Surging Red Sox trying to recapture 2018 mojo with new version of ‘win wall'

New York Times

a day ago

BOSTON — Tucked off in a corner, near the doorway where players enter the Boston Red Sox clubhouse, six rows of neatly organized Polaroid-style pictures sit on wooden ledges screwed into the wall. Each snapshot captures a victory this season. After the Red Sox beat the Royals 8-5 on Monday night, there were 63.
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Garrett Crochet pumping his fist after his first Fenway win. Roman Anthony swatting his first big-league homer. Ceddanne Rafaela, arms wide, skipping toward home plate to meet his teammates after a walk-off homer. Multiple Wally Head celebrations in the dugout.
'There's a lot of different faces up there,' shortstop Trevor Story said. 'I think that's a sign of a good team. Someone is playing a different hero every single win. You get to relive it every time you walk by.'
They're snapshots of a hard-fought season, with an ending that has yet to be told. When wins were few and far between early in the season, many players hardly noticed the new clubhouse wall display. But as the Red Sox began to turn a corner from a seesaw of wins and losses over the first three months to a 17-7 July, during which they strung together 10 wins in a row, the win wall took shape.
'It's cool,' Story said. 'It's a great little reminder as you go in and out of the clubhouse, you get to see the guys, and it's kind of an affirmation for the hard work.'
If the idea sounds familiar, it's because it's a reprisal of a project from seven years ago.
In 2018, as a first-year manager in Boston, Alex Cora's office was decorated with 8×12 photos from each win that season. No one knew at the start of that year it would become the winningest season in Red Sox history or that the club would claim its ninth World Series title. It was a unique project that grew organically and offered something for the players to reflect on whenever they stepped into Cora's office.
Reviving the project wasn't at the top of Cora's mind entering this season, but in spring training, when the team had its annual meeting with ownership, Fenway Sports Group partner Linda Henry reminisced about the wall with Cora.
'I was like, you know what, we should do it,' Cora said. 'It's a fun way to recognize the guys.'
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There's no expectation that this new version of the project will repeat the magic of 2018. Rather, there is something to be said, in the midst of a long season, for a visual aid of what winning looks like.
The 2025 version is similar, but different. There are no players from the 2018 team still here; Rafael Devers, the lone holdover at the start of the year, was traded in June. In fact, just Cora and bench coach Ramón Vázquez remain from the on-field personnel. The 2018 team was a juggernaut, rolling past opponents. The 2025 team floundered for much of the first half, dealt with the Devers drama and endured injuries to key players.
For a while, there weren't many photos on the wall.
Jarren Duran, who was drafted in 2018, had no idea about the win wall from the World Series run.
'That's pretty cool,' he noted. 'We'll try to get the mojo of 2018. Everybody's chipping in, so I like to see that.'
Cora was open to a new version of the win wall but wanted it to be different from the original. Rather than have it displayed in his office, he wanted the photos in the clubhouse, among the players, for everyone to see more easily. Team photographer Maddie Malhotra suggested the Polaroid-style snapshots to go along with a vintage theme the social media team has implemented this season. (Case in point: They've had some players record video on camcorders this season.) Like her predecessor Billie Weiss, who chose the photos for the 2018 wall and hung them in Cora's office, Malhotra runs point on the 2025 version.
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After each win, she'll choose a photo from whichever photographer shot the game that night, including staff photographer Rachel O'Driscoll or interns Clay Stark and Sarah Boeke. The photographers are not at every road game, so in that case, they'll use photos from the Associated Press or Getty Images.
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'We're just kind of drawing on big moments, big plays, milestones for guys, or sometimes it's just like our favorite photo that day,' Malhotra said. 'One that feels reflective of that day's storyline.'
After Malhotra chooses the photo, she prints it, dates and labels it on the back with the score and opponent — 'I double check my work, I'm always counting,' she quipped — and props it up on the ledge near the door.
Each ledge fits 11 photos, so if she doesn't realize how close she's gotten to the end of the ledge, she'll have to wait for the Fenway Park facilities team to make a new ledge before the next set of photos can be displayed.
When the team is on the road and the home clubhouse is used for concerts or other events, clubhouse manager Tommy McLaughlin takes down the five dozen or so photos and stores them in an envelope in his office adjacent to where they're displayed.
'We don't want them to disappear or get knocked down or someone not knowing what they are take one with them,' McLaughlin said.
When the team returns, he makes sure to put each photo back in order. The dates on the back are a crucial element for this step.
'It's just some added flavor to the clubhouse that we didn't have before, I like it,' Duran said.
With fewer than 50 games to play and the Red Sox on a six-game winning streak, there's no telling what the wall will look like in two months. Either way, it will tell a story.
'Every win, it's a good day,' Vazquez said. 'Even when they're not pretty, you learn from them, so it's nice to see the photos.'
(Photos: Sarah Boeke / Boston Red Sox)