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Alex Ochoa on spring training

First Person/Alex Ochoa

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

February 19, 2012|By Shira Springer

(Photograph by Joshua Prezant )

> As a new Red Sox coach, what’s on your spring training agenda? Definitely bonding with the players is always important, getting their feedback. You want to let them know what you’re thinking and find out what they’re thinking.

> What are your goals for the year? Everybody in Boston is looking for a World Championship. I’m looking forward to trying to reach that goal.

> You’ve never been on the field for a Yankees-Red Sox matchup. Looking forward to that? That should be fun.

> You last played in 2008 in Japan. Was it a natural transition to coaching? I definitely anticipated coaching. My last year playing in Japan, we had three new foreign players. I taught them how everything worked – the style of play and the different things they would see. That helped me flow naturally into coaching.

> What’s the most valuable lesson you learned as a player that you use as a coach? Good communication. A lot of times, when players don’t know what you’re thinking, their brains start thinking things that might not be the case. Once you know what the coaches are thinking and what they expect, it makes it a lot easier to perform. You might not like what they say, but at least you know what they think.

> You played for Sox manager Bobby Valentine with the New York Mets in 1996 and 1997. What’s he like as a manager? From a player’s perspective, he’s very straightforward. I learned from him that every day you have to prove something. He expects you to show something every day no matter what your track record is.

> You share experience with Japanese baseball. Do you think Valentine’s time in Japan will influence how he manages now? I know he’s very fond of Japanese baseball, so I’m sure he’s going to have little things here and there.

> While in Japan, you appeared on a television game show. What was that like? We hit a ball off the tee, and they had 10 foam boards in a row. You tried to hit the ball through all the foam. I won dinner at some restaurant.