Who’s Chad Tracy, new Red Sox manager? Here’s 20 (mostly) non-baseball questions to get to know him

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Who’s Chad Tracy, new Red Sox manager? Here’s 20 (mostly) non-baseball questions to get to know him

Chris Cotillo · MassLive

Sun, May 17, 2026 ·

10 min read

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ATLANTA — Sunday marked three weeks since Chad Tracy took over the Red Sox as interim manager after the surprising firing of Alex Cora and a handful of his coaches . In a matter of hours, Tracy, previously the manager at Triple-A Worcester, went from a career of relative obscurity as a lifelong minor leaguer (as a player, coach and manager) to having one of the more high-profile jobs in sports.

With that in mind, MassLive set out on a mission this weekend in Atlanta to ask Tracy 20 questions that are (mostly) not about baseball. You can hear that interview on the latest edition of the Fenway Rundown podcast from Sunday morning. Here are the 20 questions — with Tracy's answers. The interview has been slightly edited for clarity purposes.

1. A lot of baseball people spend their offseasons in Arizona , Florida, California. You spend yours outside of Cincinnati (in Fairfield, Ohio). Why is that?

Wife born and raised there. My dad's side of the family, all from there. You travel enough in baseball like I did, and when you're getting married, you say, "Wherever you want to live, honey." That's where we settled. And I love the outdoors, so I do a lot of fishing and hunting. It's a great place to do that.

2. If you didn't make a career in baseball, what would you be doing?

I went to college at Pepperdine and I was working on an advertising degree. So I feel like maybe — because I was going to say I'll be a scout or something that's in baseball — maybe I would have ventured down that route. And then I think always people are interested in maybe running your own business. I think that'd be a cool thing to do.

3. This one is about your major. What exactly does an advertising major entail at Pepperdine?

It was a communications major, so I guess it could be fairly all-encompassing, but with a focus in advertising. I only got three years through Pepperdine before I was drafted and still had a lot of my upper-level major courses left to do, but that's what I was heading at.

4. What is your relationship like with the *other* Chad Tracy who played for the Diamondbacks (2004-09) and had a nine-year MLB career?

That's a good one. We actually met in 2011. He was getting towards the end of his career and was down in Triple-A Iowa with the Cubs, and he had accepted an assignment to go down there and give it a little bit more time. I was in town with Round Rock, with the Rangers, and happened to play him.

We got to meet crossing paths, heading to the batting cage. We shared a cage, shook hands, and introduced each other. "Hey, I'm Chad" and "Hey, I'm Chad" We exchanged stories of the different times we've been handed the wrong baseball cards and the mail we get from the other person that's not really ours. So that was 14 or 15 years ago now.

5. Favorite movie and TV show ever?

Favorite movie? I'm gonna be honest, I like movies. I don't know if I have a favorite. I know that's really vague. I like a lot of movies. I quote movies all the time. But how about favorite baseball movie? For Love of the Game.

And then TV show, I also don't watch a ton of TV, but I do dabble in Netflix with my wife in the offseason. Outlander was one we watched for a while. That's wrapping up; I haven't caught up on that. That was one that we got engaged in for a while. Trying to think of other ones. Let's come back to that one.

6. This is probably my favorite one so far. Who are the three most famous contacts in your phone — and is this answer different than it was three weeks ago?

There's a lot of them. Not just because of the last three weeks, but I've encountered a lot of people in the last 15, 20-something years I've been in this. There are probably some additions over the last three weeks. I know I'm not answering that with the exact three because it's really hard to think about. There's probably a good amount in there. But Pedro (Martinez) and people like that — there are some of those that have been added in even though I've known them. There have definitely been some additions.

(Any famous non-baseball ones that people would be surprised by?)

I don't think I have any famous non-baseball people on my phone, no.

(Well, when Mark Wahlberg texts you about a pitching change in a couple months...)

For sure. That's an immediate add to contacts.

7. I'm assuming you grew up rooting for whoever your dad ( ex-big league manager Jim Tracy ) was with at the time. Who were your other favorite sports teams across other leagues, sports and all that?

I was a big Tampa Bay Bucs fan when I was growing up just because the first ever NFL game I went to — I was living in Florida at the time — was Tampa Bay Bucs versus the Bears. Then a year or two later, I went to the Bucs-Packers and watched (Brett) Favre in Tampa Bay. So I fell in love with watching football at that time and the Bucs, so that was probably a big one. Though, I've lived in Cincinnati for 13 or 14 years now, so once Joe Burrow came in, I converted a little bit to a Bengals fan.

8. You talked about there being leftover Coors Lights in the fridge at your apartment in Worcester. What is your drink of choice?

Bourbon. Hands down, bourbon. I love a Coors Light too, or any light beer, but bourbon. Anything in the Buffalo Trace or Woodford Reserve family, anything in that family, I really enjoy.

(Being near Kentucky, I'm sure, is very helpful there.)

Two hours down the road. I went to both Buffalo Trace and Woodford this offseason, did the whole tour of the facilities, and bought a couple bottles. But I really like bourbon.

9. Weirdest interaction you've had with a fan since taking over as manager?

I haven't had any weird interactions with fans. I did hear one the other day after a pitching change that didn't work out. Somebody said, "Go back to Triple-A!" I happened to hear that on the way in. Those things, you ignore them. It kind of makes you chuckle, but that was just something I happened to hear.

10. When you took your last job (as manager of the WooSox), how did you think the city you were moving to was pronounced, and how many players get it right on the first try? As a Central Mass. native, this is near and dear to my heart.

Not many get it right on the first try. I don't remember what I said, but it was not "Woo-stah" for the locals as how they pronounce it. But I did not see that and go, "I'm going to Wi-stah." No, it was probably "Woe-cester" or "Woo-cester." You're just trying to figure it out. And as you watch some videos of people from Boston pronouncing the different cities, you learn really quick how they're pronounced, but I was probably wrong the first time.

11. If you could have dinner with any person, living or dead, who would it be?

My mom. Dinner with my mom. Easy one. My mom and dad.

12: Who's on your Mount Rushmore of favorite — not best, but favorite — athletes of all time?

Mount Rushmore of favorite athletes. OK. Tiger Woods — these were all prominent when I was growing up — Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, those are two of the top ones. And then I spent a lot of time in L.A. when my dad was out there, so Kobe Bryant was pretty high up there as far as being my age, growing up watching elite players. Those three are top of the list.

13. Who is your celebrity lookalike? It cannot be Craig Breslow .

I've heard that one. Apparently, I look like him.

I don't know. I think I've heard a couple people say, if you take a glimpse, Ryan Reynolds maybe. Somebody says that, which I take as a big compliment. Maybe that one, I guess. It's the only thing I've ever heard.

14. First of two straight golf questions. What's your handicap?

I don't keep track of it and it's not good.

15. (NESN color analyst) Lou Merloni had his second hole-in-one in nine months earlier today. Have you made one?

I do not have a hole in one. My last answer is the way it is because I can be halfway decent and I can be horrible. I've probably had some very close calls. I'm good enough to, on a Par 3, get one close, but no, I do not have a hole-in-one.

16. What is your greatest athletic feat not on a baseball field?

That is tough because baseball was probably the only thing I was really good at. I played basketball in high school for a while and was OK. Didn't play football. I honestly don't think I can answer that unless it's baseball. Baseball has been pretty much my whole life.

17. What's your No. 1 vacation spot?

I'll say my honeymoon. So not really a vacation — I mean, it was — but we went to the Bahamas, (wife) Em and I. That was amazing. We had an amazing time. Five or six days in the Bahamas was fun.

18. You talked about being an outdoors guy. Favorite hobbies in that realm?

Hunting and fishing. When I go home in the offseason, I have a boat. A fishing boat, bass boat, Tracker. I'll go to local lakes around me. My mom and dad have a little lake house up in Michigan on Lake St. Clair. I'll go up there.

Then, I spend time in the woods doing whitetail deer hunting. Basically from when I get home all the way until the end of November when it starts to get really cold, or even through December, I like to be outdoors doing some fishing or hunting.

19. If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?

I'm not a big fan of heights, so I'm not going to say that I could fly. Superpower... what would it be and why? I don't know. Super strength? Super strength seems like it plays. Being able to lift and do anything you want, and nothing's too heavy. That seems like a good one.

20. We'll end with something way too deep for the tenor of this conversation. What do you want your legacy to be?

That's easy. I want my legacy to be, when you look back, that people in baseball say, "Man, I really liked playing for that guy," or "That guy is a really good human being." That is it.

It's nothing related to wins, losses or any of that. I want to make an impact on people to where they really enjoy being around you, or even if they don't, that they enjoyed their time being around you and you made them a better person. That would be the highest compliment you could get.

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