Cora managing quite well
More comfortable, confident this spring
FORT MYERS — Seemingly forever comfortable interacting with people, Red Sox second-year manager Alex Cora shared his mindset from a day not long ago when that wasn’t so.
After making his annual appearance in front of employees from all corners of the organization yesterday, Cora looked back to the day he gave that address as a rookie manager.
“I was nervous last year, very nervous,” Cora said. “It’s something you dream about and you’ve thought about it for a long, long time, but then you get in front of a lot of people in that room and the Spanglish comes into play a lot.”
One year and a World Series title later?
“A little more comfortable,” Cora said. “There are some great things that we talked about. There is nothing better than to have gratitude and tell people that you are just blessed that they’re around your life.”
By people, Cora said he meant, “From ownership all the way to the people who work in the family room. Everyone has to be on the same page. If the twins (Xander and Isander) are not happy, then Angelica’s not happy, and then I’ve got problems to manage the team.”
Proof positive that not every detail-oriented person is uptight.
“There are four principals that I believe coming into this situation last year that we have to be on top of it: communication, connection, preparation and execution,” Cora said. “Obviously, we know we executed. We prepare as best we can. Communication and connection from top to bottom, it was on point. I just wanted to make a point to everybody that was involved, everybody that was in that meeting, to thank them because without them there is no chance that we win the World Series.”
Cora’s a powerful communicator, blessed with the gift of leaving the person on the other end trusting his words. He was born to manage the modern-day ballplayer. He’s close enough to his playing career to know what unnecessary annoyances to avoid and sensitive enough to explain his decisions ahead of time. Plus, he empowers players. He encouraged J.D. Martinez to take Mookie Betts under his wing last year. How do you think that made Martinez feel? Unselfish, important, smart, trusted, confident. Cora encourages David Price and Chris Sale to watch and impart advice to young left-handers, not only a smart idea, but a sign of respect to the veterans.
His positive, confident nature is contagious in a game in which failure is common, forever lurking around the next corner, threatening to put a stranglehold on the psyche of even the most talented who play it.
During Cora’s interview process, he didn’t come across as nervous to Red Sox owner John Henry.
“It’s funny,” Henry said, “my biggest concern was that I thought he might be overconfident when we first met with him.”
Henry said it was the only perceived negative impression he had of Cora then.
“But it turned out that confidence really enables him to do a lot of things you don’t see managers do very often, and you don’t always know why a manager does things,” Cora said. “But he did so many things, including during the playoffs, that were open to criticism that worked out, so he didn’t get a lot of criticism. But again, his confidence and instincts in what he’s doing were one of the keys to the season.”
Cora repeatedly asked starting pitchers to come out of the bullpen in the postseason. He had their backs all year and they didn’t question him. They embraced it and performed brilliantly.
The book of baseball wisdom that Cora’s not afraid to edit says to put last year in the past and start anew.
“We’re not closing the door,” Cora said. “We’re not closing the door. We’re continuing. The whole turn the page thing, you look at it, you turn the page because something negative happened, and there’s nothing negative from 2018.”