MISSED MANAGE
KEEGAN : Cora's inaction with skepticism
NEW YORK — First pitch wasn’t due for another two hours and already things had turned bizarre in this weird title defense of a season for the Red Sox.
Manager Alex Cora, a very clear, skilled communicator in multiple languages, made statements that led print and broadcast audiences to
believe that he planned to address his players in a clubhouse meeting, expected to take place in the Bronx before last night’s opener of a four-game, three-day series at Yankee Stadium.
No meeting. No clear explanation of why not. No way to really know what happened.
Did Cora have a change of heart? Did he decide that since he likes to let the players be the first to know when something’s on his mind he had better say that he never had any intention of holding a meeting, and then say he was misunderstood? Did a player whisper to him that a meeting would be a bad idea, given that the roster is stocked with so many decorated baseball veterans?
Whatever the reason, it was disappointing to hear that there would be no meeting. Clubhouse meetings can be vastly overrated and overused. But in this case, because one of Cora’s strengths is that he’s not a particularly formal kind of guy given to lectures, it sounded like a good idea for him to step out of character and show the players a side of him they don’t get to see. After all, status quo isn’t exactly spurring the Red Sox to greatness.
Peel a little paint off the wall with volume, let the players know they’re playing so far beneath the backs of their baseball cards that they ought to be embarrassed. Go negative in one meeting and see how it works.
Cora decided not to step out of his comfort zone to try to jolt some life into a group that too often looks a little foggy on the diamond.
“Nah, I mean, we always talk,” Cora said when asked about whether the anticipated meeting had taken place. “The way I said it, yeah, it sounded that way. But we always address stuff during the day. Can be in the food room, in the hitters’ meeting, the pitchers’ meeting. We always try to find something positive that we’re doing. Or if we’re not doing something right, you know, just address it.”
Cora had said earlier in the week he would choose a different “setting” from normal, so he must have changed his mind.
“We do it on a daily basis,” Cora said. “I think the way I said it was kind of, I don’t know.”
He was on the verge of saying he didn’t express himself clearly and then took an unfortunate turn that essentially gave his own credibility a hit.
“First of all, if we’re going to have a team meeting you guys are the last people who are going to know about it,” Cora said.
A WEEI radio audience was Cora’s first audience to know about it, then the reporters who cover the Red Sox, so they weren’t the last ones to find out about the meeting that never materialized.
“We communicate with the players on a daily basis in different places,” he said. “It could be at breakfast in the morning or lunch, or in the clubhouse, on the bus.”
But this one sounded as if it were going to be different. Oh, well. Meetings don’t usually amount to much anyway.
Cora’s a second-year manager, but this is all new to him, trying to inject spirit into a lifeless bunch.
“It’s a learning experience,” Cora said of coming from behind in a race for the postseason. “My only managing experience was 108 wins or whatever it was and magic carpet all the way to the World Series.”
And now this. What a letdown.