Hilo native Kai Correa discusses return to Cleveland, grandfather and more on podcast

Editor’s note: this article is comprised of quotes clipped from a 4,133 word transcript of a podcast — abridged for brevity.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — One of the newest faces on the Guardians coaching staff is a familiar one to many in the organization. Kai Correa signed on as a major league field coordinator under new manager Stephen Vogt after serving as bench coach in San Francisco for the last few seasons.

Correa says he is excited to reconnect with Cleveland players he interacted with during his first stint with the organization from 2018-19 as a coach at the club’s training facility in Arizona. About 30 of the 40 players currently on the 40-man roster crossed paths with Correa when he worked for Cleveland in Goodyear.

He is also excited about the youth and athleticism among the position player group.

“That group, first and foremost excites me the most,” Correa said. “They’re at the center of our universe as a baseball club.”

Correa is also eager to get to work with Vogt and his staff.

“Votey’s reputation precedes itself, obviously,’” he said. “But the opportunity to work with a man of his character really drew me.”

Correa spoke with Cleveland.com’s podcast on Jan. 3, here are some of the key takeaways:

• • •

FAMILIARITY

“I think I got added to that group thread and I only had to save two new numbers because those guys were either the coordinator in the minor leagues with me when I was a coordinator or they were on the major league staff,” Correa said. “So it’s a fun group in regard to familiarity.

“(T)he last thing is the larger folks in the front office, the in scouting, in player development, in baseball operations and research and development. Just the caliber of those people, how thoughtful they are, how family friendly they are, how process oriented. My wife and I were drawn to be back with those folks as well, so I couldn’t be more excited.”

• • •

GRATITUDE

“Yes, I’ve been a major league bench coach for the last couple of years, but I’m also a decade removed from mowing my own infield and shoveling the snow off the infield to make sure we could practice and things like that.

“And so when you come from that journey, when you’re not born in baseball’s pole position, you’re grateful for everything. You’re grateful to stand in a major league stadium and work with major league players. You don’t have the woe is me, all this circumstance and that circumstance. And so kind of that mentality and the Cleveland mentality of being slighted or taken for granted are aligned in my case.”

• • •

JIMMY CORREA

Podcast coach Joe Noga called Correa’s grandfather, the late Jimmy Correa “one of the greatest high school coaches in Hawaii history,” and asked Correa to tell more about what he learned from his grandfather.

“Well, I think that the first thing is the thing that I learned from him was the element of social wealth,” Correa said, “something I’ve referred to before, just seeing how grown men would react to him, firefighters and the baker and police officers and the (guys in the) garage — because he coached them — and realizing the value of a coach and the role that plays in somebody’s development.”

“And so that’s the first thing that he really imprinted on me as the primary person who was my afterschool care — is you got to see how impactful that role could be and how much you could influence lives. And so that’s why I was drawn to it out of the gates.

“The second way he strongly impacted me was he exposed me to 300, 400 level baseball classes as a little boy sitting there on the bucket with my binder paper doing my homework.

“And by the time I came around, he had no longer been the head coach and my uncle was the head coach of one high school and my father was the head coach of another in town, and he kind of took the role as the primary second guesser to the both of them.

“(I) can think about memorable moments. Some members of my family and I were discussing this the other night, but there was an important game with a runner on second base, a playoff game — and my grandfather wanted to intentionally walk a three hole hitter on the other team, and my father said, no, I trust this matchup. I’m going with it.

“And so the pitcher saws the guy off, he hits a weak ground ball to the first baseman and he turns to my grandfather kind of palms up — but the Jordan palms up like ‘see’ — and the first baseman promptly misses the ground ball and my grandfather points over his shoulder and goes like that. You don’t see.

“And so that’s that old fashioned baseball dialogue I grew up with.

“That was the dinner table, was discussion. And so being exposed to that gets you hooked. And so I had both ends of the spectrum, the love of the impacting people’s lives, and then the love of the chess match and those decisions and the waterfall effect that comes from”

Noga also asked Correa to speak more about his grandfather’s time playing baseball.

“So my grandfather — who’s obviously since passed — he was born in 1919, so his peak in terms of playing was pre-integration, pre jacket in major leagues.” Correa said. “And so his opportunity to play against big leaguers came in two fashions. The first is in barnstorming games.

“So oftentimes in that era, if a major league team or major league all-star team, like they often do now in present day go to Japan or Korea to play, they stop in Hawaii to train and they play the local all-star team of the semi-professional players.

“(M)y grandfather was one of the more notable catchers of his time, and so he would often be the catcher. So he’s the catcher. I’ve got a photo here on the wall in my office where it’s grandpa and Yogi (Berra).

“So he’s taken down at-bats against Whitey Ford and Don Larsson. We’ve got old box scores where it’s like the off season that Don Larsson throws the perfect game. Grandpa’s got two hits, so it’s really cool.

“(H)e tells this fabulous story where they threw a young, thumbing breaking ball, left-hander against the Yankees, and he’s holding them down and I guess Yogi comes to the plate and taps ‘em on the shin guards and he said, Hey, Jimmy, you see all these people. They didn’t come here to (watch the Yankees get shut out), so start calling some heaters.

“(E)veryone said, ‘well, grandpa, what did you do?’ He said, ‘well, you listened to Yogi Berra.’”