The World Series celebrations continued last week, as Red Sox manager Alex Cora and World Series MVP Steve Pearce joined fans for a special event hosted by Mastercard at Laugh Boston.
Wednesday’s festivities featured video highlights from the team’s amazing season, appearances by the Red Sox’s four World Series trophies, plus a conversation with Cora and Pearce as they gave fans a peek inside their latest championship run. While Cora has spent the better part of the last month celebrating their World Series win, the Red Sox manager isn’t tired of all the partying just yet.
“I’m not sick of celebrating,” Cora jokingly told Metro during last week’s event.
Ahead, we chatted with Cora about his favorite moments from the victory tour, what he’s looking forward to in 2019 and more.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora talks World Series victory tour, 2019 season and more
What’s been your favorite moment from the World Series celebrations so far?
Obviously the two parades, the one here and the one back home [in Puerto Rico]. Different scales, different vibes, but they were awesome. They were great. Very loud here. A lot of music and food back home. Those two moments, they were great. We were looking forward to doing that, give that to the fans, and we were able to come through.
Speaking of the parade, you promised to catch a beer if someone tosses it to you next time around. We don’t want to encourage any beer throwing, but do you have a favorite brew?
There’s plenty of drinks [laughs]. We won’t go there. They won’t pay me enough if I say who they are.
What was the one moment from last season where you first thought, OK, this is a World Series caliber team?
There were a few, but in Seattle we got no-hit that Saturday. The second game of the series we got no-hit. The next day, we didn’t play Mookie [Betts], we didn’t play Hanley [Ramirez], we didn’t play our regulars. All of the people were asking why. Well, we were mapping the season out to have them ready for October. A lot of people were surprised because we got no-hit and we had a chance to win the series on Sunday, but they didn’t play. That was important for everybody in the organization to understand that this is how we’re going to do things. The players believed in it and we stuck with the plan, and it worked.
The 2019 season is right around the corner. Is there anything that the team needs to work on or something you’re looking forward to going into next year?
Keep getting better. That sounded very [Bill] Belichick. We do feel that there’s a few guys that can take another step forward. Guys that, they’re going to contribute coming from the minor leagues. People don’t believe that we have a good minor league system. We believe we do. We’ve got some arms. As you guys saw, we were able to pull some trades with what we had in the minor leagues, the three guys that we traded for who were very impactful.
I think as far as information and the way things are going in the organization, when you think about it, it was a sprint last year. I got here, I got to meet a lot of people in a short period of time. Now I feel more comfortable. Although it seems like we’re not having an off-season, we do. We’re working hard to put a good team on the field and I can’t wait to go to Seattle and start the journey again.
You’ve been a vocal advocate for the people of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. What’s something that you believe people still need know about that situation that isn’t being talked about?
I don’t know if this is a good way to compare it, but we don’t need Band-Aids. We need to actually think in the long run. If we’re going to fix things, it’s not only for now. We need to fix it so when the next Maria comes, we’re prepared. Our infrastructure is old, to be honest. We still have to keep working. Whatever help we can get is more than welcome, but I think it should be that way. We have to do better as far as what we’re doing back home. Hopefully we can do it.
