FORT MYERS, Fla. -- A year ago, in his first spring as a vice president and special assistant to the Red Sox, Tony La Russa stressed to rookie manager Alex Cora the importance of getting his team ready for the start of the season by running an organized, methodical spring training.
When the Sox began the year 17-2 and spent only 10 days out of first place the rest of the way, it was obvious La Russa made his point and Cora paid heed to his mentor's advice.
Now, as Cora begins his second season, a new challenge awaits: getting his team ready to successfully defend its World Series title, something no major league club has done since the Yankees won three straight championships from 1998-2000.
La Russa could point to his own managerial career to show Cora examples of how important good starts were to his teams. This time, La Russa can't speak from direct experience. Although the Hall of Fame manager won three World Series and took his teams to a total of six World Series, he never could win any back-to-back. (La Russa's Oakland A's team won three straight pennants from 1989-1991, but won it all only in 1990).
Still, with six pennants, three titles, 2,728 wins and a plaque in Cooperstown, La Russa is managerial royalty, and Cora would do well to, again, listen. And whatever La Russa doesn't know about winning and repeating as champions, he's gleaned from a coterie of close friends who have been wildly successful in other sports, including Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells and hockey's Scotty Bowman.
To hear La Russa tell it, Cora has his work cut out for him. Not because Cora has a deficient roster, but rather, because there are plenty of pitfalls that arise when a team seeks to repeat as champs.
"There are so many more distractions nowadays compared to the old days,'' said La Russa recently. "There are so many people (telling players) 'Get yours ... get yours ...' that even when the team chemistry is so great, that doesn't get repeated the next year. But if you know the keys to look for, then you head off some of the issues.''
LaRussa learned the hard way at the beginning of his managerial career. After directing the Chicago White Sox to a surprise division title in 1983, the team regressed the following season, in part, La Russa acknowledges, because he didn't know how "turn the page.''
Like Oakland A's executive Billy Beane, La Russa has come to view postseason success as somewhat random. Just getting there is difficult and from then on, a team's fate is often dictated by health, timing and getting the occasional break.
"Once you get into the playoffs, man, who knows what's going to happen,'' he said. "So the idea is, can you play well enough to get to October?''
Along the way, Cora needs to find a rallying cry, something to guide the Sox through the demands of a long season. And he needs to monitor carefully to determine if his players and coaches are demonstrating the same level of commitment in their approach to practice and preparation.
"You have to hold them accountable if they really want to repeat,'' cautioned La Russa. "Human nature is powerful. You hear, 'I'm doing the work,' but they're not really. So one of the things you can do in camp is to zero in on each guy and make sure they're making the same commitment in practice, and in their relationships and culture.''
Complicating matters somewhat is the fact the 2019 Red Sox will be -- with two notable exceptions in the bullpen -- to a man, almost identical to last year's team. That can be a positive because there's no integrating of new players and different personalities. But the threat of complacency looms, too, because virtually everyone on the roster has already won.
"Let's say you had half new guys,'' posited La Russa. "They're hungry because they don't have a ring and the veterans say, 'I want to win for my brother.' That can be really powerful. If you have guys have the same year they had last year and they did it the right way then, rose to the occasion and all that -- but they've already got the ring. Pat Riley called it the 'disease of more' (with players focused on more playing time, more attention and more money rather than the ultimate goal).''
Having solicited input from other managers in baseball and coaches in other sports, La Russa has come to realize that the key for repeated, sustained success is the ability, every year, to "dial it back to zero.''
"The guy in Foxboro (Belichick) does that better than anyone,'' said La Russa. "Everything is brand new (every year). He does a great job of building leaders, who can tell their teammates the truth. Guys respond to the truth. He also keeps it simple. It's, 'Let's get everything possible out of this drill,' and the more you have guys have one day like that, followed by another, followed by another, the better off you'll be.''
In an era when parity exists and most teams have plenty of talent, La Russa believes Cora's intangibles and innate grasp of human nature represents a huge advantage for the Sox.
"Alex has got a really good understanding that there's more to being a winner than talent,'' La Russa said. "He did it when he was a player. He was looked at as somebody who was a leader. A lot of guys are smart, but you have to have the balls to put your smarts on the line. This guy, I think he has a wonderful background coming in -- playing experience, had the really great experience as bench coach in Houston. He's got a combination of the right ingredients.''
La Russa had heard the phrase "turn the page,'' and regards it with some distrust. While he's not advocating living in the past, recent experience yields its own benefits.
"Before you turn the page, you look at the page that was just written and you study the shit out of it,'' La Russa said. "The best learning experience is the game that was just played; it's better than any scouting report. You've got take from the past and get the most that you can out of it so you can go forward. Turn the page on last year? There's a wealth of stuff there that can help you.
"You want to take that forward, but at the same time, start at zero. So it's 'turn the page,' but there's a big 'but' there, too. It's common sense, really.''
La Russa has picked the brains of Parcells, Belichick and Bowman to better his understanding of leadership and winning. He expects that Belichick, in between his visits to the scouting combine and other matters, will stop into camp here and offer Cora some advice.
With or without outside help. La Russa is a believer in the 2019 Red Sox' chances — history be damned.
"If I had bet, I'd bet on this team,'' said La Russa, "because I think the character on this team and the staff leadership is outstanding. The team leadership is outstanding. But it's difficult. It won't be easy. But if they get to October, they'll be dangerous as hell.''
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