31
BILLIE WEISS
2018 SPRING TRAINING EDITION
For Cora, baseball is always on
Boston is a fishbowl that pretty much obsesses about
baseball 24/7 from mid-February until October. For a lot of
managers, that can be overwhelming. For Cora, it sounds
like his life growing up in Puerto Rico and ever since.
“Boston, for a lot of people, is a challenge,” Cora said.
“For me, it’s not. This is a city that lives baseball 24/7. But
you know what? I come from a country that lives baseball
24/7. In my family, for breakfast, we talk baseball. For
lunch, we talk baseball and for dinner too. My dad was
the founder of the Little League chapter in Caguas, where
I’m from. He passed away in 1998, and that’s what he
preached. He preached school and baseball – school and
baseball. My mom, if you talk to her, she’ll be around
during the season, she’ll talk baseball with you.”
When Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave
Dombrowski was doing his background work before hiring
his next manager, Cora’s genuine passion for the game
became more evident than anything else, particularly in
his conversation with Astros manager A.J. Hinch.
“A.J. told me to remember that with Alex, it’s baseball
24/7,” Dombrowski said. “He said, ‘I’ll get a text at 11
o’clock at night from Alex, “Did you see the pickoff move
on such and such? I’m watching this, we got to pay attention,
might help us win a ballgame tomorrow.”’ So he
embraces it. And I think that that’s very important. And
so for me, not everybody does that. I think people can be
overwhelmed by it.”
As Cora learned first-hand when he played for a
championship Red Sox team in 2007, Boston can bring
out the very best in you.
“I understand that people want to talk about this team
and I'm going to be able to talk about this team,” Cora said.
“That is pressure? I don't see it that way. I just see it as an
opportunity. As a manager, I'm going to be genuine with
people and we're going to do what we're supposed to do
on the field. We're going to have fun doing it, too."
Building relationships, chemistry
The one thing Cora has always excelled at is building
strong relationships with everyone he shares a clubhouse
with. That’s something that’s not going to change now just
because he’s in a position of authority. In fact, Cora thinks
it’s more important now than ever that he relate to all of
his players on a personal level. This was something that
was reinforced to him last year in Houston, both in his
own relationships with players and the way he saw Hinch
operate on a daily basis.
“Last year I learned that talking to players is not bad,”
Cora said. “Having a good relationship with players is not
bad. Doing that, you’re going to get the best out of them.
People might think that crossing that line is not helpful,
but I see it the other way around and I lived it. You embrace
them, you tell them how good they are and when
you have to twist their arm and tell them that’s not good
enough, they’re going to respond to you. That’s my goal
here. I want players to respond to me, respond to the city
and if we do that, we’re going to be in good shape.”