Inside The Championship Mindset Of Red Sox Manager Alex Cora

Inside The Championship Mindset Of Red Sox Manager Alex Cora

Big day for Alex Cory, the Red Sox manager, managing his 1,000th career game with the Red Sox. I already lived the the Red Sox nation experience. My job in 07 was to help others. The Red Sox have swept the Colorado Rockies. The mindset is the same. You have to attack the day to be precise and correct. All right. All right. I never show emotion. I’m like this, you know, until we finish the job. Twe strength three. It’s over. The Red Sox have won the World Championship. When there’s 38,000 people just rooting for the Red Sox and going after it and the Red Sox win it, that’s when the magic really happens. Welcome aboard. We chose this career a while ago, but it’s hard and it’s getting harder and harder. We’re going to connect with players, be genuine, and be accessible. And that’s the most important thing. This year, I learned that talking to players is not bad. You know, having a good relationship with players is not bad. And doing that, you’re going to get the best out of them. The hard part is that you’re not only managing the Red Sox, you’re managing each individual. And throughout the season, it doesn’t go public, but you know, people get sick. The dad of whoever you know is is suffering through something, you know, and that comes to my office and you have to take away this hat instead of AC, you become Alex. That’s the way I put it. You know, like when we have those conversations, I like, “Hey, forget the Red Sox. Forget AC, this Alex, what you got for me?” You know, and you try to help him as much as possible. But that that’s the hard part. It’s just to manage each guy. The Red Sox, I’m not saying it’s easy, but we know what we have to do is try to win as many games as possible and and win the World Series. But to manage each individual to to make them champions of their arenas, you know, that that’s the hard part. Okay, kid. Let’s go. Love you. Love you, too. The good thing is that we have a great support system. So, if I’m not capable of helping you in that in that instant, I ask for help, you know, and uh somebody from upstairs or for our mental skills uh group will help me. And uh you know that that that makes it happen. But it’s not easy. It’s not easy. He’s coming home. Here’s the throw. He is safe. A stolen base. He steals home. The other part I really enjoy when they become good players, you know, and people recognize them, you know, you go back to Jiren three or four years ago, a lot of people outside the doors of our clubhouse or outside the organization gave up on him. Jar Durant trying to locate it and it lands back on the warning track. losing the ball in the sky, you know, grand slam, people booing him, you know, just the struggles and now he’s an all-star. He’s a dude in this league. Here’s the high five ball off of the bat to Jiren Durant. That one will leave the yard and give the American League its first lead of the night. That’s fun, you know. That’s fun. Um, see Rafie signed a big contract at the wall. Look at it. Deers has home in his fifth straight game. Holy moly. I met Rafie in November 2017 and now he’s like the guy, you know, and and for him to to be part of something great and and and for him to be able to take care of his family, that that’s awesome. Graphy going deep. Going deep. This one back. It’s gone. Graphy never strikes for the first time. This team feels like they’re a playoff team. With the additions they have, it’s a completely different feel. The mindset is the same. You have to attack the day uh to be precise and and and correct. You know, we have to be correct in everything we do. And that starts from the morning schedule when it comes out. It’s a reflection of who we are as a coaching staff, as an organization. I learned this in in 2017. AJ Hinch told me that, you know, like no mistakes on the schedule, you know, and uh sometimes for us it’s hard, you know, English is our second language and I was like, okay, we have to either Google translate or, you know, be be on point, right? And uh we we try to do that because it’s a bad look that the coaching staff is not prepared. The players, they pick that up. They do. For example, four or five days ago, Chapman wasn’t on the schedule. And sometimes you take for granted that they don’t look, you know, we send it on our app and they have it at night. And when he came in at 6:00 in the morning, he went straight to Rammon, our bench coach. Hey, I’m not on the schedule. And and sometimes you’re like, nah, they they don’t look at it. But they do. They do. So, uh, that’s something that we took by heart, you know, and and just make sure they understand that you’re prepared. That’s the most important thing. Trying to strike out the side in the eighth inning and it does that. It starts in the off season to be honest with you. Um, just try to envision the roster understanding that is there’s a lot of moving parts, but you have a pretty good idea what our skill set is going to be. Are we gonna hit for power? Are we going to be very athletic? How are we going to pitch? And you start kind of like visualizing, you know, the the roster and how we going to go about it. Personally, try to detach myself in the offseason, have time for my family because when you get to Fort Meyers or you get to Boston, it’s not that they become secondary. They’re going to be always number one in my life, but there’s a lot of time spent here and and if you don’t do that the the recharge, reset, reboot in the off season, I don’t know how you’re going to survive 162 to be honest with you. So, there’s a combination of visualization and resetting, which is kind of like ironic, right? Because you have to stay locked in. We as coaches, we work the whole year. you know, the players, they have an off seasonason, right? They just work on their thing physically, you know, getting ready for next year. We have to stay on on top of it. It’s crazy to say it, but uh you have to stay locked in, but you have to detach yourself from the madness. our culture uh for better or worse. Uh you start playing when you’re five and and you have state tournaments and and yeah, you have to go. You have to go. That’s what they preach down there. You have to win. Now, as a parent, I’m opposed to all that stuff, you know, like Yeah, we we want to win, but at what cost? You know, it’s about player development, all that. I want my kids to enjoy it, have fun, but man, I my first uh state championship, I was seven, seven years old, you know, and we have a rivalry in my hometown, you know. I played for Vanova, the other team, the other, you know, uh neighborhood was Vablanca. And we went at it, you know, and uh we won. And we ended up to the Dominican Republic and over there it was the same thing you know we have to beat the Dominicans you know so since I was a little kid it was engrave you know like you got to go you got to go it comes from within you know like you cannot measure that you know you cannot there’s not an assessment of you know like like we said back home you know like either you have it or not you As a kid, you don’t think the Yankees or the Red Sox or the Giants or Dodgers are going to craft me because of the tradition. I got lucky enough to to be in one of the four, you know, traditional teams. This one off the end of the bat. Cued out towards short. Cora touches second. Fires to first for the double play in the air and Jright off the bat of Cora. Back goes Rios onto the track and he can’t make the catch. That’ll get out of here. A home run. Right side diving is Kora. He will throw and get him. Alex Kora, the Red Sox newcomer, showing a little leather. At the beginning, it was like, “Oh my god, if I didn’t play in Cleveland, imagine here.” But it was the other way around. Tito gave me the confidence, you know, I played second, short, third, having warm up one day in California to come in and pitch, you know. 2012 non- roster invite by the Cardinals. Go to spring training. We have a road trip to go to CMI. So 2 and 1/2 hour trip, right? I’m not starting. I come in in the eighth inning to play defense. Didn’t get an at bat. I already had 13 years in the big leagues. That was the message that like I got back next morning. Mike Matheni, that was his first year as a manager. Called me to the office. I was his first cut in his career. I was He’s still, you know, we’re still in touch. But I knew when I went to that trip, you know, like, yeah, they’re not counting on me. Um, they told me, I called my daughter, Camila. I said, this is it. I’m going to retire. I wasn’t going to go to the minor leagues or go to Mexico. I I fulfilled my dream, you know, 13 years in the big leagues, man. Like, that’s a lot. That’s a lot. And, uh, you know, just retired right there. I thought for sure I was going to be managing before 18 and uh it didn’t happen. I went through the process and uh Mike Hazing with the Dbacks the GM he told me he’s like all you need to do you have to coach. You go coach and then after that it’s going to happen. So I’m like oh okay cool that’s awesome you know. So I ended up coaching the Astros that year. AJ gave me the freedom to do a lot of stuff over there. Here’s a ground ball right side. Could do it. The Houston Astros are world champions for the first time in franchise history. The transition from being the bench coach to a manager. I think the only difference was is the media, you know, like that. That’s it. You know, the other part, you know, I was locked in with everything. The baseball part of it was easy. uh understanding the medical side of it, you know, communication with the front office, that was new, but I think those five years in ESPN actually helped me with that, like see it differently. There were GMs there, ex managers and all that. So, just sit there and listen. I think it’s it’s very important that, you know, I I already live the the Red Sox nation experience. To come back is amazing in this city. Everybody wants to win a world championship and for that to happen, you know, my goal is for this team to pay attention to details, show up every day and try to take advantage of certain situations during the game, either base running, defensively, offensively, or pitching. People, they live baseball here 24/7, and I understand that. We’re very excited, looking forward to the opportunity, and looking forward to win championships. The pitch, swinging, a miss. It’s over. The Red Sox have swept the Colorado Rockies. The Red Sox are the World Champions of baseball for 2007. The first team in the 21st century to win two World Series titles. Can you believe it? So, as a player, my job in 07 was to help others. I knew I wasn’t going to play that much. So, trying to help I was actually coaching before I was coaching. Now that I’m answering that question, help David, help Manny, try to look for tendencies, whatever. Whatever I could do for them so they can, you know, cash in during the game, I was there for them. There you go. Yeah. Bottom of the ninth, 5-1 Red Sox. Sale winds, he fires. Swing and miss right. It’s over. Red Sox win the World Series in 18 as a manager is just you just locked in, you know, like the family knew. It was like I will get home late from from the games. I will get up late, have breakfast, and leave early. you know, like there was no family time. They actually enjoyed it. They did. They did, you know, like my brother, my my sisters, my mom, they they all flew in. I called it like an American Legion tournament, you know, like the whole family’s there. It was like so locked in. So locked in like this the whole time. Not too high, not too low. the only time in the playoffs and I hate it. And I’m not saying we lost in 21 because of that. I never show emotion. If you look 18, I never show emotion. You know, even when uh when Alex hit that line drive that Benny caught swinging at the line drive left field, Ben and Tenny coming on dive and did he make the catch? He did. He got it. I just turn around. Boom. Boom. We won. Game saver. Winning run at first. There’s a drive left field high and deep backed by the wall. Gone. Red Sox win it in 21 because of the whole thing, you know, the suspension, everything that you know, kind of like this burden, you know, this heavy thing I was feeling when we beat the race. Hernandez lifts one to left center field. It is pulled in by Meadows. Here comes Santana. The Red Sox the championship series. I became emotional, very emotional with my daughter. We cried, all that stuff after the fact. Yeah, I love the fact that we did that. We loved it, you know, it was a family moment, but it wasn’t me, you know, like I’m I’m like this, you know, until we finish the job. And I think I got ahead of myself for certain things, right? You know, that was a little bit different. It was ultimately an easy decision for the Red Sox and for Alex. It was a mutual decision. God has a plan and uh in the middle of the pandemic, I was home with my family. Was it hard? very hard, very hard, you know, like um the one thing that that I hated because they they didn’t know they didn’t know what was going on, you know, or what happened. They didn’t know. At one point, it was hard on them, right? Like people making comments or this and that, you know, like it was hard. So, I put themselves in a bad spot and they they didn’t do right. it was us, you know, so that really bothered me. And uh from my end, I didn’t I mean, if you wanted to tell me, hey man, you guys messed up, whatever this and that, I’m okay with it. I can live with it, you know. I hear it, you know, I still hear it, you know, and uh we might hear more now, right? Uh where we at. Uh but the family part of it that really bothered me and you know, that was hard for me because it wasn’t fair for them. we made a mistake. Um, we’re still paying for it, but uh, I think from the family aspect, it’s been a lot better. You know, they don’t have to deal with it as much, I think, or they don’t tell me. But that that was the hard part, you know. But uh the other part yeah got suspended was on my knees but man to to be able to be there in the middle of the pandemic and then at at the house you know that was something we didn’t plan nobody planned for it but uh if we’re going to take one positive of the whole thing was that I was there with my family but the other the other part of it was all negative you know it it’s still tough it’s still tough a huge Welcome back. Welcome home to Alex. I still love the game. I still love what I do. And I promise you that from, you know, now on, you know, I’m going to use this experience the right way. I’m not proud of it. I’m not happy about it. But we have to move on. I’m happy to be back home. that city if you’re not on point, you know, they’re going to let you know, you know, for how much they like AC. Let’s go, son. They’re going to let you know. They will. And uh we don’t take anything for granted. I can guarantee you. We go after it the same way we did in 18. We went after it in 22 23 when we finished last. You know, nothing has changed. And the Red Sox win the game. That’s what pushes me. I’m aware of uh our surroundings, you know, but uh we love it. I love it. My family likes it, you know, and uh that’s what pushes me, you know, like let’s let’s get these people what they deserve. Uh let’s get Fenway rocking again. That’s one that I really like, you know, when that place is really magical. You know, it’s a magical place as it is. It is. But when there’s 35 38,000 people just rooting for the Red Sox and going after it and making it uncomfortable to the opposition, that’s when the magic really happens. And the Red Sox win it in extra innings. I think people are genuinely genuinely excited about this team. Well, it feels different. We talk about it. Usually the first meeting of the season is rah rah, you know, we’re going to win the World Series, you know, this and that. This year was about being precise, being correct, you know, like we have to be, you know, around the edges. We have to be perfect. Breakman stabs with a time. Got him. Wow. We have to dominate the gray areas. That’s what’s going to help you. And uh I have this feeling I was during the game yesterday like we, you know, Roman Anthony were rocking. They’re not rocking. Oh jeez. Anthony. And he hit it. A tape measure shot. And I didn’t like show emotion. I was like, “Cool. This is what we supposed to do.” You know, I think that’s where I’m at right now to be honest with you. Kind of like this is what we supposed to do, you know? I’m not going to get too high. I’m not going to get too low. We’re going to play this season like this, you know, like a 5:00 sunset, you know, and the the very relaxed, very chill. We got talent. It is gone. Oh my god. Absolutely crushed by Debors. We got the pieces in place. The front office and ownership done an amazing job the last three or four months. Now it’s up to us. It’s a home run number two tonight. So me as a leader, just stay calm. Stay calm. Stay in the moment. Dominate your arena. understanding the sub arenas, right, that we have to actually help to become better. But, uh, we’re in a good spot. We’re in a good spot. I’m having having fun again, uh, with this group. Uh, I feel like we’re we’re in that point that we just play it out. We just play it out and good things are going to happen. And the Red Sox walk it off. You go back to October 28th, 2018, man, and that day in LA was probably my best day as a as a professional athlete or coach, right? Just to have that trophy and lead a group of guys that when we left Fort Meyers, that was that was I mean, if you go back to that year is World Series are bust, you know, and we did it. I’m proud of you guys. But honestly, honestly, honestly, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And to have that taste right away, that’s what drives me, you know, like I want to have it again. I want to do it again. I want to duck parade, you know, in in Boston.

Get up close and personal with Red Sox manager Alex Cora as he describes the day-to-day challenges and obstacles he faces and how he keeps his ball club focused on the goal of playing championship level baseball.

“The Mindset” offers an inside look at players’ mentality during defining moments of their careers. Each 30-minute episode features unfiltered, personal interviews with current Red Sox players, coaches, alumni, and NESN talent, including Alex Bregman, Alex Cora, Liam Hendriks, Jonathan Papelbon, Tom Caron, Lou Merloni, and Will Middlebrooks.

The Mindset is presented by MassMutual. Gameplan for your future with MassMutual. An official partner of the Red Sox

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