Speaker 1: Let's bring on a guy who said as many journeys
Speaker 1: in a very young career and young life when it
Speaker 1: comes to baseball, and that is my good friend Alex Cora,
Speaker 1: Capy Tan, thanks for joining us on Dirt from the dugout.
Speaker 2: Well, Captain, we're back together. Let's do it, hey, justin?
Speaker 2: How you doing, man? Hey buddy, good to see you.
Speaker 1: Man who knew the circumstances that you and I were
Speaker 1: to be back together when neither one of us are
Speaker 1: actually going to be working for a little while, but
Speaker 1: we'll be working again at some point.
Speaker 2: So it's a little interesting and a little strange.
Speaker 1: But I will say justin that the years that I spent,
Speaker 1: you know, working with that guy right there and then
Speaker 1: covering him were as rewarding as any that I had because,
Speaker 1: as you've seen and Capy Town, We've had Dusty on
Speaker 1: this show, we had Buck Show Walter on the show,
Speaker 1: we had your friend Pete, Dustin Pedroia on the show,
Speaker 1: and d Row and Adam Wayne Wright, just a real
Speaker 1: solid list of guests. But I earned as much and
Speaker 1: enjoyed as much of any part of my career hanging
Speaker 1: out with Alex Boras. So again, thanks for being with us.
Speaker 2: It means a lot now, Like I told you, you know,
Speaker 2: October twenty eighth in at Dodger Stadium, right, I never
Speaker 2: you know, you meant a lot too to what, to where,
Speaker 2: what we were able to accomplish that year. You know
Speaker 2: my years in Bristol, you know, I was an open book.
Speaker 2: I still remember the first time I went there, uh
Speaker 2: to do my uh my tryout and uh it was
Speaker 2: something about it pop up in tropy Ginafield and I
Speaker 2: had to explain the fans why the outfielder didn't see it.
Speaker 2: And I was still freaking nervous. You know, I had
Speaker 2: no idea. I called Rappids. You know, He's like, come on,
Speaker 2: you know, this guy's the guy. But uh, you know
Speaker 2: you you mean a lot to me. It is now
Speaker 2: that you meant a lot to me. You mean a
Speaker 2: lot to me, and I'm happy to be here with
Speaker 2: you guys. Okay, great.
Speaker 1: So our goal on this show, I think you've seen
Speaker 1: it before, is really to share your journey, to help
Speaker 1: and inform many of the parents of young kids today,
Speaker 1: whether they are like yours, nine, ten, eleven years old
Speaker 1: or those going into high school or into college. But
Speaker 1: really just to share what you did on your journey
Speaker 1: and maybe they can learn some things. Some roads to
Speaker 1: go down, some roads not to go down. Let's go
Speaker 1: back to Puerto Rico and your your first introduction to
Speaker 1: the sport, because I know you just came from a
Speaker 1: soccer practice or something where your kids were so you
Speaker 1: had options. Why did the Cora family gravitate to baseball?
Speaker 2: It was very easy. Dad was the founder of the
Speaker 2: Little League chapter in our hometown, so you had no
Speaker 2: other options. I better play baseball. My two sisters didn't
Speaker 2: play because at that point there was no softball for women.
Speaker 2: But uh, it's all I know. It's all I knew
Speaker 2: growing up. You know, the ballpark is literally seven blocks
Speaker 2: from our house. You just walked there, and you know
Speaker 2: people said that you know when when mom was ready
Speaker 2: to go, you know, he broke she she broke water.
Speaker 2: She was at ballpark. So this is all we know.
Speaker 2: Dad was also involved in winter ball with the cows Creoos.
Speaker 2: He was he was involved in sports. He was used
Speaker 2: to work for two newspapers in the island, one that
Speaker 2: is not running anymore, the San Juan Start that's the
Speaker 2: English version of the newspaper here, and the other one
Speaker 2: in Lueloda, and I still remember coming from the games,
Speaker 2: you know, winter ball, I saw call cal Ripken, I
Speaker 2: saw Don't Mating Lee and a lot a lot of
Speaker 2: a lot of good players. He'll come back home and
Speaker 2: call the newspaper whoever was in charge of the sports section,
Speaker 2: and he'll say, for example, Dicky Thon four thousand, Henry
Speaker 2: Coto four ten. And I'm like, what is he talking about?
Speaker 2: And one day I say that what that means? He goes,
Speaker 2: son is four at bats, no runs, one hit, no
Speaker 2: RBIs bro I get chills. You're thinking about it. I
Speaker 2: lost my dad when I was thirteen, and and nah,
Speaker 2: just going back to that, you know, it was it was,
Speaker 2: you know, we we eat breakfast, we talk baseball. We
Speaker 2: had lunch, we talked baseball, we had dinner, we talk baseball.
Speaker 2: So that's how we started. Yeah, okay, great, Oh cool, great.
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Speaker 4: Well, I have it on right now and I'm all
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Speaker 5: So cool, Alex, I want to I want to ask
Speaker 5: you about that. I know it's very personal. Obviously you
Speaker 5: lost your dad.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: One of the things we talk about all the time
Speaker 5: on this show is just adversity, right and handling adversity
Speaker 5: and overcoming adversity. We all have some form of adversity
Speaker 5: in our life that comes at us at some point.
Speaker 5: What was that like for you and how did you
Speaker 5: pick up the pieces and move forward on such a
Speaker 5: tough loss for you know, a father figure that was
Speaker 5: so important in your life and to carry forward and
Speaker 5: what you were doing.
Speaker 2: Joycoorra, Joycoorra, you know my brother. Obviously, my mom was
Speaker 2: the dry forced behind our family. My two sisters who
Speaker 2: drove me two games, baseball games, volleyball games, whatever I
Speaker 2: wanted to do that were around me. But just having
Speaker 2: my brother just leading me. We went to Shape Stadium,
Speaker 2: me and my dad to see joe in nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 2: and Dad passed away in eighty eight. That was the
Speaker 2: only time I was able to see Joy playing the
Speaker 2: big leagues with my dad. So when that passes away,
Speaker 2: you know, Joey becomes not only my brother and my
Speaker 2: best friend is my father, you know, my mentor. And
Speaker 2: one of the things that I tell people if you
Speaker 2: follow our careers, Joy decided to go to college. I
Speaker 2: decided to go to college. Obviously. We both got drafted
Speaker 2: high in the draft. Actually he was higher first round
Speaker 2: pick and I think it was like eighty five by
Speaker 2: the Padres. I got drafted by Dodgers in the third
Speaker 2: round in ninety six. We played in the big leagues.
Speaker 2: We decided to do the coaching part of it. The
Speaker 2: only difference in our careers besides that he was actually
Speaker 2: the better player, you know, he was the better player.
Speaker 2: I became a manager and he has never managed, but
Speaker 2: he was always there for me. He was so cool
Speaker 2: for me. People ask me, who's your favorite player, Roberto Alomar,
Speaker 2: hands down, that's my favorite player, no hesitation, And people
Speaker 2: go like, Alway is no Joey. I'm like, Joey's my brother,
Speaker 2: you know, Like I don't see him as a big leaguer.
Speaker 2: He was a big leaguer, he was a big league coach,
Speaker 2: but I see him as my guy, you know. And
Speaker 2: whatever my mom cooked for lunch, my guy was eating
Speaker 2: the same food as I was, you know. So just
Speaker 2: follow his footsteps, you know. And he went through a
Speaker 2: lot throughout his career, a lot. In nineteen eighty six
Speaker 2: or eighty six, Yeah, I was in sixth grade and
Speaker 2: I still remember my best friend, Rolando or Rutiner. He
Speaker 2: actually played basketball. He was part of the team that
Speaker 2: beat a team USA in the Olympics in Athens. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he played for that team. Carlos Alroyo, Orlando was there.
Speaker 2: Jose Ortiz, So, Rorlando was in my class and Joey
Speaker 2: was playing in Beaumont, Texas Double A and Joey got
Speaker 2: stabbed after a game, and you know, emergency, all this stuff,
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. Nobody told me anything about it. Of course,
Speaker 2: you know, I was ten at that time, and uh,
Speaker 2: he was in the in the back page of the newspaper.
Speaker 2: Joeykore gets stabbed. Everybody's hiding the newspaper at the house.
Speaker 2: I go to school and and and roto That's how
Speaker 2: I call him. He tells me about it. My mom
Speaker 2: is the school secretary. So I get up, I sprint
Speaker 2: to the office climb. You know what happened to Joey
Speaker 2: Going back to the question, that's adversity, right, and just
Speaker 2: to see him bounce back from that and actually make
Speaker 2: it to the big leagus the next year with the
Speaker 2: San Diego Padres. Larry Bow was the manager, and uh
Speaker 2: that that was kind of like the first lesson, uh
Speaker 2: to play for Larry Bow too was a big lesson too,
Speaker 2: you know, talk about adversity and dealing. Boy, he was
Speaker 2: tough and joy he was very tough. He is his
Speaker 2: but he went through a lot, and uh for me
Speaker 2: to just lived it right, nobody had to tell me
Speaker 2: how to do it. Just I just watch, you know,
Speaker 2: And that's how I learned. There were a few things
Speaker 2: that happened, uh in little league that I still remember.
Speaker 2: I was a little guy onto well I'm still a
Speaker 2: little guy compared to others, but I was very small
Speaker 2: going into Pony League. That's fourteen under or thirteen fourteen,
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden that summer I grew up.
Speaker 2: I grew, you know, and I got bigger, not stronger.
Speaker 2: I got luck, and all of a sudden, I wasn't
Speaker 2: able to move. I was rounder. Oh bro, it was.
Speaker 2: It was different, you know, Like the bases were so
Speaker 2: far and I was very slow, and I wasn't able
Speaker 2: to make the same place that I was making when
Speaker 2: I was playing a twelve under. And this coach, Mickey Serrano,
Speaker 2: I still I mean this guy, he actually made me
Speaker 2: a big leader. I'm in the first base dougout after
Speaker 2: hitting another ground bow to second, and I'm sitting there
Speaker 2: and he turns around and looks at me and he says,
Speaker 2: you know what you're playing every day here?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, it's because your brother is a big leader.
Speaker 2: If not, you wouldn't be playing like I was. Like devastated.
Speaker 2: So whatever for me to remember this at fifty you
Speaker 2: know what he did for me? So long story short,
Speaker 2: after my fifth year in the big leagues, I go
Speaker 2: to this sports bar here in Kagua's. I run into
Speaker 2: Mickey Serrano and he's, hey, Alex, what's going on? Long time?
Speaker 2: No see this? And that We have a few beers
Speaker 2: and I pulled him aside. I say, I make come here.
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you what you did for me.
Speaker 2: And he's like, what are you talking about. He's like,
Speaker 2: remember when you were coaching me at fourteen under when
Speaker 2: I was thirteen? Well you told me one night and
Speaker 2: he's like, no, I don't remember you told me this.
Speaker 2: And because of you, I decided to be good and
Speaker 2: become a big leader. And I'm a big leader because you.
Speaker 2: That's right. The guy was. He was in shocked. He
Speaker 2: was like noway, I like, yes, you did that to
Speaker 2: a thirteen year old kid. Man. You know, it's amazing,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 1: I was just having this conversation with Chris today about
Speaker 1: the things that you remember, like the things that stick
Speaker 1: in your mind that are so irrelevant to so many people,
Speaker 1: Like it's just amazing and the impact a coach can
Speaker 1: have on a kid, and that conversation and what you
Speaker 1: believe it did, whether it truly did it or not,
Speaker 1: but you believe it. And that's the impact that a
Speaker 1: good coach can have on anybody at any age.
Speaker 2: That's you know, a long story a bad coach or
Speaker 2: a bat.
Speaker 1: But there's a valuable lesson, a real valuable lesson in
Speaker 1: all of it. All right, So, Capyton, the best thing
Speaker 1: we do is allow our fans to ask questions.
Speaker 2: We'll start with Royce here. He's got a great question.
Speaker 1: He said, you played fourteen years in the big leagues,
Speaker 1: then became a coach and a manager. What did you
Speaker 1: learn about the game after you retired that you wish
Speaker 1: you maybe understood it as a player. So you're done
Speaker 1: playing now you look back on it. Is there something
Speaker 1: you learned after that you wish you'd understood as a player.
Speaker 2: Yes, So going to the offseason in two thousand and four,
Speaker 2: you know, I had a great season quote unquote, played
Speaker 2: good defense for the Dodgers, hit ten homers, hit two
Speaker 2: sixties to seventy for a guy that you know, he
Speaker 2: was a good defender. So finally he's hitting the ball.
Speaker 2: Whatever December two, Kim Name calls me and tells me
Speaker 2: that we're gonna desiginate you for assignment. I was like,
Speaker 2: what after what I just did? We made it to
Speaker 2: the playoff, we got Adrian Belcher says stories on myself,
Speaker 2: this is a great infield. We're gonna be okay, blah
Speaker 2: blah blah cool. Ended up signing with the Cleveland in
Speaker 2: the off season. Late in the off season and throughout
Speaker 2: the years, I always wonder why, you know, I thought
Speaker 2: I was, you know, kind of like becoming a really
Speaker 2: good baseball player, a really good part of a championship
Speaker 2: caliber team. And then when actually he started in Bristol,
Speaker 2: just being around the you know, everybody that goes through
Speaker 2: the numbers, including our friends Sarah, right, like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: there's a little bit different conversations with x gms about
Speaker 2: you know, the past and how they see the game.
Speaker 2: And yes, we have an idea as a player, but no,
Speaker 2: we we always believe that we are better than what
Speaker 2: people say, right, Like, we are better, especially my type
Speaker 2: of role, you know, the utility player wants to play
Speaker 2: every day. That's the reality of it, you know, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you accept your role, yeah yeah, yeah, But no, no,
Speaker 2: you want to play every day. So throughout the years
Speaker 2: I always wonder what happened. And then you know, I
Speaker 2: get to Houston, I understand more about the numbers. I
Speaker 2: get to Boston and everything opens up, you know, projections
Speaker 2: and expected numbers and all that. And I bet the
Speaker 2: Dodgers in two thousand and four they were like, this
Speaker 2: is it for the kid. That's it. This is all
Speaker 2: he's gonna do. And the other day I was watching
Speaker 2: Jeff Kent during his speech in Cooperstown. I can say
Speaker 2: that the guy that came in after me with the
Speaker 2: Dodgers was Jeff Kens. So they made as you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a Hall of Famer. But that's what I learned. Like, like,
Speaker 2: I'm not saying expecting numbers are everything, because at the end,
Speaker 2: you know, production matters, but there's certain there's certain information
Speaker 2: that is very important for organizations to make decisions, and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I think all that stuff and probably in
Speaker 2: two thousand and four it wasn't obviously it wasn't as
Speaker 2: deep as what it is today, but there were a
Speaker 2: little bit ahead of the curve with the Dodgers. That's
Speaker 2: when Paul the Podesta interest came in. In UH in
Speaker 2: February of four, you know, and I think they were
Speaker 2: looking at stuff like that and that's you know, that's
Speaker 2: why they made the decision. But that's something I learned
Speaker 2: as a coach as a manager, Like this is the
Speaker 2: they evaluated Alex as a player. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense,
Speaker 2: A good one.
Speaker 5: I want to touch on that, because there's a chase
Speaker 5: now for you know, for the metrics, right, I mean
Speaker 5: you can go all the way to eight nine ten
Speaker 5: year olds chasing metrics and some organizations ranking you know,
Speaker 5: nine year olds, right, I mean, it's it's it's the
Speaker 5: chase for the metrics.
Speaker 2: If they're ranking the core of Felicianos, they have no
Speaker 2: chance right now about to have fun and then go
Speaker 2: to uh go to the store and get some yogur
Speaker 2: after the y man.
Speaker 5: So the chase for the metrics, though obviously data metrics.
Speaker 5: You know, a big part of my role with the
Speaker 5: Brewers was focused on the draft.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: It's a part of draft decisions, and it's part of
Speaker 5: you know, free agent signs and projectability like you said,
Speaker 5: and there's all of that and college coaches are using
Speaker 5: it now more than ever. But I want to I
Speaker 5: want to just get your opinion on this, because I
Speaker 5: think I think lost in the shuffle. Here are some
Speaker 5: of the nuanced aspects of a player, the makeup, the intangibles,
Speaker 5: the baseball IQ and obviously those are anecdotal sort of things.
Speaker 5: But how do you balance that and what is your
Speaker 5: recommendation for youngsters chasing some of those metrics instead of
Speaker 5: just developing their skills and trying to become the best player.
Speaker 5: They can be the best teammate, they can be understand
Speaker 5: the game at the highest level. They can What is
Speaker 5: your advice to the youngsters.
Speaker 3: On that one?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can tell you right now, and I see it.
Speaker 2: You know, we just move up to ten under and yeah,
Speaker 2: we go to the indoor facility here at the puer
Speaker 2: Eco Baseball High School Academy. It's an I set up.
Speaker 2: They have a hip track. And for how much I
Speaker 2: hate sometimes when hitters hit the ball at them the
Speaker 2: bat of the good jam all.
Speaker 1: Right, justin we'll get I think we just lost in
Speaker 1: for a second. We'll get him back. But I think
Speaker 1: he's going to get into a story about as much
Speaker 1: as he probably didn't like the idea of seeing the
Speaker 1: ball go square off the bat. Sometimes when you hit
Speaker 1: one off the end and it falls in for a
Speaker 1: hit like that's a good thing. What I'm going to
Speaker 1: what I'd love to get into with him too, is
Speaker 1: his impression when he started to talk about learning different
Speaker 1: things when he's not a player Moneyball, for instance. I'm
Speaker 1: real curious what he thought of the movie. I forget,
Speaker 1: I don't know what age he was when the movie
Speaker 1: came out, but clearly being in the sport and now
Speaker 1: being actually being exposed to it on both sides, I
Speaker 1: am curious as to what it was that he took
Speaker 1: from that movie, because that is exactly what he was
Speaker 1: getting at about his ability to learn things from a
Speaker 1: management front office perspective that you may not appreciate as
Speaker 1: a player, and he had to make those decisions along
Speaker 1: with the front office on players that I'm sure you
Speaker 1: know he felt were really good players who contributed, but
Speaker 1: somebody could tell you, yeah, but we're missing this component
Speaker 1: on the team, and this particular guy does exactly what
Speaker 1: we need.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Hunt Revie.
Speaker 5: I mean with all the guests we've had on, all
Speaker 5: the people that have been there, managed at a high level,
Speaker 5: played at a high level, all of famers like we
Speaker 5: you know how many times have we heard though for
Speaker 5: the youth, like have fun, right, don't be focused on
Speaker 5: those things. Just get better, play some baseball, do the
Speaker 5: things that you're going to do, like you said tonight,
Speaker 5: you know, go play your game and then go to
Speaker 5: the go to the grocery store and get some yogurt,
Speaker 5: you know, like it's kind of that simple at a
Speaker 5: young age, and we're over complicating it. And I don't
Speaker 5: think it's beneficial to the players. I don't think it's
Speaker 5: beneficial to the the mental aspect of enjoying a childhood
Speaker 5: and being able to play other sports. And so I'm
Speaker 5: looking forward to hearing his response on that and where
Speaker 5: you know, what he's what he wants to do on
Speaker 5: that side of it. But we are hearing that over
Speaker 5: and over right, like you know, enjoy the game, like
Speaker 5: multiple sports, like you know, have fun.
Speaker 2: That's where we're at. That's great. I think I think
Speaker 2: he's back. So yeah, so I live I live it
Speaker 2: every day. That's okay. Here we go, we go to
Speaker 2: the batting cages, to the indoor batting cages here and
Speaker 2: uh and the boys they do it, you know, like
Speaker 2: they hit it and they look back and that's what
Speaker 2: everybody does, so I cannot go against it because it
Speaker 2: is the reality of it. You know, we got we
Speaker 2: got the technology, and uh we we have to use it,
Speaker 2: but you know, you have to be careful to to
Speaker 2: overdo it, right, Like at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: there's not a better feel like when you hit a ball,
Speaker 2: you know, like you know, I didn't have too many
Speaker 2: of them, but I knew right. And actually I had
Speaker 2: this conversation with Brad Stevens two years ago. It was
Speaker 2: doing our rookie development program. We went to a practice
Speaker 2: facility with the Celtics and Kyle Hudson, who was a
Speaker 2: third base coach for the Red Sox. He asked Brad
Speaker 2: about technology and how they use it, especially in the
Speaker 2: practice environment, and Brad very politely said, I know, you know,
Speaker 2: our analysts are gonna hate this answer, but this is
Speaker 2: my sanctuary. And there's nothing better for a shooter. When
Speaker 2: they pure one the net, the sound of the net,
Speaker 2: that's how you know. There's no I don't know, I
Speaker 2: don't know what they use. But in our case track
Speaker 2: man and hit track and all that stuff. Yeah, we
Speaker 2: use that, and I know there's value with it, but
Speaker 2: there's nothing better to square one ball off and you know,
Speaker 2: you don't have to look back the other one. And
Speaker 2: I actually talked to some are the Red Sox pitchers
Speaker 2: this year. So Ranger Suarez throws his first bullpen four myers.
Speaker 2: I think it's the second or third day of early
Speaker 2: camp whatever. You know, they showed up early, and you
Speaker 2: see all these guys throwing hard ninety five ninety six
Speaker 2: and looking back and boom, boom boom getting feedback and
Speaker 2: Rangers throws twenty pitches. They all move to the edges
Speaker 2: of the plate. I can see it on the on
Speaker 2: the monitor. I can see it with a land. Ranger
Speaker 2: never turned around once he knew, he knew the feedback
Speaker 2: that he needed was right in front of him. Interesting,
Speaker 2: he didn't know to. It's like, I know what I
Speaker 2: need to do to keep getting better, and I think
Speaker 2: we we we actually need to. Yeah, we take advantage
Speaker 2: of the technology, but it's baseball, especially at this age.
Speaker 2: You know, nine, ten eleven, Baseball is at his purists, right,
Speaker 2: show up, stretch, play, catch, see the ball, hit the ball,
Speaker 2: run hard, and enjoy it. You know, it's what we
Speaker 2: try to do. But understanding that, now that you really involved,
Speaker 2: I'm really involved. Now you know I'm there. It's a
Speaker 2: lot different. It's a lot different. And honestly, think about it, Carl,
Speaker 2: you also to me, to me, to me, but.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say to me, Alex, what I recognize
Speaker 1: in it is that.
Speaker 2: Who do know? And when you were ten, eleven or
Speaker 2: twelve years old, Alex looks like it's me and you. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So going back to what I was saying, think about it,
Speaker 2: think about it. And I hate to compare myself with
Speaker 2: my boys, but when I was growing up, I think
Speaker 2: the brand of baseball was actually better in a sense. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I remember. It's just you know, like there's and I
Speaker 2: understand what we have coach pitch leagues. I understand why,
Speaker 2: but when we grew up, there was none of that.
Speaker 2: So you have to learn to play baseball. When you
Speaker 2: were six, five, six seven, you were pitching, you were
Speaker 2: playing defense. And now and this started actually in eighty
Speaker 2: eighty six. It was kind of like in the nineties
Speaker 2: early nineties coach pitch. They put the two coaches in
Speaker 2: the outfield, you know, down the lines. Then you have
Speaker 2: the other two coaches and everything the coaches do is
Speaker 2: stream instructions right like through second through the first do this,
Speaker 2: do that. And I hated doing this in the big leagues,
Speaker 2: you know, as a manager, as a coach when I
Speaker 2: used to play. But in this one, I will say it.
Speaker 2: When I used to play, there was none of that.
Speaker 2: You had to play the game, You had to react
Speaker 2: to the game. You had to learn the game at
Speaker 2: a high speed because if not, you were out. You
Speaker 2: were out. And now with all these and like I said,
Speaker 2: I understand why we're protecting the arms, we're protecting the players,
Speaker 2: But with all these coaches on the field screaming instructions,
Speaker 2: we're taking away the baseball, like you, the instincts because
Speaker 2: they're becoming robots, you know, Oh you tell me what
Speaker 2: I do, I'll do it. That they're actually better athletes
Speaker 2: one hundred percent. I was watching today that was stupid.
Speaker 2: What what I saw today from noon till five o'clock
Speaker 2: baseball wise, amazing. But still you can hear the coaches
Speaker 2: streaming instructions doing that instead of letting them be, let
Speaker 2: them be athletes, let them solve the problem, right we
Speaker 2: always talk about in the big leagues, you know, problems,
Speaker 2: solve them, you know, challenge them, make them feel you know, uncomfortable, well,
Speaker 2: you know what uncomfortable at a young age is silence.
Speaker 2: Let them play, let them figure out. Yeah, we can
Speaker 2: help them with everything, you know, swing the back, throw
Speaker 2: this and that and the fundamentals. But from let's say
Speaker 2: you play from five to seven. Just be quiet. Let
Speaker 2: them play, and they're going to develop, probably better than
Speaker 2: the way we're developing right now, no doubt. Let them
Speaker 2: figure their problems out.
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Speaker 1: A lot of questions here, Let's get to this question
Speaker 1: from Mark Alex Who pushed you the most as a
Speaker 1: manager and what did you learn from that relationship? Who
Speaker 1: pushed you the most as a manager coach? And what
Speaker 1: did you learn from that relationship? Not name Joey Korra.
Speaker 1: I gotta be very honest. I'm always honest, but this
Speaker 1: is something that you know, probably people are gonna say, ah,
Speaker 1: he's playing the corporate card.
Speaker 2: But now that city, that city, the one I managed, Boston. Yeah,
Speaker 2: challenged me every single freaking day, every day, every day
Speaker 2: from day one in that press conference in November, I
Speaker 2: want to say, seventh of twenty seventeen, all the way
Speaker 2: till April twenty fifth in Baltimore. This year, just the
Speaker 2: expectations and the I mean, shoot, you feel that you
Speaker 2: have to win one hundred and sixty two games in
Speaker 2: Boston and they push you to be great, and when
Speaker 2: you have bad days, you remember that you're in Family
Speaker 2: Park and you're playing in Boston, and you cannot, you know,
Speaker 2: mope around. You have to show up and and do
Speaker 2: it over and over and over again the right way
Speaker 2: as a manager. As a manager, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: know whe the future holds. You know, I'm in a
Speaker 2: good place right now. But from from that day when
Speaker 2: I signed that contrail, the way to the decision one.
Speaker 2: May you know that fan base challenged me. Man is
Speaker 2: is NonStop? Is actually very intense, and honestly, I can
Speaker 2: feel now kind of like, oh okay, this is kind
Speaker 2: of like look at you.
Speaker 1: You look at you, your smile, your relax you look
Speaker 1: you look like somethody that doesn't have the green monster.
Speaker 1: The green monster takes on a whole different definition when
Speaker 1: you're staring at it every day. It is, in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways a moment. But let me ask you this.
Speaker 1: You you win the World Series in your first year.
Speaker 1: Did that then almost raise the expectations for a city?
Speaker 1: As you said, put so much demand on every single
Speaker 1: game you play.
Speaker 2: I don't want to say that, I truly believe that.
Speaker 2: For however, I don't know how well how people saw it, right, like,
Speaker 2: oh that was that was a team that they were
Speaker 2: supposed to win it. Yeah, probably, but no, but if
Speaker 2: that was the case, it's more pressure, you know, like
Speaker 2: you come to this place to win a World series.
Speaker 2: And I still I mean, I still remember Carl. When
Speaker 2: we lost Game two of the Alds against New York,
Speaker 2: I joke around and I said it out loud, you know,
Speaker 2: like the sky was falling. It was like we just
Speaker 2: won a hundred and whatever games under we lost game two, Yeah,
Speaker 2: game two against the Yankees, it was over. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: Like I was like, what's going on here? You know?
Speaker 2: But then we finished business and we did an outstanding job.
Speaker 2: And you know after that, winning Will's here is very hard.
Speaker 2: It's very hard. You know. What the Dodgers are doing,
Speaker 2: you know, the last few years is amazing. The way
Speaker 2: baseball is right now. Just look around, man, Like everybody's
Speaker 2: like in the same boat, right, the same whatever. You
Speaker 2: can say they're bad teams, you can say their average teams,
Speaker 2: or everybody's so good that they beat each other up,
Speaker 2: however you want to say it, you know, but it's
Speaker 2: very balanced, you know, and anybody can beat anybody, and
Speaker 2: I think, uh yeah, we raised the bar right away.
Speaker 2: But I think we did an outstanding job. And that
Speaker 2: city doesn't matter. They don't care. They believe that they
Speaker 2: have to win every single game, every single game, which
Speaker 2: I love. You know, like it was a miss season.
Speaker 2: They pushed me to be really, really good. It's somebody
Speaker 2: that watches so many the games. The season's been fascinating
Speaker 2: because the world ended and now all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: the world's a lot better, and here they are maybe
Speaker 2: losing three games in a row and the world's disaster again.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's how it is, and that's how it is,
Speaker 2: and a lot of these very into it, major league cities,
Speaker 2: which is part of it.
Speaker 1: There is a question up here. You've sort of said
Speaker 1: we're in a good place now. A one person says
Speaker 1: you signed a baseball for them and it was the
Speaker 1: best birthday gift ever outside the Commonwealth Hotel. So they
Speaker 1: say thank you for that, and then the next question
Speaker 1: is awesome, you know, are you going to come back
Speaker 1: and coach or manage again? People miss you? I think
Speaker 1: not necessarily the city, it doesn't, but people miss you.
Speaker 2: Is that part of your dream your goal? I think
Speaker 2: at one point, I'm going to get back when we
Speaker 2: don't know, we don't know, you know. And that's something
Speaker 2: that I went to. We've been through a lot of
Speaker 2: places this summer, a lot, you know, from volleyball tournaments
Speaker 2: in Minnesota to see our niece dominate her nationals too.
Speaker 2: We went back to Boston and we watched three three
Speaker 2: matches at Gillette or sorry, Boston Stadium. Boston Stadium, it's
Speaker 2: not Jet Boston Stateia. We went there, and then we
Speaker 2: went to Switzerland and we went to Italy. Uh. In Italy,
Speaker 2: I had a chance to actually a text Alan Bart
Speaker 2: who used to work with us, you know, with the
Speaker 2: with the Red Sox. He used to be with the
Speaker 2: Royals and the Mets, and we're going back and forth.
Speaker 2: He lives, he lives in Florence right now, and we
Speaker 2: were trying to hooked up, you know, to have lunch
Speaker 2: or breakfast and Uh. In the conversation, I said, man,
Speaker 2: my family needed me, and he goes, you keep saying that,
Speaker 2: and the way I see it, you needed your family.
Speaker 2: And Carl, I'm telling you man, when he said that,
Speaker 2: I was like, holy shoot, you know what, yes, because
Speaker 2: you get caught up on everything, you know, like, I
Speaker 2: haven't stopped. I haven't stopped. You know. Bristol was okay,
Speaker 2: back and forth, you know, you know, no kids at
Speaker 2: that time, only coming he left, you know, and and
Speaker 2: jerie L actually Angelica and I started dirty dating around
Speaker 2: it was twenty thirteen, and then everything changed, you know.
Speaker 2: We we we had the boys in seventeen, We're in
Speaker 2: I'm in Houston, she's in Puerto Rico. The hurricane here,
Speaker 2: then the Red Sox and yeah, the suspension, but the pandemic.
Speaker 2: I'm home, but we haven't stopped. And all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: when you go to these places and you see the
Speaker 2: kids walking around and you know, her sister loving them,
Speaker 2: and Angelica having a black and uh, I'm like, you
Speaker 2: know what I needed my family? I needed for how
Speaker 2: much I love the game. And I say it again,
Speaker 2: you know, Uh, it's three different feelings, you know, happy
Speaker 2: for my family, upset that they didn't let me finish
Speaker 2: his job, and honestly believe that I don't have to
Speaker 2: go through scatter reports and the matrix and talk to
Speaker 2: the media twice twice a day and and live in
Speaker 2: the bubble of like we have to do this. That's true.
Speaker 2: But at the end. Man, priorities are priorities. You know,
Speaker 2: these people here, they're amazing, Uh, they're loving life and different.
Speaker 2: But there's but there's three different opinions in that room
Speaker 2: right now up there. You know, if you ask the boys,
Speaker 2: if you have the boys, they they want me to
Speaker 2: manage and they have their teams, you know. And if
Speaker 2: you're like Angelica, she's very polite about it. Let's see
Speaker 2: what the future.
Speaker 1: The other part of the other part of that equation,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that can change, by the way, by
Speaker 1: the hour.
Speaker 2: No, you should stay, No you should go. I think
Speaker 2: you should stay.
Speaker 1: The other part of that too, is with all due respect,
Speaker 1: and I know you're you're humble, You're you're damn good
Speaker 1: at what you did do. You're great at being a dad.
Speaker 1: So to have that confidence in that somebody else made
Speaker 1: a decision about you when you know you've won championships
Speaker 1: and you could win more championships makes that a little
Speaker 1: bit easier, as does the fact that they're still getting
Speaker 1: paid to do what you're doing and traveling all over
Speaker 1: the place.
Speaker 2: But you know you're good at what you do. That helps.
Speaker 5: So Alex, while Radvey gets his Internet figured out, there
Speaker 5: I'm gonna I want to jump back into something you
Speaker 5: were talking about because you're a professional. You were a
Speaker 5: professional baseball player, that was your career, The need to
Speaker 5: become a manager, the dedication, the time, everything that you
Speaker 5: put into that. I was watching a John I don't
Speaker 5: know if you've seen the John Elway documentary, but it's
Speaker 5: phenomenal if you haven't seen it. And at the end
Speaker 5: of it, they talked to him in like a very
Speaker 5: intimate setting of like everything he had to give up
Speaker 5: to achieve what he did, the two Super Bowls, the
Speaker 5: Hall of Fame, and as he was talking about it,
Speaker 5: it's a lot of reflection now years later, right, I
Speaker 5: Mean I was a really little kid when John was playing,
Speaker 5: but so I you know, I didn't have the luxury
Speaker 5: to see him for a lot of years or anything
Speaker 5: like that. But but there's a lot of there's a
Speaker 5: lot of you're giving up a lot, there's a lot
Speaker 5: of sacrifice in that you're talking about the flip side.
Speaker 5: Now you're talking about how you're getting to spend time
Speaker 5: with your family and how important that is to you
Speaker 5: and all of those things. Can you just share a
Speaker 5: little bit about the sacrifice, because I don't think people
Speaker 5: understand the sacrifice and the dedication that big league players,
Speaker 5: managers all that that you guys put in other coaches,
Speaker 5: not just managers, other coaches on the staff, minor league coaches,
Speaker 5: player development people, front office people. I've seen that glimpse, man,
Speaker 5: and it is dedication. Can you talk a little bit
Speaker 5: about that and talk a little bit to the youngsters,
Speaker 5: the youth, the high school the college players on if
Speaker 5: you're get to chase this dream, this is what.
Speaker 2: The sacrifice looks like.
Speaker 5: And how do you keep a balance in that Alex
Speaker 5: with a family and what you're trying to do on
Speaker 5: your personal side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the perfect example for that is our
Speaker 2: family situation. Angelica, you know, had two miscarriages before having
Speaker 2: the twins. Her pregnancy in twenty seventeen was a high
Speaker 2: risk one. A month into the season, it was all red.
Speaker 2: You know what that means, you know, like you can
Speaker 2: barely walk, you have to rest, you're taking medicine. It's twins.
Speaker 2: And while she was here in Puerto Rico, I was
Speaker 2: in Houston with my first coaching job, and you know,
Speaker 2: no going to the doctor not knowing everything that it
Speaker 2: was going on, because yeah, she will tell me that
Speaker 2: she wasn't feeling right, but there was more into that,
Speaker 2: you know, and you know, her sacrifice for me to
Speaker 2: feel comfortable. You know, it goes without saying one of
Speaker 2: the biggest sacrifices that somebody has made in my life,
Speaker 2: you know, for me to keep chasing my dream of
Speaker 2: becoming a big league manager. I flew home July twenty twentieth,
Speaker 2: took a red eye, got to San Juan July twenty first,
Speaker 2: walked into the room at eight am, and the boys
Speaker 2: with the C section were born. Five minutes later.
Speaker 5: Oh no, man, that's a great story.
Speaker 2: Too late. Two days later, two days later, hop on
Speaker 2: a plane to Detroit. We have a game. I mean,
Speaker 2: her first kids twins. I'm away, she's here. Then the
Speaker 2: hurricane happen, you know, like I mean, I can't even imagine,
Speaker 2: you know, mister Crane, he got us a plane, you know,
Speaker 2: for for our families. Centtano, Beltron, Sentron Mine, you know, Correas.
Speaker 2: They hop on a plane, they got to Houston, and
Speaker 2: that's when everything settled. But the whole year, you know,
Speaker 2: to look back is the sacrifices the family. That's that's
Speaker 2: that's that's what it's all about from r N. You know.
Speaker 2: I know communication is a lot better, it's a lot
Speaker 2: easier right now, but is you're always missing something. You're
Speaker 2: always missing something. Yeah, and uh you have to realize
Speaker 2: that that's part of the job, regardless if you're playing
Speaker 2: Abel in Viverbridge, Florida. I know they don't have a
Speaker 2: team there, but I'm gonna walk you through my career.
Speaker 2: Or you go to San Antonio, Texas and you're missing something,
Speaker 2: and you go to Albuquerque, Albuquerque the same thing, and
Speaker 2: then you get called up and all that stuff, and
Speaker 2: you're flying all over the place, and uh, you will
Speaker 2: miss something. But the most important thing if you're gonna
Speaker 2: get if you're gonna get into this life and you
Speaker 2: are discipline enough and you can grind and have the
Speaker 2: toughness of you know, like a Dustin PEDROI I listened
Speaker 2: to him, you know in your show right the way
Speaker 2: he talks and the way he acts and all that.
Speaker 2: You gotta be a tough solb to survive here. Some
Speaker 2: of them they're better. Others, you know, they they have
Speaker 2: their career, but you gotta be tough, man. You gotta
Speaker 2: be really tough. And if you do that, there's a
Speaker 2: reward at the end, right, either after three years in
Speaker 2: big leagues or five or ten or thirteen and after
Speaker 2: your coaching career, there are some rewards. But you have
Speaker 2: to understand that throughout their journey, they're gonna be up
Speaker 2: and downs. It's not linear, it's not you know, only
Speaker 2: those guys in Cooper's downs and they they have stories, man,
Speaker 2: and they struggle and they suffer. Not every career is perfect,
Speaker 2: you know, there's probably nobody. Nobody had a perfect career,
Speaker 2: you know, and you have to understand that. But at
Speaker 2: the end, there's a reward, right, And I think teamwork
Speaker 2: something that we preach from the get go, goes on
Speaker 2: the field and off the field. You got to surround
Speaker 2: yourself with people that really understand this journey. I hate
Speaker 2: to say this business, but it is a business, but
Speaker 2: it's a journey. And when you surround with people that
Speaker 2: can support you and understand you. And I lived it,
Speaker 2: to be honest with you, after April twenty fifth, people
Speaker 2: are honest with you, that's when it really matters. Because
Speaker 2: I can tell you that this woman that I have here,
Speaker 2: she was very honest after the situation in Boston and
Speaker 2: whatever could it happen, and she was the one that
Speaker 2: slow everything down for me and for us, making sure
Speaker 2: that the family was in the right place for us
Speaker 2: to move forward whenever we decide to. Very good, yeah,
Speaker 2: very very important.
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Speaker 1: We have a couple of other questions, but I do
Speaker 1: want to get into because of the uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the goal of the program here, assuming you get back
Speaker 1: into coaching, managing, whatever it is you do some of
Speaker 1: the lessons that you've learned along the way for coaches
Speaker 1: of kids, for coaches of high school players, for coaches
Speaker 1: of college players. To me, it feels like Alex that
Speaker 1: there's not necessarily one golden rule for every club host.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to recognize the components of the
Speaker 1: clubhost to figure out what's going to apply and work
Speaker 1: in this clubhost. But are there some tenants that would
Speaker 1: work to helping build chemistry club hosts culture to help
Speaker 1: you with success that in otherwise if you ignore, maybe
Speaker 1: it won't go that way.
Speaker 2: I think I believe it's something I learned in Bristol.
Speaker 2: You don't think you believe, you know, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I truly believe that in the higher levels in most
Speaker 2: of the situations, less is more, And what I mean
Speaker 2: is you gotta let them be. Every group is different.
Speaker 2: I actually learned the hard way in nineteen. You go
Speaker 2: from winning the World Series and having that parade in
Speaker 2: October thirty first to be two and seven after the
Speaker 2: third road trip. And I remember in uh in spring
Speaker 2: training and saying we're gonna roll it back. You know,
Speaker 2: we're gonna do everything the same way and we're gonna
Speaker 2: be okay. Yeah, right, that doesn't work. You know, you
Speaker 2: have to understand that every game is different, every practice
Speaker 2: is different, every season is different. And in the professional level,
Speaker 2: and this is something I took heat for some reason
Speaker 2: when I was managing in Boston. Whenever I say the
Speaker 2: roster is a roster, they thought I was taking a
Speaker 2: jab at the front offices. No, the roster is the roster.
Speaker 2: The roster on Monday. The roster on Tuesday might be
Speaker 2: different than the roster on Monday. On Monday, you play
Speaker 2: a thirteen inning game and you use all your bullets
Speaker 2: out of the bullpen. You don't have the same roster
Speaker 2: on Tuesday. You do not have that. You have guys down.
Speaker 2: You guys have that. Guys that are not going to pitch,
Speaker 2: and in the ninth and and maybe your closer is
Speaker 2: not pitching. You know who might be pitching the guy
Speaker 2: that you called up that morning because somebody had options
Speaker 2: and you have to send down. You have to understand
Speaker 2: that every single day, that every day is different. Every
Speaker 2: day is different. And this applies to literally two literally
Speaker 2: you know, we see it, man, like there today there's
Speaker 2: this kid, Caleb, awesome kid. He loves uh, he loves
Speaker 2: the w W, he loves and uh little guy boom boom.
Speaker 2: I mean he uses the pats and all this and
Speaker 2: I let it just do it. Who cares? So Caleb
Speaker 2: on Saturday, he was all over the place, all over
Speaker 2: the place. He was there's a there's a we had
Speaker 2: a batty mission going he he wasn't into it. We
Speaker 2: had a soft uh station, he wasn't into it. All
Speaker 2: he wanted to do that day was to play catch
Speaker 2: and throw the ball off the wall. But you know what, Caleb,
Speaker 2: we're not We're not playing catch today. Today's offensive day.
Speaker 2: And he wasn't into it. So as coaches, we know
Speaker 2: that Caleb loves playing the game all that, but that day,
Speaker 2: you know what, we let Caleb do whatever they want,
Speaker 2: you want to do that, you do that, you do it,
Speaker 2: but we have to understand that Kaylee wasn't into it
Speaker 2: that day. So you have to understand that, man. But
Speaker 2: I think as far as like the other thing, and
Speaker 2: this is something that you guys know, and you guys
Speaker 2: have been in big meetings and uh, you know in
Speaker 2: the off season how we're gonna get better all this
Speaker 2: and all that. You know, which one I hate when
Speaker 2: we have those meetings. We have to be better at communication? No,
Speaker 2: you know what if you are saying that we have
Speaker 2: to be better at communication, you know what's going on.
Speaker 2: Your communication sucks, you know, So let's avoid that one.
Speaker 2: Let's avoid down man like that. I mean, like, let's
Speaker 2: avoid the oh, we have to be better at communication. Well,
Speaker 2: you know what, we suck at communication, you know, and
Speaker 2: that's something that goes from litlely all the way to
Speaker 2: the big bigs. You know. Let's stop that one. And
Speaker 2: I think the other the other part of it, and
Speaker 2: this is something that you have to do in a
Speaker 2: leadership role. You have to delegate. You have to understand
Speaker 2: that you cannot do everything by yourself. In two thousand
Speaker 2: and eight, it was a day game in Fenway, Me
Speaker 2: and Pedro used to go out half hour before the
Speaker 2: game just to sit there with Tito and just talk.
Speaker 2: You know. It was amazing. And then as a manager,
Speaker 2: that's what I do. You know, like I will show up.
Speaker 2: I'll be in the dugout thirty or thirty five minutes early,
Speaker 2: just to sit there. See who comes in, you know, players,
Speaker 2: and we talk and all that. So we learned that
Speaker 2: from Tito. So Tito that particular day he goes, he
Speaker 2: see come here. I'm like, what you got. He's like,
Speaker 2: you know you're gonna manage? Right, I'm like, Tito, don't
Speaker 2: try to retire me. Man, I still can play the game.
Speaker 2: I want to keep playing. No, no, no, Cicelini, he
Speaker 2: calls me Cicelini, Cicelyna. No no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 2: It's not that. I just want to give you one
Speaker 2: advice and like what you got. He's like, when you
Speaker 2: become a manager, you have to delegate, and like what
Speaker 2: you mean? He's like, they see, you have to do
Speaker 2: the media twice a day. You have to meet with
Speaker 2: the GM, you have to meet with the trainers. You
Speaker 2: have to do this. You have to do that. If
Speaker 2: you don't trust the people that you have in the
Speaker 2: coaching staff, you're not going to be successful. That's what
Speaker 2: Meals is here. He goes, that's what Mills is here.
Speaker 2: He runs the show like, Okay, so in a leadership role,
Speaker 2: that's what you got to do. Man, Like this guy,
Speaker 2: this guy the quarterback easy, you know, like he made
Speaker 2: me better on TV. I went from very being very
Speaker 2: shy and then not being able to, you know, articulate
Speaker 2: my ideas, you know, on National TV, Live TV, sweating,
Speaker 2: sweating hard, ten thirty, the show when it was a
Speaker 2: show at ten thirty, and little by little, he learned
Speaker 2: his teammate, Okay, why can't I get from Alex? Why
Speaker 2: can't I get from Alex? Why can't I get from
Speaker 2: this guy boom boom boom and the quarterback the quarterback.
Speaker 2: But he trusted us, He trusted the people around him,
Speaker 2: and that's why he's very successful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what That's also why managers get so upset
Speaker 1: when when the front office says we're gonna get rid
Speaker 1: of coaches, because these are the people I trust the most.
Speaker 1: Show Walter told us the story last week. I mean
Speaker 1: that cost him his job in New York. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna be here if you're gonna let go of my coaches.
Speaker 1: I mean that you just share to shared a great
Speaker 1: insight into into the delegation, but the trust factor, the
Speaker 1: relationship and when it comes to coaches, go ahead, justin.
Speaker 1: We got a couple of minutes left here with ac.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so good, and we're going to get to the
Speaker 5: kitchen sink here in a second. I do want to
Speaker 5: get to a couple couple of things. I just want
Speaker 5: to get to Matt's question here in the term grind,
Speaker 5: I think it's maybe a negative connotation to it, but
Speaker 5: I think it's a great question overall. And he just asked,
Speaker 5: what's the grind like of being a manager? You just
Speaker 5: talked about all the things that you have to do
Speaker 5: right the media, which is just the pounding of the
Speaker 5: questions over and over. I mean, I find that amazing,
Speaker 5: the psychological experiment of hearing the same question over and over. Right,
Speaker 5: what is that grind like of being a manager?
Speaker 2: I can compare that aspect of the job to a
Speaker 2: soap opera. Right, Days of our Lives right, Like Days
Speaker 2: of our Lives never ends, right, He's still going right
Speaker 2: like shand through the hours, like shand through the hour glass.
Speaker 2: It's amazing every day. We used to watch it in college.
Speaker 2: But let's say February fifteenth, for my or Florida, a
Speaker 2: matter of the year, you sit on that bench to
Speaker 2: talk to the media for the first time. You know,
Speaker 2: Kevin will put you there or the Great Abbey, you know,
Speaker 2: Alex first day on the bench at one o'clock, first enemy,
Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, who's gonna talk before me? Dave Heim Breslo,
Speaker 2: you know, Okay, they go first, and then I go, okay, cool,
Speaker 2: that's the way we're gonna do it. You sit there
Speaker 2: that day and he starts, and you better make sure
Speaker 2: you are consistent and you control the narrative for one
Speaker 2: sixty two plus because as soon as you've given an opening.
Speaker 2: Oh but in forour myer, she said this, you're done. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm really good at that. I have a good memory,
Speaker 2: and I kind of like, you know, control the narrative.
Speaker 2: But it is a tough job. It is a tough job.
Speaker 2: You have to defend your players, you have to defend
Speaker 2: the organization. I think a month after I got fired,
Speaker 2: you know, I thought about it, and you know, you
Speaker 2: become a firefighter, you know, like any liddle fire. You
Speaker 2: have to you know, like Okay, no, no, we're not
Speaker 2: going that way, especially in that city. I mean, if
Speaker 2: if you're given something, man, they're gonna talk about it forever.
Speaker 2: You know, Like think about this one, Carl, You think
Speaker 2: about this one. The Celtics pulled that trade, right the
Speaker 2: damn Brown The Red Sox were struggling, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, the Red Sox won fifteen fifteen games in
Speaker 2: a row. Nobody talk about the Celtics anymore. Nobody. It
Speaker 2: didn't matter, Brad. They were crushing Brat Stevens. They were
Speaker 2: crushing Brat, I mean crushing. They got hot and they
Speaker 2: forgot about Brat. That's how it works, you know. Is
Speaker 2: is that interesting about Alex? But uh, Alex? For the
Speaker 2: coaches out there, what about the wins? In laws?
Speaker 1: What about the losses? Like they do they impact you?
Speaker 1: Do you have trouble sleeping? Quick answer on this? I'm
Speaker 1: just curious. Do the games both you are the outcomes
Speaker 1: of the games? Like is that a grind part?
Speaker 2: I think the way you play the game is the
Speaker 2: one that kind of like give you sleepless nights if
Speaker 2: you are in a stretch that you're not playing well,
Speaker 2: you're not playing clean baseball. You go through spring training
Speaker 2: preaching the same things over and over and over and
Speaker 2: over and doesn't happen. That's when you're like, man, am
Speaker 2: I doing it right? You know? Do we have to
Speaker 2: change something? If you're losing games and you're playing good baseball,
Speaker 2: you know, like, okay, you know it's going to turn around. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So that that part, you know, it's not lost. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's how you lost. No, no, it's how you lose.
Speaker 2: For me, is how you lose. Yeah. All right, let's
Speaker 2: get to the kitchen sink here. We're running a little
Speaker 2: deep here.
Speaker 1: So these are quick hitters, Alex, sort of off the
Speaker 1: cuff questions you give kind of a quick answer on it,
Speaker 1: and four different questions for you kitchen sink. First question
Speaker 1: has to do with sort of you and your your
Speaker 1: baseball life off of the field. What about working on
Speaker 1: the television side surprised you the most.
Speaker 2: How smart people are. I mean they're very knowledgeable, and
Speaker 2: not only as far as like the numbers. They know
Speaker 2: the game situation. Sitting in that green room from from
Speaker 2: seven to ten and then going back after the show
Speaker 2: at ten thirty and going back they new situations. Uh,
Speaker 2: and we're talking about from you to the producers, to
Speaker 2: the people you know, cutting tapes and all that they
Speaker 2: have outstanding out the idea of how basically play the game.
Speaker 5: Yeah, excellent, that's awesome. All right, let's get to the
Speaker 5: second one here. This is a little bit deeper here.
Speaker 5: So people say a baseball season is a marathon. Someone
Speaker 5: who runs marathons, how do they compare?
Speaker 2: Actually that was my uh, that was my uh swim
Speaker 2: trained speech. You know, is a marathon. You're gonna go
Speaker 2: through up and downs, but you're gonna be able to finish,
Speaker 2: find the finish line and think the next finish line'm
Speaker 2: gonna find is Chicago in October eleventh. But uh, you're
Speaker 2: doing another marathon. I think the preparate the preppar. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we're doing Chicago, Chicagokay, yeah yeah. And if I'm not working,
Speaker 2: if I'm not working next year, we're doing Boston. Oh okay. Hey,
Speaker 2: And I would promise to I'm gonna be if you
Speaker 2: do Boston.
Speaker 1: I'll go with you. I won't run, but I will
Speaker 1: be there rooting you on. Wait for me at the
Speaker 1: Lantox Wait for me at the Lantox Hotel. But next
Speaker 1: question here, going back to the question, going back to
Speaker 1: the question the preparation.
Speaker 2: The preparation obviously very different, but you have to be
Speaker 2: prepared for both marathons. You have to, you know, and
Speaker 2: you have to be on point because if you show
Speaker 2: up in spring training out of shape and not ready
Speaker 2: to go, it's going to take you a while to
Speaker 2: get to where you want to be. And we've seen
Speaker 2: different examples players doing that right, Like, yeah, they have
Speaker 2: good seasons, but it take them a while to get
Speaker 2: to the where they want to be because they weren't
Speaker 2: ready in the marathon. If you're not ready, man, you
Speaker 2: probably you're not gonna survive. Man. But when that when
Speaker 2: that thirteen miles comes, you know, it's half and you're like,
Speaker 2: I gotta keep going, you know, but I think forget
Speaker 2: grind and come get me. That's where the grind. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the grind mentally, the grind is tough, but something that
Speaker 2: is I don't want to say exactly the same. But
Speaker 2: September and the last five miles, the fans will get
Speaker 2: you to the finish line. They will get you there. Adrenaline,
Speaker 2: we'll get you there. And uh man, when you cross
Speaker 2: that finish line, in eighteen was amazing in New York
Speaker 2: was amazing too, great great answer, marathon and a marathon runner.
Speaker 1: Next one here, Where did the names of your twins,
Speaker 1: Xander and Isander come from?
Speaker 2: So my middle name is that Alexander. So we went Xander,
Speaker 2: you know, obviously there, and Isander. That's how we call
Speaker 2: it Isander in Spanish. So it's like and Xander. You know,
Speaker 2: if you if you actually translate, he's and Sander. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: but he's tough for them, and I feel bad for them,
Speaker 2: so you know, like he's Sanders, Like what who? Whatever?
Speaker 2: That's where it comes from. Good ass, both on their
Speaker 2: toes at all times.
Speaker 5: All right, man, last one here and then we'll get
Speaker 5: to your MVP. Where is Where is your happy place?
Speaker 2: Uh? Here? Right here in Congoa's my hometown, my hometown.
Speaker 2: This is where we This is where I grow up.
Speaker 2: My mom lives five miles from here, My sister lives
Speaker 2: three miles from here, my other sister two miles from here.
Speaker 2: Little League, the boys school. We got everything here. Everything
Speaker 2: that we need, we have it. We have it here.
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: Question for us AC MVP. Not the most valuable player,
Speaker 1: but who's the most valuable person in your life, whether
Speaker 1: it was when you were growing up, whether it's right now.
Speaker 1: But who's the most valuable person in your life? I
Speaker 1: want to say Angelica. Angelica h.
Speaker 2: The obvious one. I can say my mom. But I
Speaker 2: think since Angelica showed up in in my life, a
Speaker 2: lot of things happened, you know, and you know it's
Speaker 2: been a blessing. And I can tell you what we
Speaker 2: went through this year. It wasn't easy, but it was
Speaker 2: a lot easier having her around, you know. Camilla, of course,
Speaker 2: she means the world to me. You know, since she
Speaker 2: was born, a lot of things changed. But that actually
Speaker 2: that partnership that they have now, Camilla and Angelica have
Speaker 2: helped me to deal with a lot, to make me better,
Speaker 2: to understand the other side of the equation. And without them,
Speaker 2: you know, I wouldn't be this happy, to be honest
Speaker 2: with you. Yeah, you look great. I hope you've enjoyed
Speaker 2: this as much as we have.
Speaker 5: You.
Speaker 2: You've shared so many great information. Thank you, Alex, thank you,
Speaker 2: and good luck with project and you know, let's see
Speaker 2: what if you dual exactly? Keep on myling man, you
Speaker 2: look great. So happy for you and thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2: Thank you brother h