WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – On Monday, we brought you Part 1 of MLB.com’s one-on-one Q&A with Nationals manager Blake Butera, where he talked about growing up in a sports family. Today, we bring you Part 2. Learn more about Butera off the field, from fatherhood to cooking skills to (of course) that Team Italy espresso machine.
MLB.com: What is the best part about being a dad?
Butera: It’s probably coming home at the end of the day and seeing the smile on her face. The first couple months were tough when we weren't getting much feedback, but now we're at the stage where we get the big smiles and all that stuff. And [Saturday] was the first time!
So the crazy thing is, my wife and the baby are here, but just because of the way the schedule fell, I hadn't seen them in like two or three days. My wife just started work again, so she got up and went somewhere else, like a coffee shop, to work. I got up, came here obviously, and then we had a night game. She and the baby were asleep at 10 p.m., and we had the rain delay, so I didn’t get back until like 11:30. The next night, I didn’t get back until 11. So both nights she slept upstairs with the baby.
So [Saturday], I FaceTimed her, because again, she was sleeping when I left. I'm like, I need to see her! So I FaceTimed, and she smiled on FaceTime for the first time. So I was like, "That was cool!”
MLB.com: If you could manage/coach a game from another sport for one day, what sport would you want to coach/manage and which team?
Butera: NFL and the New Orleans Saints because they're my favorite team. I always admire football coaches because they can be so creative, and it just blows my mind how it all works. You're a defensive coordinator – how do you know when to sub guys in, you don't have enough time to, there're certain times where you're not allowed to if the offense doesn't sub. There's all these different things, and you're trying to call a play, and then you're also trying to sub in players, all within like 30 seconds of the play clock.
Then all the creative, different packages they do and stuff like that, I feel like you can just do all kinds of things. You can create these different plays and plans and designs and stuff like that, where I feel like baseball is a little more regimented. You can do a cool hit and run or something like that, but there’s nothing you can create that you haven’t really seen, I don’t think. Where in football, there are plays you see all the time where you’re like, that was kind of cool. I think the creativeness is pretty intriguing.
MLB.com: What is your must-have when you travel?
Butera: Usually, it's earplugs for when I sleep because whenever you go to a hotel, you just never know who's going to be next to you. There's nothing worse than getting in a hotel and being like, the people next door talk so loud, and they stay up late. You throw some earplugs in, you're good. But also, at midnight, where are you going to find earplugs? So it’s good to have those. That’s probably the main one. I don’t bring video games with me or anything like that.
MLB.com: You’ve said you love to cook. What's your favorite meal to cook?
Butera: I like cooking steaks, but I'd say my favorite thing would be the sea bass I make. It’s a sea bass over rice with bok choy, and there’s a sweet soy sauce type that goes on top of it with red chili pepper flakes. My wife loves it. Whenever we have guests over, I usually make it. That's probably the staple. It's just really good, it's healthy.
I think there are meals that you get at restaurants that are really good, but you're like, “Dang, it’s 70 bucks. Let's try to create this at home.”
You can do it for cheaper and have a bunch of people eat and enjoy it, that's the fun part. I just think food is a great way to get people together. So whenever we do staff bonding stuff or team bonding stuff, like we had the barbecue last week, I just feel like food is the best way to get people together.
MLB.com: How do you take your coffee?
Butera: Black. I actually drink espresso. I got on espresso probably the year before [I was the Team Italy bench coach] in the [World Baseball Classic] in ‘23. So in ‘22 fall, we did a trip to Italy, and I just fell in love with espresso then. Since then, I was like, “Wait a second, like, I can get a quick fix of caffeine?” … So just the little shot of espresso, as you can tell here (points to espresso machine in his office).
MLB.com: So, how good is the WBC Team Italy dugout coffee?
Butera: (Smiles) It’s legit.