FORT MYERS, Fla. -- In the quarter century of the current Red Sox ownership group, the club’s annual first full-squad workout has been preceded by an organizational-wide meeting that includes messages from ownership, the front office, the manager, support staff and sometimes a player or two.
A new and powerful wrinkle was added on Sunday, as video messages from team family members were played for the assembled group -- and tears were shed.
This was the brainchild of Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who enlisted the team’s video productions staff, led by John Carter, for a project that took about two weeks to produce the final result that made it to the screen on Sunday.
“It’s one of those [elements] that we take this for granted sometimes, and we don't put ourselves in their shoes, the sacrifices they make and the time they spend alone [during the season],” said Cora. “And how hard it is, this whole thing. So we kind of switched the whole script [to hear] it from their perspective, what it would take, what it would mean [for them for us] to win a World Series. And it was good. A lot of kids [spoke], there were a lot of good messages. I thought we nailed it. The message that I wanted to send, it was right on point.”
Red Sox president/CEO Sam Kennedy glowed after the presentation, singling out Cora’s daughter Camila, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s daughter Livia and hitting coach Pete Fatse’s son Bryce as “the stars of the show."
But there were also plenty of co-stars, including Roman Anthony’s parents.
“[Roman’s] parents were great participants in today's meeting,” said Kennedy. “Their message was one of gratitude, appreciation for his teammates. And prayers for health, which we all share.”
While annual meetings tend to run together when stacked on top of each other, this might be one that stands out for a long time.
“This was our 25th meeting, incredibly for [owner] John [Henry] and [chairman] Tom [Werner] and myself, and it’s not recency bias, this one was the best one we've ever had. It was remarkable. John Carter pulled together an extraordinary message for the players from their own spouses and kids and moms and dads,” said Kennedy. “And it was great. I've never seen tears in a Spring Training meeting coming out of the eyes of our players, but we got it this year for the first time ever. It was awesome to watch.”
What inspired Cora to come up with the unique presentation?
“The more I do this, the harder it is to get here [for the season]. My boys are older, Camila is [a young adult], and for us, yeah, it's hard to leave the house. But then when you get here, you get into your routine, and basically you call in the morning, you call in the afternoon, sometimes it’s hard to communicate. And I wanted to do [the meeting] that way, and then see their perspective, how they see it, how they feel. And it was a good one.”
The highlight from the in-person presentations also came from Cora, who ran The New York City Marathon during the offseason, and used it to parallel the baseball season.
“Alex Cora, as he always does, gave an incredible speech,” said Kennedy. “He talked about the season being the marathon. He talked about what it was like in Mile 15 in the New York Marathon. And some woman turned around to him and said, ‘OK, we're now at the start. Now, we're at the start, and we have to go from here.’ And I think that was very appropriate for today. This is such a marathon. It's such a grind. There's nothing like 162 [games].”
Except, as Cora learned first-hand, maybe 26.2 miles.
“Now I can actually say, ‘Yeah, it's a marathon’, because I know what a marathon is,” Cora said. “So I was kind of breaking it down in a sense of how that felt and how the season goes.”
By the finish line of the 2026 baseball season, the Red Sox hope to look back to Sunday as a tone-setting starting point.