Roenicke uses novel approach
Red Sox manager stays calm amid miserable season by turning page
Over the last decade, Red Sox fans have come to expect a matching attitude between their team’s play on the field and their manager in the postgame press conference.
If the team is awesome, the manager should be happy, entertaining and jovial.
If the team is terrible, the manager should be honest, critical and presenting a plan to turn things around.
John Farrell was criticized often in Boston for saying his pitchers had great stuff on days they’d give up eight runs.
Alex Cora had a special way of calling out players in the media to motivate them to improve, even amidst a special season in 2018, when the Sox won the World Series.
Despite the Red Sox’ ugly performance in 2020, Ron Roenicke has been steady. Every night, whether the Sox put together a rare victory or are pummeled into the ground on their way to another loss that’s left them with the worst record in the big leagues (12-24), Roenicke answers his postgame questions calmly and without much criticism.
Tuesday night was a perfect example.
The Red Sox lost to the Braves, 10-3, in embarrassing fashion. Marcell Ozuna hit three home runs, including a pair off Kyle Hart that still haven’t landed. The Sox’ MLB-worst ERA actually went up, from 6.03 to 6.16.
But in his postgame comments, Roenicke seemed totally content.
He said the Sox played a “nice ballgame” and they deserved better than a seven-run defeat.
In a normal year, half the city might be knocking on the manager’s door to have a word. Just imagine the comments. No team in baseball is playing worse, and he’s saying an 10-3 defeat is a “nice ballgame?” Get lost, pal.
This year, it’s hard to sense the anger. There are no fans in the stands. And Roenicke has largely gotten away with what can seem like an apathetic point of view, no matter how terrible the Red Sox play.
Isn’t he angry? “Unfortunately, I have to look out there every day, I stare straight across the pitcher and I look out to the left field line, and I see us sitting in last place,” Roenicke said. “And every day that bothers me. So, I don’t like that at all.”
That’s about as angry as he’ll get.
What keeps him sane? His postgame routine. Every night, the California native leaves the ballpark, heads home and turns his baseball brain off. Whatever happened in the latest’ Sox loss is no longer important to him.
When he sits down and pulls out a book, the game is forgotten.
“When I go home instead of dwelling on this, I jump into a book and I read,” he said. “I’ve read more this year than I’ve ever read in my life. And I like to read a lot. So it shows you how much I’ve read. I’m going through so many books I can’t tell you. That keeps me sane.”
His favorite author is Vince Flynn, a popular author of political thriller novels who died in 2013. He also likes Louis L’Amour, a writer of popular Western novels who died in 1988, and Nick Petrie, who writes thrillers.
“I’m all over the map,” Roenicke said. “If you have any suggestions, you guys, let me know, I’m looking for authors.”
Diving into a good book has been his saving grace in 2020.
“I can really separate it pretty good now,” he said. “I think about things while I’m here (at the park). I try to talk to either the coaches or if I can hunt out some players, get things done, over with basically, what happened in the ballgame and how we can go about it better the next day. By the time I get home and when I open up a book, my mind can go straight to what I’m reading. And then I read for however long I want to — it can be a half an hour, it can be a couple hours. And then it’s light’s off and I’m fine. I’m asleep.
“Sometimes I wake up in the morning thinking about things.
But I think, because I’ve been doing this for so long now, my mind is easy to turn off and on what I need to do.”
The players have noticed his calming approach and appreciate it. It’s impossible to find a bad word about Roenicke from within the clubhouse —though it hasn’t been easy for reporters to get actual information from players and coaches this year, given all the interviews are done on Zoom. Still, they go out of their way to voice praise for their skipper.
“Ron cares,” said Jackie Bradley Jr. “Ron truly cares. He gets it in the sense of, he’s just not a manager. He’s someone you can come to and speak to on a personal level. My hat’s off to him, with everything that’s transpired over this offseason and all of the stuff that went down, Ron has an unbelievably hard job right now and he’s stepped to the plate and he’s done a tremendous job with the hand he has been dealt. I have so much respect for him.
“This has been a tough year with everything going on and I believe he was the right man to do this job.”
Roenicke doesn’t feel particularly proud of his work this season. He said he hasn’t done the job perfectly, but he thinks his experience in the game has allowed him to connect with players and keep a steady presence amidst an unsteady season.
He wishes he had more time to actually get on the field and teach, but the coronavirus limitations make it difficult for him to interact with his players much.
And he’s not having the best time managing his pitching staff, which provides limited opportunities for strategy given he’s simply trying to survive the game on most nights.
Longtime WBZ reporter Jonny Miller told Roenicke on Wednesday that he feels for the manager in a tough spot.
“Thanks, Jonny,” Roenicke said. “I’m doing OK, I really am. But thank you. Everybody is going through these struggles and it’s baseball but it’s also the country. My son is a school teacher, he’s back, he had kids in the classroom yesterday. I think it’s a big plus that I see students around now going back to school, and I think that’s good for our country that we’re getting back to a place where I think we all feel better.
“And I know there will still be some setbacks. I realize that. I think it’s a struggle for everybody. It’s a struggle for you guys, too. We all understand that.”
Ever patient, ever understanding, Ron Roenicke.