Alex Cora Plans To Seek Bill Belichick's Advice On How To Win Back-To-Back Championships
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Alex Cora may be the newest member of the Boston sports coaching fraternity, but he's quickly joined the exclusive club of local champions. Bill Belichick is the only other current member.
So it makes sense, then, that when it comes to seeking out advice on how to sustain that success and carry a championship level of winning from one season to the next, Cora would naturally pick the brain of arguably the greatest coach of all time.
According to Peter King, the Red Sox' manager said he hopes to get some tips from Belichick in that department in the upcoming offseason.
From King's FMIA column:
Cora will meet back up with Belichick before spring training, he hopes. He asked Belichick for advice Sunday night, when they talked pre-game. "I told him, 'We have to catch up because you know a lot about this back to back stuff. You have to fill me in how we keep the team focused and how can we do this.'"
Of course, Belichick has "only" won back-to-back titles once in his Hall of Fame career, as winning consecutive titles is simply a difficult thing for any team to do in any sport (except basketball). Still, the Patriots' record in seasons following their five Super Bowl wins is 58-22, a winning percentage of .725, for an average season record between 11-5 and 12-4. Considering no MLB team has won consecutive World Series titles since the late-'90s Yankees, Cora is clearly setting a high standard already for the 2019 Red Sox. And he's looking to the king of Boston sports coaching for some help. (Belichick is the only NFL coach to win consecutive Super Bowls this millennium.)
"This is the best of the best," Cora told King. "To keep winning the way they do, year after year, is amazing. Somebody leaves, somebody comes in, boom, they keep winning. They don't care. They do work. They just work. It's pretty impressive."