The Marathon Monday/Patriots Day double feature is always one of the best days in the Boston year, and the Red Sox are deeply interwoven into the fabric of the occasion.
Since 1959, Boston’s baseball team has always spent the day at home. It’s been a morning game since 1968.
“It’s a special day,” Alex Cora said early Monday morning. “To come here, watch the game, and then go to the finish line and see the people crossing the finish line, it’s amazing.”
“The vibe is different, and it should be fun,” he added. “I always loved it.”
The 2013 Marathon Bombing, from which One Boston Day and the Boston Strong World Series championship were born, infinitely and permanently deepened the meaning of the day. When it all overlaps with Jackie Robinson Day, the league-wide holiday when every player wears No. 42 in honor of the man who broke baseball’s color barrier, it’s on another level.
“I’m here because of him, that’s the bottom line,” Cora said. “He opened the door for all of us.”
Coming up in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, Cora had the opportunity to get to know the Robinson family and hear stories about the legendary athlete and activist from people who knew him, including renowned broadcaster Vin Scully.
“You talk to Mr. Scully about Jackie and Mr. (Don) Newcombe, and all those people,” he recalled. “It was amazing just to hear about what (Jackie) meant, who he was.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re white, Latino, African American, what he did for us is unique,” Cora continued. “It’s a special day for baseball. It’s a special day for everybody, and I’m glad that we are able to celebrate it the way it should be. All our community, just being one, and show the world that we’re united, right? And we still have stuff to do as a society, but it’s a special day for us.”
For several reasons, this year is different for the manager and his team. Cora’s longtime partner, Angelica, is running the marathon with her brother. And while the Sox customarily play a four-game series long-weekend style, they’re opening a new series with the Cleveland Guardians, instead, which meant the already-early pregame routine began even earlier for the home team.
But by now, Cora is used to the chaos that the morning contest inevitably brings. He learned to appreciate the event a long time ago, during his time a Sox infielder for the mid-2000s Sox.
“This was my game, the back-up game” he joked of his time as a Sox infielder in the mid-2000s. “Tito (Francona) always put me in this game.”
The manager’s favorite Marathon Monday, however, was truly unlike any other.
“I still believe the one in October was crazier, that was the greatest day here,” he said. In 2021 the race was rescheduled from April to Oct. 11 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the Red Sox were making an unexpected postseason run. “They run in the morning and (we) play that game at night. That was unreal.”
That night, the ’21 Sox – a team PECOTA projected to finish the regular season 80-82, in fourth place, and with a 1% change of winning the division – took Game 4 of the ALDS from the Tampa Bay Rays, winning 6-5 on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Kiké Hernández.
In the present, the club entered the day 71-55 all-time on Patriots Day. It’s one game out of 162, but there’s no other game like it. Did the manager feel added pressure or motivation to win?
“I don’t know about wanting it more, but it’s a special day,” he said. “What it means to all of us here, it’s very special.”
“It doesn’t mean that we’re gonna play harder today to win it,” he continued. “But we’ll do our best to win and enjoy the rest of the day.”
