In the eyes of many Boston Red Sox fans, the dugout laundry cart push of 2022 was the king of home run celebrations. The 2024 Red Sox have established a new homer tradition that may be a bit more sentimental.
The Boston ball club has been draping a marathon medal over the heads of home run hitters once they make their trip around the bases. The anointed player walks through the dugout to receive high-fives and congratulations from his teammates and some players will break into a dance at the end of the line.
The celebration seems to be a continuation of the Red Sox's "good vibes" mentality — it's simple and it offers a deep connection to the city of Boston itself. But the medal came from an unexpected member of the Red Sox club.
Alex Cora ran the Boston Athletic Association 5k just hours before the first pitch in the second series between the Sox and the Angels. This time, the two faced off at Fenway Park and the Red Sox debuted their City Connect jerseys the weekend before the Boston Marathon.
Cora has a passion for distance running and he completed the race in just over 24 minutes. He was awarded a medal for his participation and his players swiftly stole it for their own use. Boston seems to take pride in changing its home run celebration every year and it appears the team likes to choose something organic. Cora's medal came with him to the park and it matched the Sox's marathon uniforms all too well.
The Red Sox stole Alex Cora's 5k medal to use as their 2024 home run celebration
The Red Sox put it to good use in its debut series. Triston Casas, Tyler O'Neill and Masataka Yoshida all homered in Boston's yellow jerseys, in which the Red Sox had inexplicable success wearing last season. They unfortunately did not get to break out the medal on Marathon Monday when the Sox's offense was stymied by the Cleveland Guardians' pitching.
Boston may already have plans to up its celebration game. Cora admitted that the Sox may be shopping for a bigger medal to use when saluting their round-trippers. Regardless of whether he thinks they actually need something bigger or if he just wants his medal back, Cora's involvement in the celebration is a testament to the atmosphere he's helped create in the clubhouse.
But now that they have their celebration down, the Red Sox just need to hit more home runs to show it off.