonny Gomes, the bandleader of the beard brigade, said he'll shave his off before spring training.

|
Charles Krupa/AP
Boston Red Sox outfielder Jonny Gomes (l.) and pitcher Jon Lester, both still sporting beards, walk to the head table before the 75th annual dinner of the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, in Boston on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014.

For the Boston Red Sox, bushy beards are so last year.

Red Sox outfielder Jonny Gomes, the bandleader of the beard brigade during Boston's run to the 2013 World Series title, said he will be shaving his off before spring training so that he can file it "in the archive" with his memories of the team's improbable championship.

"It was a pretty cool experience. Want to bottle it up and enjoy it," he said on Thursday, still with his recognizable chin scruff. "I'll start 2014 pretty clean."

Some of the Red Sox players already have shaved their beards, but Jon Lester was sporting a trimmed-back style before the 75th annual dinner of the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Designated hitter David Ortiz and outfielder Shane Victorino cut theirs off for charity shortly after the World Series.

Manager John Farrell said the rest will soon follow.

"We've come to an agreement that when we get on the field we'll be cleaned up," he said.

All three of the team's recent World Series trophies were on display in the ballroom before the dinner, where former Atlanta Braves pitcher and newly elected Hall of Famer Tom Glavine was to receive the organization's highest honor, the Judge Emil Fuchs Award for long and meritorious service to baseball. Red Sox pitcher John Lackey was honored with the Tony Conigliaro Award for overcoming adversity.

Other honorees at the dinner were to include:

Miguel Cabrera, the Ted Williams Award for the top hitter in baseball.

—Ortiz, the Thomas A. Yawkey Award as the Red Sox MVP. Only Carl Yastrzemski, who won the award six times, has more than Ortiz's four Yawkey awards.

—Lester, Red Sox pitcher of the year.

Koji Uehara, Red Sox fireman of the year.

David Ross, good guy award.

Craig Breslow, Tim Wakefield Award for a Red Sox unsung hero.

—Xander Bogaerts, the minor league player of the year.

Jose Iglesias, Red Sox rookie of the year.

—Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram, the Dave O'Hara Award for his service to the chapter.

Farrell was selected manager of the year and Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington was the organization's executive of the year after guiding the team from worst to first.

Working toward next season, Cherington gave oft-injured outfielder Grady Sizemore a $750,000, one-year contract this week.

The three-time All-Star has not played since 2011. Sizemore, 31, is a .269 career hitter with 139 homers and 458 RBIs.

"Everyone knows who he was in his prime," Cherington said. "That player fits on any team."

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Red Sox beards? So last season.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0123/Red-Sox-beards-So-last-season
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe