Mitch Poole owns pieces of thoroughbreds, has an all-world bobblehead collection, and runs a visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium that, twice in the past 361 days, has become its own pool.
The Houston Astros made it rain champagne after they won the 2017 World Series in Los Angeles, and the Boston Red Sox followed it up this year. Maybe Poole should get the Dodgers to install a Sub Air system, like Augusta National has, to suck down the moisture.
The only other person who shared both floods was, in retrospect, the subject of last winter’s best transaction.
Alex Cora was Houston’s bench coach then and he is Boston’s manager now. He also grew up, professionally, in the Dodgers organization, as a smooth-handed shortstop with an occasionally mischievous bat and a mind that is never in power-saving mode.
The world gasped when the Red Sox fired John Farrell last fall after they won 93 games and the American League East. A lot went into that, but the opportunity to hire Cora would have been enough. Boston won 108 games, then went 11-3 in the playoffs, and thus won its fourth World Series in the past 15 years.
Boston also signed J.D. Martinez, at Cora’s urging, and Martinez gave the Sox the power they lacked.
Money? Yes, the Red Sox spent a lot, $234 million in fact, way past the luxury tax limit. You can do that when you’ve turned Fenway Park into a gold mine, and you work in a market where championship parades are part of the exercise routine.
The Red Sox paid David Price $30 million this year, so they let him pitch seven innings in Game 5. They have an offensive nucleus and they turn it loose, unworried about driving up pitch counts. They also believe in action and not just the Three True Outcomes (home run, walk, strikeout).
“We live in an era when hitting .210 with 30 home runs and 70 RBIs is acceptable, and we don’t believe that,” Cora said. “There are certain situations where a strikeout is not just an out. We put the ball in play.”
The Red Sox struck out only 28 times in 185 postseason at-bats with two outs. The Dodgers fanned 64 times in 175 at-bats.
The Red Sox also hit a ludicrous .364 with men in scoring position in playoff games. The Dodgers hit .192 and struck out 44 times.
This isn’t genius, it’s common sense. Cora knows the perils of trying to outsmart himself. Before the Series, it was assumed Mookie Betts would move to second, his minor league position, to allow the outfielders to play together in Dodger Stadium.
Cora considered it but went with Brock Holt, a high-voltage second baseman who got his chance when Dustin Pedroia was hurt and jacked up his OPS from .548 to .774. Holt was all over the place in the World Series.
Scott Boras, Cora’s agent, calls this the art of “Coralytics,” or dovetailing the endless numbers and tendencies with Cora’s natural feel for players as people.
“I remember when he was 12 or 13 and he was wandering around the park in Puerto Rico, couldn’t sit still,” Boras said. “He never could get enough of the game.”
Turtle Thomas was the recruiter at the University of Miami who signed Cora and watched him play himself into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame.
“Two things about him,” Thomas said. “He absolutely ran the show on the field and did it from Day 1, and his infield practice was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters. And he was also the best clutch hitter I ever saw on the college level.”
All you hear is how grueling the season is, although they’re playing the same 162 games that Cal Ripken did. The Red Sox didn’t buy it. They never lost four consecutive games and, until September, were at least seven games over .500 in every month. It’s hard to argue that they’re not the best team since at least the 1998 Yankees.
But when Cora was asked about Boston’s celebration, his mind went south toward home.
“I’m thinking about what they’re doing in Puerto Rico,” he said. He recalled the boxing nights, when Felix Trinidad or Miguel Cotto would step into the ring, and his hometown of Caguas would shut down to watch.
“They’re telling me that’s what’s happening on the nights we’re playing in the postseason,” Cora said. “And that’s just unbelievable.”
The Red Sox, and their chances of doing it again, are very believable. Ask Mitch Poole and his carpet cleaner.
