Let’s go back to the year 2000. Alex Anthopoulos is 23 years old. He then worked for the family heating and ventilation company set up by his father, who had died two years earlier. One morning, he opens his eyes. “Will this be my life for the next 40 years?” ”
A little over 20 years later, the Montrealer is the general manager and president of baseball operations for a team preparing to take part in the World Series.
When calling Press, Anthopoulos is on his way to the airport, from where he will fly to Houston for his Braves’ first game against the Astros, which will take place on Tuesday night. He has time and he likes to talk.
Alex Anthopoulos never thought, even for a second, to one day work in the world of sport. “All I was back then was a fan. ”
That morning in 2000, therefore, he made a decision. The one who will change his life. That of finding a job that fascinates him, that makes him want to get out of bed in the morning.
“I have lived the life [qui consiste à] work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I had taken night classes at Vanier College to learn more about ventilation, about business. But I hated it, ”he says with emotion.
“At this point in my life, I just realized that I couldn’t do something that didn’t bring me pleasure,” he continues. […] I don’t care how much I get paid, I just don’t want to wake up in the morning without being happy to go to work. I was determined to chase dream baseball. “
Still, in life, a dream is all well and good, but everyone needs a first chance. This is even more true for a 23-year-old Quebecer who is trying to find his place in the world of major baseball in the early 2000s. In search of an internship, he makes numerous calls to the MLB teams. He is ready to do any task, on a volunteer basis if necessary.
Big downside: as he is Canadian, he cannot get a visa to go to work in the United States. The options are therefore… limited.
“It’s much more restrictive and difficult for a Canadian to be hired at a club in the United States. […] I had literally 2 chances out of 30 teams to make my place in the industry: the Blue Jays and the Expos. ”
Alex Anthopoulos finally finds this first opportunity under his nose, in Montreal. At the Expos. His unpaid job: answering fan mail.
The following year, he was given an opportunity to collaborate at a baseball school in Florida, where he learned the basics of recruiting. In 2002, he was appointed to the position of full-time recruiting coordinator.
“It was so exciting,” he recalls. I would come home and watch draft pick videos, college and varsity players. I wasn’t doing this thinking it was going to help me get to the next rung. I did it out of love for the sport, out of passion. I never had enough. ”
“I wanted to be in the office every minute of every day. ”
Every morning, he gets up with a smile at the thought of going to work. Exactly as he had wanted when he left the family business two years earlier.
Toronto to Atlanta
PHOTO DARREN CALABRESE, ARCHIVES THE CANADIAN PRESS
Alex Anthopoulos, in 2015
At the end of the 2003 season, Alex Anthopoulos left the Expos, where he was now assistant to the recruiting director. He joins the other Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays, as the recruiting coordinator.
“I thought I would be a recruiting coordinator for 10 or 20 years, that this would be my path. I was happy, I was doing something I loved. I never thought of going higher. ”
At least until this day in 2006 when the general manager J. P. Ricciardi summons him to his office to offer him the post of deputy to the general manager.
“At the time, I told him: ‘I’m in shock, I didn’t even think you were paying attention to what I was doing,’” says Anthopoulos.
It wasn’t until two or three years later that the Montrealer realized, for the first time in his life, that he could one day be the general manager of the MLB club. “This was the only time in my entire career when the idea of one day being a CEO really crossed my mind,” he says.
Alex Anthopoulos spent six years, from 2009 to 2015, as General Manager of the Blue Jays. He then made the jump to the United States for the first time, as vice president of baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016 and 2017, before being hired as general manager by the Atlanta Braves.
Which brings us to October 23, when the Braves defeated the Dodgers in six games to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1999.
This is a first for Alex Anthopoulos in 10 years as general manager in major league baseball.
At the end of the line, the 44-year-old exudes a refreshing humility. When asked how he feels, he goes with an “obviously, I’m happy” before he veers off towards the Braves fans.
“To see the joy of the people of the Atlanta community… how happy they were. This is the most rewarding part. My neighbors in the street tell me how much happiness this team brings them. ”
Anthopoulos has taken its time over the past four years. Arriving with the Braves, he wanted to listen as much as possible. Gather information. Get to know the organization and the people who are part of it.
“I know it sounds simple, but I wanted to make good baseball decisions every year,” he explains. Hopefully, if I make the right decisions, the victories will come. ”
As a matter of fact, he has made many good decisions this season. And the victories have come.
Except that four are still missing.