SERIOUS SERIES CONNECTIONS
Before they were World Series stars, they were South Florida kids
Alex Cora has been the picture of poise in his first year as Red Sox manager, so even if this World Series doesn’t work out for Boston, it’s hard to envision him breaking down in tears.
But when Cora was a 20-year-old shortstop for the Miami Hurricanes and they lost the 1996 College World Series on a ninth-inning walk-off home run to LSU, that was a different story. Cora is among a handful of participants who will be repping South Florida to some degree as the Red Sox face the Dodgers in the World Series, beginning Tuesday night. While Cora was brought to tears at the end of that CWS, there were of course better times when the Puerto Rico native attended UM from 1993-96.
He was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 for his stellar shortstop play and clutch hitting, and he spent 14 years playing in the majors (1998-2011), including stints with both the Red Sox and Dodgers.
Observant fans might have noticed Cora wearing the letters “AA” written on his cap this season. That’s in memory of 16-year-old Ari Arteaga, who was killed in a Miami car crash in July. Arteaga’s father J.D. is the Hurricanes’ pitching coach and was a teammate of Cora’s in Coral Gables.
The Red Sox won a teamrecord 108 games in Cora’s first season as manager, and Boston’s other big addition this year also has a South Florida origin story.
Designated hitter J.D. Martinez was born in Miami, went to Flanagan High in Pembroke Pines and then played his college ball at Nova Southeastern University in Davie from 2007-09.
“He used to tell me and others that he was going to play in the big leagues,” Martinez’s college coach (and now NSU’s athletic director) Michael Mominey said when J.D. made the All-Star team for the first time in 2015.
“Some people took that the wrong way, but he always had that mindset and that he was going to fulfill his dreams.”
Martinez is now an MVP candidate after batting .330 with 43 homers and an MLB-best 130 RBIs in his first season with the Red Sox.
The Dodgers also have South Florida in their DNA, led by slugging shortstop Manny Machado, who was born in Hialeah and starred at Brito High in Miami before being drafted No. 3 overall by the Orioles in 2010.
Machado, who will be one of the prize free agents this winter, played in his fourth All-Star Game in July and then one day later was traded from Baltimore to Los Angeles, where he finished the season with a .297 average, 37 home runs and 107 RBIs.
His teammate, Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal emigrated from Cuba at age 10 and attended Miami Springs High.
Grandal (.241 with 24 homers and 68 RBIs this season) was actually drafted by the Red Sox out of high school in 2007, but he opted not to sign and went to the University of Miami, where he was the ACC Player of the Year in 2010 before going No. 12 overall in that year’s draft to Cincinnati (nine spots behind Machado).
The guy who went one spot after Grandal in that draft? Chris Sale, a lefty from Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers who is now Boston’s ace.
We won’t count that as South Florida, but Sale’s fellow Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi pitched two and a half seasons for the Marlins from 2012-14. Eovaldi was acquired by Miami from none other than the Dodgers in the deal for Hanley Ramirez in July 2012.
Coincidentally, Ramirez — at one point the Marlins’ biggest star — began this season with the Red Sox.
With all those connections, suffice it to say South Florida will be well represented regardless of who wins the World Series.