Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to the latest edition of Dirt from
Speaker 1: the Dugout. Excited about this one tonight we have my
Speaker 1: good friend and former Major League manager player, college World
Speaker 1: Series participant, overall wonderful person, Alex.
Speaker 2: Coor is going to join us.
Speaker 1: Of course, Justin Mussel was along for the ride, and
Speaker 1: just another line, another guy in a long line of
Speaker 1: tremendous guests, Justin that we've had on Dirt from the Dugout.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Rabbi, excited for him.
Speaker 4: Man, it's obviously cool a family, you know, baseball family,
Speaker 4: So it's what we're all about right at the Parent Dugout.
Speaker 4: So it's cool to have this conversation with him and
Speaker 4: talk about his upbringing and everything that baseball meant to
Speaker 4: them as they grew up together.
Speaker 1: Right, Just a reminder before we bring him in, we
Speaker 1: invite everybody to become members join along with us here.
Speaker 1: The Parent Dugout dot Com is our platform, and underneath
Speaker 1: that big umbrella we have Baseball Recruiting Confidential, we have
Speaker 1: Dirt from the Dugout, we have blogs that are written
Speaker 1: by both Justin and myself, and we have all sorts
Speaker 1: of questions and opportunities. Ultimately, it allows you to connect
Speaker 1: with the people that we have on both Dirt from
Speaker 1: the Dugout and Baseball Recruiting Confidential gets you access that
Speaker 1: you otherwise would not get and it is a must
Speaker 1: have for your journey. With that being said, let's bring
Speaker 1: on a guy who said as many journeys in a
Speaker 1: very young career and young life when it comes to baseball,
Speaker 1: and that is my good friend Alex Cora, Capyitan, thanks
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 3: 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 Wrhight. Just a real
Speaker 1: solid list of guests. But I learned as much and
Speaker 1: enjoyed as much of any part of my career hanging
Speaker 1: out with Alex Boris. So again, thanks for being with us.
Speaker 2: It means a lot now, Like I told you, you know,
Speaker 2: Tober twenty eighth in at Dodger Stadium, right, I never
Speaker 2: you know, you meant a lot 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 up
Speaker 2: and book I still remember the first time I went there,
Speaker 2: uh to do my tryout and it was something about
Speaker 2: it pop up in tropy Ginaphield and I had to
Speaker 2: explain the fans. The outfielder didn't see it, and I
Speaker 2: was so freaking nervous. You know, I had no idea
Speaker 2: called Rapids. You know, He's like, come on, you know
Speaker 2: this guys is the guy. But you know you meant
Speaker 2: you mean a lot to me. He's now that you
Speaker 2: meant a lot to me. You mean a lot to me,
Speaker 2: and I'm happy to be here with you guys.
Speaker 1: Okay, great, So our goal on this show. I think
Speaker 1: you've seen it before. Is really to share your journey
Speaker 1: to help and inform many of the parents of young
Speaker 1: kids today, whether they are like yours, nine, ten, eleven
Speaker 1: years old or those going into high school or into college.
Speaker 1: But really just to share what you did on your
Speaker 1: journey and maybe they can learn some things, some roads
Speaker 1: to go down, some roads not to go down. Let's
Speaker 1: go back to Puerto Rico and your your first introduction
Speaker 1: to the sport, because I know you just came from
Speaker 1: a soccer practice or something where your kids were so
Speaker 1: you had options. Why did the Cora family gravitate to baseball?
Speaker 2: It was very easy. Uh. Dad was the founder of
Speaker 2: the Little League chapter in our hometown, So you have
Speaker 2: no other options, 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 creos.
Speaker 2: He was, he was involved in sport words. He was
Speaker 2: used to work for two newspapers in the island, one
Speaker 2: that is not running anymore, the San Juan Start that's
Speaker 2: the English version of the newspaper here, and the other
Speaker 2: one 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 Maddy 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 no runs, one hit, no RBIs bro
Speaker 2: I get chills. You're thinking about it. I love my
Speaker 2: dad when I was thirteen, and uh, just going back
Speaker 2: to that, you know, it was it was, you know,
Speaker 2: we we eat breakfast, we talked baseball, we had lunch,
Speaker 2: we talked baseball, we had dinner, we talked baseball. So
Speaker 2: that's how we started. Yeah, okay, great, oh.
Speaker 4: Cool, great, so cool, Alex. I want to I want
Speaker 4: to ask you about that. I know it's very personal.
Speaker 4: Obviously you lost your dad.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: One of the things we talk about all the time
Speaker 4: on this show is just adversity, right and handling adversity
Speaker 4: and overcoming adversity. We all have some form of adversity
Speaker 4: in our life that comes at us at some point.
Speaker 4: What was that like for you and how did you
Speaker 4: pick up the pieces and move forward on such a
Speaker 4: tough loss for you know, a father figure that was
Speaker 4: so important in your life and to carry forward in
Speaker 4: what you were doing.
Speaker 2: Joey Cora joycra You know, my brother, obviously, my mom
Speaker 2: who's the driving force behind our family, my two sisters
Speaker 2: who drove me two games, baseball games, volleyball games, whatever
Speaker 2: I wanted to do that were around me. But just
Speaker 2: having my brother just leading me. We went to Shaye Stadium,
Speaker 2: me and my dad to see Joey 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 Joey 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 my my mentor.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I tell people if
Speaker 2: you follow our careers. Joey decided to go to college.
Speaker 2: I decided to go to college. Obviously, we both got
Speaker 2: drafted high in the draft. Actually he was higher first
Speaker 2: round pick and I think it was like eighty five
Speaker 2: by the Padres. I got drafted by Dodgers in the
Speaker 2: third 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 free for me. He was so
Speaker 2: cool for me. People ask me, who's your favorite player?
Speaker 2: Roberto Alomar, hands down, that's my favorite player, no hesitation,
Speaker 2: and people go like, aw is no Joey. I'm like,
Speaker 2: Joey's my brother, you know, Like I don't see him
Speaker 2: as a big leaguer. He was a big league he
Speaker 2: was a big league coach. But I see him as
Speaker 2: my guy, you know, And whatever my mom cooked for lunch,
Speaker 2: my guy was eating the same food as I was,
Speaker 2: you know. So just follow his footsteps, you know. And
Speaker 2: he went through a lot throughout his career a lot.
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty six or eighty six, Yeah, I was
Speaker 2: in sixth grade, and I still remember my best friend,
Speaker 2: Rolando or Rutiner. He actually played basketball. He was part
Speaker 2: of the team that beat a team USA in the
Speaker 2: Olympics in Athens. Yeah, he played for that team. Carlos Alroyo.
Speaker 2: Orlando was there, Jose Ortiz So, Orlando was in my class,
Speaker 2: and Joey was playing in Beaumont, Texas Double A. And
Speaker 2: Joey got stabbed after a game, and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: emergency all this stuff, blah blah blah. Nobody told me
Speaker 2: anything about it. Of course, you know, I was ten
Speaker 2: at that time, and uh, he was in the in
Speaker 2: the back page of the newspaper. Joycore gets stabbed. Everybody's
Speaker 2: hiding the newspaper at the house. I go to school
Speaker 2: and and Roto that's how I call him. He tells
Speaker 2: me about it. My mom is the school secretary. So
Speaker 2: I get up, I sprint to the office. Climb. You
Speaker 2: know what happened to Joey Going back to the question,
Speaker 2: that's adversity, right, and just to see him bounce back
Speaker 2: from that and actually make it to the big leagus
Speaker 2: the next year, with the San Diego Padres. Larry Bow
Speaker 2: was the manager, and uh that that was kind of
Speaker 2: like the first lesson. Uh, to play for Larry Bow
Speaker 2: too was a big lesson too, you know about adversity
Speaker 2: and dealing with a boy. He was tough and joy
Speaker 2: he was very tough, but he is he is, but
Speaker 2: he went through a lot, and uh for me to
Speaker 2: just lived it right, nobody had to tell me how
Speaker 2: to do it. Just I just watch, you know, and
Speaker 2: uh 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 uh fourteen under or thirteen fourteen,
Speaker 2: and uh, 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 uh, all of a sudden, I
Speaker 2: wasn't 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 I was making when I
Speaker 2: was playing twelve under. And this coach Micki Selano. I still,
Speaker 2: I mean this guy, he actually made me a big leader.
Speaker 2: I'm in the first base doug out after hitting another
Speaker 2: ground ball to second, and I'm sitting there and he
Speaker 2: turns around and looks at me and he says, you
Speaker 2: know where you're playing every day here? Right? I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: it's because your brother is a big leader. If not,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't be playing. I was like devastated, So whatever
Speaker 2: for me to remember this at fifty you know what
Speaker 2: he did for me? So long story short, after my
Speaker 2: fifth year in the big leagues, I go to this
Speaker 2: sports bar here in Kagua's running to Mickey Serrano and he's, hey, Alex,
Speaker 2: what's going on? Long time? I see this and that
Speaker 2: we have a few beers and I pull him aside
Speaker 2: and I say, I may come here. I'm going to
Speaker 2: tell you what you did for me. And he's like,
Speaker 2: what are you talking about. He's like, remember when you
Speaker 2: were coaching me at fourteen under when I was thirteen,
Speaker 2: Well you told me one night and he's like, no,
Speaker 2: I don't remember you told me this. And because of you,
Speaker 2: I decided to be good and become a big leader.
Speaker 2: And I'm a big leader because you the guy was.
Speaker 2: He was in shock. He was like, no way, I'm like, yes,
Speaker 2: you did that to a thirteen year old kid. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, I was just having this conversation with Chris
Speaker 1: today about the things that you remember, like the things
Speaker 1: that stick in your mind that are so irrelevant to
Speaker 1: so many people, Like it's just amazing and the impact
Speaker 1: of coach can have on a kid and that conversation
Speaker 1: and what you believe it did, whether.
Speaker 2: It truly did it or not, but you believe it.
Speaker 1: And that's the impact that a good coach can have
Speaker 1: on anybody at any age.
Speaker 2: That's you know, it was a long story about a
Speaker 2: coach or a b but.
Speaker 1: There's a valuable lesson, a real valuable lesson in all
Speaker 1: of it. All right, So, Capyton, the best thing we
Speaker 1: 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 as a player. So you're done playing
Speaker 1: now you look back on it. Is there something you
Speaker 1: 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. Whatever.
Speaker 2: December two, Kim Name calls me and tells me that
Speaker 2: we're gonna desiginate you for assignment. I was like, what
Speaker 2: after what I just did? We made it to the playoff,
Speaker 2: we got Adrian Belcher, says stories on myself, this is
Speaker 2: a great infield. We're gonna be okay, blah blah blah cool.
Speaker 2: Ended up signing with Cleveland in the off season. Late
Speaker 2: in the off season and throughout the years, I always
Speaker 2: wonder why, you know, I thought I was, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of like becoming a really good baseball player, a
Speaker 2: really good part of a championship caliber team. And then
Speaker 2: when actually he started in Bristol, just being around the
Speaker 2: you know, everybody that goes through the numbers, including our
Speaker 2: friend and Sarah, right like, oh okay, there is a
Speaker 2: little bit different conversations with xgms about you know, the
Speaker 2: past and how they see the game, and yes, we
Speaker 2: have an idea as a player, but no, we always
Speaker 2: believe that we are better than what people say, right,
Speaker 2: Like we are better, especially my type of role. You know,
Speaker 2: the utility player wants to play every day. That's the
Speaker 2: reality of it, you know, like, yeah, you accept your role,
Speaker 2: yeah yeah, yeah, but no, no, you want to play
Speaker 2: every day. So throughout the years, I always wonder what happened,
Speaker 2: and then you know, I get to Houston, I understand
Speaker 2: more about the numbers. I get to Boston and everything
Speaker 2: opens up, you know, projections and expected numbers and all that.
Speaker 2: And I bet the Dodgers in two thousand and four
Speaker 2: they were like, this is it for the kid. That's it,
Speaker 2: this is all he's going to do. And there I
Speaker 2: was watching Jeff Kent, uh during his speech in Cooperstown.
Speaker 2: I can say that the guy that came in after
Speaker 2: me with the Dodgers was Jeff Kent. So they made
Speaker 2: a decision. You know, yeah, he's a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2: But that's what I learned. Like, like, I'm not saying
Speaker 2: expecting numbers are everything, because at the end, you know,
Speaker 2: production matters, but there's certain there's certain information that is
Speaker 2: very important for organizations to make decisions, and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: I think all that stuff and probably in two thousand
Speaker 2: and four it wasn't obviously it wasn't as deep as
Speaker 2: what it is today, but there were a little bit
Speaker 2: ahead of the curve with the Dodgers. That's when Paul
Speaker 2: de Podesta came in in uh in February of four,
Speaker 2: you know, and I think that we're looking at stuff
Speaker 2: like that, and that's you know, that's why they made
Speaker 2: the decision. But that's something I learned as a coach
Speaker 2: as a manager, Like this is the way they evaluated
Speaker 2: Alex as a player.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. A good one.
Speaker 4: Now I want to touch on that because there's a
Speaker 4: chase now for you know, for the metrics, right, I
Speaker 4: mean you can go all the way to eight nine
Speaker 4: ten year olds chasing metrics and some organizations ranking you know,
Speaker 4: nine year olds, right, I mean, it's it's it's the
Speaker 4: chase for the metrics.
Speaker 2: If they're ranking the core of Alicianos, they have no
Speaker 2: chance right now about to have fun and then go
Speaker 2: to uh, you know, go to the store and get
Speaker 2: some yogurt after the yeh man.
Speaker 4: So the chase for the metrics, though obviously data metrics,
Speaker 4: you know, a big part of my role with the
Speaker 4: Brewers was focused on the draft, right. It's a part
Speaker 4: of draft decisions, and it's part of you know, free
Speaker 4: agent signs and projectability, like you said, and there's all
Speaker 4: of that, and college coaches are.
Speaker 3: Using it now more than ever.
Speaker 4: But I want to I want to just get your
Speaker 4: opinion on this because I think lost in the shuffle.
Speaker 4: Here are some of the nuanced aspects of a player,
Speaker 4: the makeup, the intangibles, the baseball IQ and and obviously
Speaker 4: those are anecdotal sort of things.
Speaker 3: But how do you balance that?
Speaker 4: And what is your recommendation for youngsters chasing some of
Speaker 4: those metrics instead of just developing their skills and trying
Speaker 4: to become the best player. They can be best teammate,
Speaker 4: they can be understand the game at the highest level
Speaker 4: they can What is your advice to the youngsters on
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 2: uh yeah, we go to the indoor facility here at
Speaker 2: the Pueri Rico Baseball High School Academy. Son I set up.
Speaker 2: They have a hit track, and for how much I
Speaker 2: hate sometimes when hitters hit the ball at the end
Speaker 2: the bat of the good damn.
Speaker 1: All right, justin we'll get I think we just lost
Speaker 1: him for a second. We'll get him back. But I
Speaker 1: think he's going to get into a story about as
Speaker 1: much as he probably didn't like the idea of seeing
Speaker 1: the ball go square off the bat, sometimes when you
Speaker 1: hit one off the end and it falls in for
Speaker 1: a hit, like that's a good thing.
Speaker 2: What I'm going to what I'd love to get into
Speaker 2: with him.
Speaker 1: Too, is his impression when he started to talk about
Speaker 1: learning different things when he's not a player Moneyball, for instance.
Speaker 1: I'm real curious what he thought of the movie.
Speaker 2: 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 tore
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 3: Yeah, and Hunt Revie.
Speaker 4: I mean with all the guests we've had on, all
Speaker 4: the people that have been there, managed at a high level,
Speaker 4: played at a high level, all of famers like we
Speaker 4: you know, how many times have we heard though for
Speaker 4: the youth, like have fun, right, don't be focused on
Speaker 4: those things. Just get better, play some baseball, do the
Speaker 4: things that you're going to do, like you said tonight,
Speaker 4: you know, go play your game and then go to
Speaker 4: the go to the grocery store and get some yogurt,
Speaker 4: you know, Like it's kind of that simple at a
Speaker 4: young age, and we're over complicating it. And I don't
Speaker 4: think it's beneficial to the players. I don't think it's
Speaker 4: beneficial to the the mental aspect of enjoying a childhood
Speaker 4: and being able to play other sports. And so I'm
Speaker 4: looking forward to hearing his response on that and where
Speaker 4: you know, what he's what he wants to do on
Speaker 4: that side of it. But we are hearing that over
Speaker 4: and over, right, Like you know, enjoy the game like
Speaker 4: multiple sports, like, you know, have fun.
Speaker 3: That's where we're at.
Speaker 2: That's great. I think I think he's back. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: I live it every day. That's okay. Here we go,
Speaker 2: we go to the batting cages, to the indoor batting
Speaker 2: cages here, and uh and the boys they do it,
Speaker 2: you know, like they hit it and they look back,
Speaker 2: and that's what everybody does. So I cannot go against
Speaker 2: it because is the reality of it. You know, we
Speaker 2: got we got the technology, and uh, we we have
Speaker 2: to use it, but you know, you have to be
Speaker 2: careful too to to overdo it, right, Like at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, there's not a better feel like
Speaker 2: when you when you hit a ball, you know, like
Speaker 2: you know, I didn't have too many of them, but
Speaker 2: I knew right And uh. Actually I had this conversation
Speaker 2: with Brad Stevens two years ago. It was doing our
Speaker 2: rookie development program. We went to a practice facility with
Speaker 2: the Celtics and Kyle Hudson, who was a third base
Speaker 2: coach for for the Red Sox. He he asked Brad
Speaker 2: about technology and how they use it, especially in the
Speaker 2: practice environment, and uh, Brad very politely said I know,
Speaker 2: you know, our analysts are gonna hate the answer, but
Speaker 2: this is my sanctuary. And there's nothing better for a shooter.
Speaker 2: When 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 but one ball off and
Speaker 2: you know you don't have to look back the other one.
Speaker 2: And I actually talked to some are the Red Sox
Speaker 2: pitchers this year. So Ranger Suarez throws his first bullpen
Speaker 2: four myers. I think it's the second or third day
Speaker 2: of early camp whatever. You know, they showed up early,
Speaker 2: and you see all these guys throwing hard ninety five
Speaker 2: ninety six and looking back and boom boom boom getting
Speaker 2: feedback and Rangers throws twenty pitches. They all move to
Speaker 2: the edges of the plate. I can see it on
Speaker 2: the monitor. I can see it where they 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. He
Speaker 2: didn't know to It's like, I know what I need
Speaker 2: to do to keep getting better, and I think we
Speaker 2: actually need to. Yeah, we take advantage of the technology,
Speaker 2: but it's baseball, especially at this age, you know, nine,
Speaker 2: ten eleven, Baseball is at his purists, right, show up, stretch,
Speaker 2: play catch, see the ball, hit the ball, run hard,
Speaker 2: and enjoy it, you know, is what we try to do.
Speaker 2: But understanding that now that she's really involved, I'm really involved.
Speaker 2: Now you know I'm there, it's a lot different. It's
Speaker 2: a lot different, and like, honestly, think about it, Carl,
Speaker 2: you also, I mean 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.
Speaker 3: Alex looks like it's me and you man.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So going back to what I was saying,
Speaker 2: think about it, think about it. And I hate to
Speaker 2: compare myself with my boys, but when I was growing up,
Speaker 2: I think the brand of baseball was actually better in
Speaker 2: a sense. Yeah, and I remember it, just you know,
Speaker 2: like there's and I understand what we have coach pitch leagues.
Speaker 2: I understand why, but when we grew up, there was
Speaker 2: none of that. So you have to learn to play baseball.
Speaker 2: When you were six five, six seven, you were pitching,
Speaker 2: you were playing defense. And now and this started actually
Speaker 2: in eighty eighty six. It was kind of like in
Speaker 2: the nineties early nineties coach pitch. They put the two
Speaker 2: coaches in the outfield, you know, down the lines. Then
Speaker 2: you have the other two coaches, and everything the coaches
Speaker 2: do is stream instructions right like through second through the first,
Speaker 2: do this, do that. And I hated doing this in
Speaker 2: the big leagues, you know, as a manager, as a coach,
Speaker 2: when I used to play, But in this one, I
Speaker 2: will see it. When I used to play, there was
Speaker 2: none of that. You had to play the game. You
Speaker 2: had to react to the game. You had to learn
Speaker 2: the game at a high speed because if not, you
Speaker 2: were out.
Speaker 3: You were out.
Speaker 2: And now with all these and like I said, I
Speaker 2: understand why we're protecting the honors, 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 Q, 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 gonna develop, probably better than the
Speaker 2: way we're developing right.
Speaker 1: Now, no doubt. Let them figure their problems out. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of questions here. Let's get to this
Speaker 1: question from Mark Alex Who pushed you the most as
Speaker 1: a manager and what did you learn from that relationship?
Speaker 1: Who pushed you the most as a manager coach? And
Speaker 1: what 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.
Speaker 2: You know, probably people are gonna say, ah, he's playing
Speaker 2: the corporate card. But now that city, that city, the
Speaker 2: one I manage. Boston. Yeah, challenged me every single freaking day,
Speaker 2: every day, every day from day one in that press
Speaker 2: conference in November, I want to say, seventh of twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: all the way till April twenty fifth in Baltimore this year,
Speaker 2: just the expectations and the I mean, shoot, you feel
Speaker 2: that you have to win one hundred and sixty two
Speaker 2: games in Boston, and they push you to be rate
Speaker 2: and when you have bad days, you remember that you're
Speaker 2: in Family Park and you're playing in Boston, and you cannot,
Speaker 2: you know, mope around. You have to show up and
Speaker 2: and do it over and over and over again the
Speaker 2: right way as a manager. As a manager, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know what the future holds. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: in a good place right now. But from from that
Speaker 2: day when I signed that contrail, all the way to
Speaker 2: the decision one made, you know, that fan base challenged me.
Speaker 2: Man is is a NonStop is actually very intense, and
Speaker 2: honestly I can feel now kind of like oh okay,
Speaker 2: this is kind of.
Speaker 1: Like look at you you look at you, your smile,
Speaker 1: you relax, you look you look like somebody that doesn't
Speaker 1: have the green monster. The green monster takes on a
Speaker 1: whole different definition when you're staring at it every day.
Speaker 1: It is in a lot of ways. But let me
Speaker 1: ask you this time. You you win the World Series
Speaker 1: in your first year, did that then almost raise the
Speaker 1: expectations for a city that, as you said, put so
Speaker 1: much demand on every single game you play.
Speaker 2: I don't want to say that. I tortuly believe that.
Speaker 2: For however, I don't know how well how people saw
Speaker 2: it right, like, oh that was that was a team
Speaker 2: that they were supposed to win it? Yeah, probably, but no,
Speaker 2: but if that was the case, it's more pressure, you know,
Speaker 2: like 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 they 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 they're 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, yeah, we raised the bar right away, but
Speaker 2: I think we did an outstanding job. And that city
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. They don't care. They believe that they have
Speaker 2: to win every single game, every single game, which I love,
Speaker 2: you know, like it was a miss. Season's been fast
Speaker 2: to be really good.
Speaker 1: As somebody that watches so many of the games, the
Speaker 1: season has been fascinating because the world ended and now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the world's a lot better and
Speaker 1: here they are, maybe losing three games in a row
Speaker 1: and the world's disaster again. I mean, that's how it is,
Speaker 1: and that's how it is, and a lot of these
Speaker 1: very into it. Major League cities. Which is which is
Speaker 1: part of it? There is a question up here. You've
Speaker 1: sort of said we're in a good place now. A
Speaker 1: one person says you signed a baseball for them and
Speaker 1: it was the best birthday gift ever outside the Commonwealth hotel.
Speaker 1: So they say thank you for that, and then the
Speaker 1: next question is awesome. You know, are you going to
Speaker 1: come back and coach or manage again? People miss you?
Speaker 1: I think not necessarily the city, it doesn't, but people
Speaker 1: miss you. That is that part of your dream, your goal.
Speaker 2: I think at one point I'm going to get back
Speaker 2: when we don't know, we don't know, you know. And
Speaker 2: that's something that uh I went to. We've been through
Speaker 2: a lot of places this summer, a lot, you know,
Speaker 2: from volleyball tournaments in Minnesota to see our niece dominate
Speaker 2: UH her Nationals too. We went back to Boston and
Speaker 2: we watched three three matches at Gillette or sorry, Boston Stadium,
Speaker 2: Boston Stadium, it's not Jellet, Boston Stateium. We went there,
Speaker 2: and then we went to Switzerland and we went to Italy. UH.
Speaker 2: In Italy I had a chance to actually a text
Speaker 2: Alan Bart, who used to work with us, you know,
Speaker 2: with the with the Red Sox. He used to be
Speaker 2: with the Royals and the Mets, and we're going back
Speaker 2: and forth. He lives he lives in Florence right now,
Speaker 2: and we were trying to hooked up, you know, to
Speaker 2: have lunch 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: Jarie 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 had the boys in seventeen. We're in here.
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 blast, and uh, I'm like, you
Speaker 2: know what I needed a 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: the job, and honestly relieve that I don't have to
Speaker 2: go through scattery ports and the matrix and talk to
Speaker 2: the media twice twice a day and live in the
Speaker 2: 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, they're loving life and different
Speaker 2: you're but there's but there's three different opinions in that
Speaker 2: room right now up there. You know, if you ask
Speaker 2: the boys, boys, they they want me to manage and
Speaker 2: they have their teams, you know. And if you as Angelica,
Speaker 2: she's very polite about it. Let's see what the other
Speaker 2: part of the other part of that equation. And I'm
Speaker 2: sure that can change. By the way, by 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.
Speaker 2: 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. But you know you're good at what you do.
Speaker 1: That helps One other question, one other quickie before we
Speaker 1: get to more questions here. It is the summer season.
Speaker 1: Core is going to be a concerts too. That brings
Speaker 1: us the seat geet. There are baseball games all over
Speaker 1: the place. There are a summer concert series going on
Speaker 1: all over the place. Here on dirt from the dugout
Speaker 1: seat Geek, we offer you a ten off ten percent
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball tickets on seat Geek. So we're providing
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Speaker 1: your family, get out and traveling.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Joson.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So Alex, while Raddy gets his internet figured out there,
Speaker 4: I'm going to I want to jump back into something
Speaker 4: you were talking about because you're a professional. You were
Speaker 4: a professional baseball player, that was your career. I need
Speaker 4: to become a manager. The dedication, the time, everything that
Speaker 4: you put into that. I was watching a John I
Speaker 4: don't know if you've seen the John Elway documentary, but
Speaker 4: it's phenomenal if you haven't seen it. And at the
Speaker 4: end of it, they talked to him in like a
Speaker 4: very intimate setting of like everything he had to give
Speaker 4: up to achieve what he did, the two Super Bowls,
Speaker 4: the Hall of Fame, and as he was talking about it,
Speaker 4: it's a lot of reflection now years later, right. I Mean,
Speaker 4: I was a really little kid when John was playing,
Speaker 4: but so I you know, I didn't have the luxury
Speaker 4: to see him for a lot of years or anything
Speaker 4: like that. But but there's a lot of there's a
Speaker 4: lot of you're giving up a lot, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of sacrifice in that you're talking about the flip side.
Speaker 4: Now you're talking about how you're getting to spend time
Speaker 4: with your family and how important that is to you
Speaker 4: and all of those things. Can you just share a
Speaker 4: little bit about the sacrifice, because I don't think people
Speaker 4: understand the sacrifice and the dedication that big league players, managers,
Speaker 4: all that that you guys put in other coaches, not
Speaker 4: just managers, other coaches on the staff, minor league coaches,
Speaker 4: player development people, front office people. I've seen that glimpse, man,
Speaker 4: and it is dedicated. Can you talk a little bit
Speaker 4: about that and talk a little bit to the youngsters,
Speaker 4: the youth, the high school the college players on if
Speaker 4: you're get to chase this dream, this is what.
Speaker 3: The sacrifice looks like.
Speaker 4: And how do you keep a balance in that Alex
Speaker 4: with a family and what you're trying to do on
Speaker 4: 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 rest.
Speaker 2: You know what that means, you know, like you can
Speaker 2: barely walk, you have to rest, you're taking medicine is 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 the Red eye, got to San Juan July twenty first,
Speaker 2: walked into the room at eight a m. And the
Speaker 2: boys with the C section were born five minutes later.
Speaker 3: 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. Centano, Beltron, Centron Mine, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: Correas they hop on a plane, they got to Houston,
Speaker 2: and that's when everything settled. But the whole year, you know,
Speaker 2: you look back, is the sacrifice as a family. That's
Speaker 2: that's that's that's what it's all about. From r N.
Speaker 2: You know, I know, communication is a lot better. It's
Speaker 2: a lot easier right now, but is you're always missing something.
Speaker 2: You're always missing something, and you have to realize that
Speaker 2: that's part of the job, regardless if you're playing Abel
Speaker 2: in Viverbridge, Florida. I know they don't have a team there,
Speaker 2: but I'm going to walk you through my career. Or
Speaker 2: 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 Pedroia. 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 soob to survive here. Some
Speaker 2: of them they're better, others, you know, they have their career,
Speaker 2: but you gotta be tough, man. You gotta be really tough.
Speaker 2: And if you do that, there's a reward at the end,
Speaker 2: right either after three years in big leagues, or five
Speaker 2: or ten or thirteen, and after your coaching career there
Speaker 2: are some rewards, but you have to understand that throughout
Speaker 2: their journey, they're going to be up and downs. It's
Speaker 2: not linear, it's not you know, only those guys in
Speaker 2: Cooperstown's and they have stories, man, and they struggle and
Speaker 2: they suffer. Not every not every career is perfect, you know,
Speaker 2: there's probably nobody. Nobody had a perfect career, you know,
Speaker 2: and you have to understand that. But at the end,
Speaker 2: there's a reward, right And I think teamwork, something that
Speaker 2: we preach from the get go, goes on the field
Speaker 2: and off the field. You got to surround yourself with
Speaker 2: people that really understand this journey. I hate to say
Speaker 2: this business, but it is a business, but it's a journey.
Speaker 2: And when you surround with people that can support you
Speaker 2: and understand you. And I lived it, to be honest
Speaker 2: with you, after April twenty fifth, people are honest with you,
Speaker 2: that's when it really matters. Because I can tell you
Speaker 2: that this woman that I have here, she was very
Speaker 2: honest after the situation in Boston and whatever could it happen,
Speaker 2: and she was the one that slow everything down for
Speaker 2: me and for us making sure that the family was
Speaker 2: in the right place for us to move forward whenever
Speaker 2: we decide to. Very good, Yeah, very very important.
Speaker 1: We have a couple of other questions, but I do
Speaker 1: want to get into because of the you know, the
Speaker 1: goal of the program here, assuming you get back into coaching, managing,
Speaker 1: whatever it is you do, some of the lessons that
Speaker 1: you've learned along the way for coaches of kids, for
Speaker 1: coaches of high school players, for coaches of college players.
Speaker 1: To me, it feels like Alex that there's not necessarily
Speaker 1: one golden rule for every clubhouse. I mean, you have
Speaker 1: to recognize the components of the clubhouse to figure out
Speaker 1: what's going to apply and work in this clubhouse. But
Speaker 1: are there some tenants that would work to helping build
Speaker 1: chemistry clubhouse culture to help you with success that in
Speaker 1: otherwise if you ignore, maybe 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 gonna 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 too Italy.
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 the little guy
Speaker 2: boom boom. I mean he uses the pats and all
Speaker 2: this and I let it, just do it. Who cares?
Speaker 2: So Caleb on Saturday, he was all over the place,
Speaker 2: all over the place. He was there's a there's a
Speaker 2: we had a batty mission going. He wasn't into it.
Speaker 2: We had a softas uh station. He wasn't into it.
Speaker 2: All he wanted to do that day was to play
Speaker 2: catch and throw the ball off the wall. But you
Speaker 2: know what, Caleb, we're not we're not playing catch today.
Speaker 2: Today's offensive day. And he wasn't into it. So as coaches,
Speaker 2: we know that Caleb loves playing the game all that,
Speaker 2: but that day, you know what, we let Caleb do
Speaker 2: whatever they want.
Speaker 3: You want to do that, you do that, you do it.
Speaker 2: But we have to understand that Kayleb wasn't into it
Speaker 2: that day. You have to understand that, man. But I
Speaker 2: think as far as like the other thing, and this
Speaker 2: is something that you guys know, and you guys have
Speaker 2: been in big meetings and uh, you know in the
Speaker 2: off season how we're gonna get better all this and
Speaker 2: all that. You know, which one I hate when we
Speaker 2: 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 that one. Man like that, I mean, like,
Speaker 2: let's 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 literally all the way to
Speaker 2: the big bags. 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 can now do everything by yourself. In two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight, it was a day game in Fenway.
Speaker 2: Me and Pedro used to go out half hour before
Speaker 2: the 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.
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. I'm like, what
Speaker 2: do you mean. He's like, they see, you have to
Speaker 2: do the media twice a day. You have to meet
Speaker 2: with the GM, you have to meet with the trainers,
Speaker 2: you have to do this. You have to do that.
Speaker 2: If you don't trust the people that you have in
Speaker 2: the coaching staff, you're not going to be successful. That's
Speaker 2: why Mills is here. He goes that's what Mills is here.
Speaker 2: He runs the show. I'm like, okay, so in a
Speaker 2: leadership role, that's what you got to do. Man, Like
Speaker 2: this guy, this guy the quarterback easy, you know, like
Speaker 2: he made me better on TV. I went from very
Speaker 2: being very shy and then not being able to, you know,
Speaker 2: articulate my ideas, you know, on National TV, Live TV,
Speaker 2: sweating sweating hard, ten thirty, the show when it was
Speaker 2: a show at ten thirty, and little by little he
Speaker 2: learned his teammate, Okay, why can't I get from Alex?
Speaker 2: Why can't I get from Alex? Why can't get from
Speaker 2: this guy boom boom and the quarterback the quarterback. But
Speaker 2: he trusted us, He trusted the people around him, and
Speaker 2: 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 going to get
Speaker 1: rid of coaches, because these are the people I trust
Speaker 1: the most. Show Walter told us the story last week.
Speaker 1: I mean that cost him his job in New York.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be here if you're going to
Speaker 1: let go of my coaches. I mean that you just
Speaker 1: share to shared a great insight into into the delegation,
Speaker 1: but the trust factor, the relationship and when it comes
Speaker 1: to coaches, go ahead, justin.
Speaker 2: We got a couple of minutes left here with AC.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so good, and we're going to get to the
Speaker 4: kitchen sink here in a second. I do want to
Speaker 4: get to a couple couple of things. I just want
Speaker 4: to get to Matt's question here in the term grind,
Speaker 4: I think it's maybe a negative connotation to it, but
Speaker 4: I think it's a great question overall. And he just asked,
Speaker 4: what's the grind like of being a manager? You just
Speaker 4: talked about all the things that you have to do
Speaker 4: right the media, which is just the hounding of the
Speaker 4: questions over and over. I mean, I find that amazing,
Speaker 4: the psychological experiment of hearing the same question over and over. Right,
Speaker 4: 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 day. We used to watch it in college.
Speaker 2: But let's say February fifteenth, for myyer Florida, doesn't matter
Speaker 2: a year. You sit on that bench to talk to
Speaker 2: the media for the first time. You know, Kevin will
Speaker 2: put you there or the Great Abbey, know Alex first
Speaker 2: day on the bench at one o'clock, first enemy, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 2: who's gonna talk before me? Dave Heim Breslo, you know, Okay,
Speaker 2: they go first, and then I go, okay, cool, that's
Speaker 2: the way we're gonna do it. You sit there that
Speaker 2: day and it starts, and you better make sure you
Speaker 2: are consistent and you control the narrative for one sixty
Speaker 2: 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. And 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 lidle 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 give me something, man, They're gonna talk about
Speaker 2: it forever, you know, Like, think about this one, Carl,
Speaker 2: you think about this one. The Celtics pulled that trade
Speaker 2: right the damn Brown. The Red Sox were struggling, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, the Red Sox won fifteen fifteen
Speaker 2: games in a row. Nobody talk about the Celtics anymore.
Speaker 2: Nobody cared. It didn't matter Brad. They were crushing Brad Stevens.
Speaker 2: They were crushing Brat, I mean crushing. They got hot
Speaker 2: and they forgot about Bras. That's how it works, you know.
Speaker 2: Is that interesting? But uh, Alex for the coaches out there,
Speaker 2: 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 bother you? Are the outcomes
Speaker 1: of the games?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: Is that a grind part? I think the way you
Speaker 2: play the game is the one that kind of like
Speaker 2: give you sleepless nights. If you are in a stretch
Speaker 2: that you're not playing well, you're not playing clean baseball.
Speaker 2: You go through spring training preaching the same things over
Speaker 2: and over and over and over, and it doesn't happen.
Speaker 2: That's when you're like, man, am I doing it right?
Speaker 2: You know? Do we have to change something? If you're
Speaker 2: losing games and you're playing good baseball, you know like, okay,
Speaker 2: you know it's going to turn around. Yeah, so that
Speaker 2: that part, you know, it's not the lost, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's how you lost. No, no, it's how you lose.
Speaker 2: From me, is how you lose? Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the kitchen sink here. We're
Speaker 1: running a little deep here, So these are quick hitters Alex,
Speaker 1: sort of off the cuff questions you give kind of
Speaker 1: a quick answer on it, and four different questions for
Speaker 1: your kitchen sink. First question has to do with sort
Speaker 1: of you and your your baseball life off of the field.
Speaker 1: What about working on 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 situations. 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. And
Speaker 2: we're talking about from you to the producers, to the
Speaker 2: people you know, cutting tapes and all that they have
Speaker 2: out standing out with the idea of how to basically
Speaker 2: play the game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, excellent, that's awesome. All right, let's get to the
Speaker 4: second one here. This is a little bit deeper here.
Speaker 4: So people say a baseball season is a marathon. Someone
Speaker 4: who runs marathons, how do they compare?
Speaker 2: Actually that was my uh, that was my uh swim
Speaker 2: train 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 then the next finish line
Speaker 2: and I find is Chicago in October eleventh. But uh,
Speaker 2: you're doing another marathon. I think the preparate the preparate. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we're doing Chicago, chicagoay, even Yeah, and if I'm not working,
Speaker 2: if I'm not working next year, we're doing Boston.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, Hey, I would promise to I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: if you do Boston, I'll go with you. I won't run,
Speaker 1: but I will be there rooting you on about it.
Speaker 1: Wait for me at the Lenox, Wait for me at
Speaker 1: the Lenox Hotel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, amazing. But next question here, going back to the question,
Speaker 2: going back to the question the preparation. The preparation obviously
Speaker 2: very different but you have to be prepared for both marathons.
Speaker 2: You have to, you know, and you have to be
Speaker 2: on point because if you show up in spring training
Speaker 2: out of shape and not ready to go, it's going
Speaker 2: to take you a while to get to where you
Speaker 2: want to be. And we've seen different examples players doing
Speaker 2: that right, Like, yeah, they have good seasons, but it
Speaker 2: take them a while to get to where they want
Speaker 2: to be because they weren't ready in the marathon. If
Speaker 2: you're not ready, man, you probably you're not going to survive. Man.
Speaker 2: But when that when that thirteen miles comes, you know,
Speaker 2: it's half and you're like, I gotta keep going, you know,
Speaker 2: but uh, grind and come get me. That's where 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.
Speaker 1: Great great answer marathon and a marathon runner next one here?
Speaker 1: Where did the names of your twin, Xander and Isander
Speaker 1: 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 Issander in Spanish. So it's like and Sander. You know,
Speaker 2: if you if you actually translated is and Sander. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But it's tough for them, and I feel bad for them,
Speaker 2: so you.
Speaker 4: Know, like.
Speaker 2: Sanders, like what who? Whatever? That's where it comes from.
Speaker 4: Good ass, both on their toes at all times. All right, man,
Speaker 4: last one here, then we'll get to your MVP. Where
Speaker 4: is Where's your happy place?
Speaker 2: Here? Right here in Congoa's my hometown, my hometown. This
Speaker 2: is where we This is where I grow up. My
Speaker 2: mom lives five miles from here. My sister lists three
Speaker 2: 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 1: Man, All right, question for us AC MVP. Not the
Speaker 1: most valuable player, but who's the most valuable person in
Speaker 1: your life? Whether it was when you were growing up,
Speaker 1: whether it's right now, But who's the most valuable person
Speaker 1: in your life?
Speaker 2: I want to say Angelica, Angelica the obvious one. I
Speaker 2: can say, my mom, but I think it seems h
Speaker 2: Angelica showed up in in my life. A lot of
Speaker 2: things happen, you know, and you know, he's been a
Speaker 2: blessing and I can tell you what we went through
Speaker 2: this year. It wasn't easy, but it was a lot
Speaker 2: easier having her around, you know. Camilla, of course, she
Speaker 2: means the world to me. You know, since she was born,
Speaker 2: a lot of things changed. But that actually that partnership
Speaker 2: that they have now, Camilla and Angelica have helped me
Speaker 2: to deal with a lot, to make me better, to
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you look great. I hope you've enjoyed this
Speaker 1: as much as we have.
Speaker 3: You.
Speaker 2: You've shared so many great information. Thank you, Alex, thank you,
Speaker 2: and good luck with the project.
Speaker 1: And you know, let's see what if you Joel's exactly
Speaker 1: keep on smiling, man, you look great. So happy for
Speaker 1: you and thanks for joining us. Thank you brother, all right, buddy,
Speaker 1: thanks again everybody from out there for watching the parent.
Speaker 1: Dugout dot com is where you need to go join
Speaker 1: the community. You get all the content you get great
Speaker 1: guests like Alex Kuorra and others. Justin apologized for the
Speaker 1: technical errors. There's nothing we can do about that, but
Speaker 1: that shows you what he learned during his television days.
Speaker 1: He hung on there and didn't change a thing. It
Speaker 1: was beautiful to watch as a guy that helped guide him.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful to watch.
Speaker 3: That's good man.
Speaker 4: Hey, sometimes you don't get the hop that you want right,
Speaker 4: and you got to make the play.
Speaker 3: See you, buddy, Hey, thanks for having you. See you, buddy,