Alex Cora opens up
Alex Cora has lived this life before. The one where people start to believe in his team.
There are the big reminders of those late-summer days in 2018 and 2021, such as the one delivered Tuesday night in the Red Sox' seventh win in a row, a 6-2 victory over the Royals. Or the daily view of the standings on the left field wall, which now has Cora's club 3 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees and just three in back of first-place Toronto.
And then there are the subtle things. They are the things that stick, offering the most powerful hints that the existence of both the Red Sox and their manager is evolving.
For instance, there was Thursday night. It was just hours after the trade deadline, and Cora and his partner, Angelica, decided to get a meal at a local sushi restaurant. He knew the drill when it came to venturing into public when times were good. "The whole you win a World Series and you never pay for a meal, that's not true. They pay for shots," joked Cora while appearing on the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast.
He also understands the risks of entering the public eye when things are a bit uncertain. And considering the public perception of the Red Sox' trade deadline, this was one of those times. But ultimately, what the moment turned out to be was his latest glimpse of hope.
"We're sitting there and the one thing about people here is they are good at letting you be," Cora said. " When you're out with the family they are very respectful that you're hanging out with the family or your partner or whatever, they leave you alone and just say, 'Go Sox.' That day some guy comes up and says, 'Are you happy with what happened today?' I'm like, 'We're good.' And then he sent two shots. I'm like, OK."
One down, thousands to go.
"That's the goal on Nov. 2," quipped Cora.
A few days later, after the Red Sox had responded to a fourth straight win after the deadline, the manager got yet another nudge when it came to the tide turning. That was courtesy is boss, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.
"I got a text from Bres (Monday) night about the attendance. Best paid attendance in six years, paid attendance," he said. "I was like Monday against Kansas City? Here we go. That's what it used to be all about here. And that's what we're trying to accomplish. You feel the vibe."
Cora has also come to understand how long it has been since this dynamic was in play in these parts. There are plenty of similarities to the last time he experienced it. That feeling of go-time, as he soaked in when the team played Steve Pearce's three home run game exactly seven years after that win over the Yankees.
"I remember thinking back then, 'Oh (expletive), we still have two months of this to actually perform," Cora said of the 2018 victory over the Yankees. "It was win it all or bust. We were the favorites coming out but we did what we did and they were like, 'They better win it.' That's a lot of pressure. But it never cracked our clubhouse. I didn't feel the pressure, but I knew we needed to win."
Even something as simple as the difference in acoustics, sitting in the dugout compared to stepping out onto the field, has brought Cora back.
"The thing here, and you guys don't know it and you don't feel it, the field is above the dugout so certain times in the dugout it feels like it's quiet and it's not as loud but when you go out there you're like, 'Ooh, it's loud.' Sometimes I'm like what's going on here? But I ask the players and they say it's loud. And they say, 'No, no, it's loud.' It's been fun," he added.
But Cora and the Red Sox are living new lives, different lives, than those postseason-bound teams.
He has learned the importance of not taking his laptop home, making a conscious effort to separate work and family for everyone's sake. "That first year," he remembered, "I was digging in every day."
Cora also points to Sept. 22, 2023, as a fork-in-the-road moment for him. That was when he decided to start running, for both his physical and mental health, calling the commitment a "game-changer." The mantra throughout all those bad times, and now the good ones, is simple: "When it doubt, get up and run five."
He understands how he has changed. He also comprehends the evolution of his roster. But Cora has also come to realize there is something else that is different: The people walking into Fenway Park.
Winning is the big thing, but it's not the only thing.
Coming out of the All-Star break, Cora noticed that there was one element of the equation at Fenway that might be missing. It was music. Maybe such a thing wasn't a priority in 2018 or 2021, but he had seen the evolution of too many other ballparks to ignore what might be one of the final pieces of this newly electrified environment.
So, while the players were taking it up a notch on the field, the Red Sox decided to do the same with their speakers.
"It's interesting, and I have talked to the people who do the entertainment here, and I'm big proponent of louder music. It started with the Dodgers series, the music got louder. It's a different crowd. It's younger," Cora relayed. "Music is cool."
So is winning. It's a recent dose of reality that has the Red Sox's manager remembering what it's like to walk down this road.
In a nutshell, it's easy for Cora to sum up his current existence: "It's feeling better than the last three years."