Boston

‘He's Doing Good': Friend, Barber Describes Hospital Visit With David Ortiz

From the outside, it looks like your run-of-the-mill barbershop in Boston, but head through the door and behind the chair is the man who has been behind David Ortiz's freshest lineups and fades since 2007.

Inside the MLB Barber Shop is a wall of fame, with Jose De La Rosa, also known as Bacano, posing with Red Sox players like Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts.

De La Rosa said Ortiz gave him his start. After he started cutting the slugger's hair, all the Red Sox players wanted to use him, and it's been that way ever since.

The barber and his employees say a haircut is one of the main rituals before a big game. It's part of what the athletes do to get ready.

"If you look good, you play good, Ramon Marte said. "You have to have swag for you to actually deliver swag on the field."

If the life-size mural of Ortiz didn't give it away, then the Ortiz signage most likely will — there is one favorite player in this haircut haven, and he's become like a brother to De La Rosa.

"There's a lot of respect between us. We're like brothers and it impacted me too much to find out what happened to him," De La Rosa said. "I had to turn off my phone and just think if it was really true."

De La Rosa has been best friends with Ortiz for 15 years, but two days ago, he thought he had lost his friend to a gunman in the Dominican Republic.

Wednesday was the first day he got to see Ortiz since he was shot.

"To go in there is really difficult. You have to send a picture ID, and only his wife Tiffany approves for you to go in to see him, and she let me. I saw him. He was walking and smiling," said De La Rosa.

After a tearful and joyous reunion between the two Wednesday morning, it was only fitting that De La Rosa headed back to work in the afternoon, where their friendship started over a haircut.

"There's going to be David Ortiz for a long time. He's doing good. He's going to be even better once this is over," De La Rosa said.

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