BOURNE, Mass. — In 2022, Scott Landers and Jarrod Saltalamacchia joined the Bourne coaching staff.
Landers entered that campaign as his first season as the field manager, while Saltalamacchia would be his assistant. The pair would go on and make three consecutive appearances in the Championship Series, winning the first two.
Coming off of last year’s defeat to the Harwich Mariners, Saltalamacchia would depart from Bourne to take the head coaching gig for the Falmouth Commodores, making his return to Doran Park on Wednesday in the opposite dugout.
“It’s a sense of comfort, because I've played here a lot or coached here a lot,” Saltalamacchia said pregame. “So it's not bittersweet, because I'm thankful for the opportunity over here, and I'm thankful for Scott for giving me this opportunity to be able to be seen and recognized, but it's still the same.”
Saltalamacchia was in the MLB for 12 years, spending time with multiple teams including the Miami Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves, but was most known for his four years with the Boston Red Sox where he was the main catcher in their 2013 World Series victory.
Saltalamacchia has picked up coaching following his retirement, as in addition to spending time helping collegiate players during the summer on Cape Cod, he’s spent time as an assistant coach since the 2018-19 season for The King’s Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida.
After a long tenure at playing at the highest level, he’s had a handful of coaches that have given him a good perspective on how to operate a ball club.
“Bobby Cox was cool, smooth, nothing really affected him. Same thing with Terry Francona,” Saltalamacchia said. “John Farell was a little more antsy and you can feed off of that a little bit. Thankfully we had a lot of guys in the clubhouse that were very good at calming things down.”
He spent three summers with Landers at Bourne, and picked up some insight from him that has helped him as he tackles the coaching world.
“His ability to coach players and kind of put a little bit of fire underneath them and understand the sense of urgency, while at the same time allowing them to be themselves,” Saltalamacchia said. “I learned a lot of that.”
Saltalamacchia also picked up on something from Landers that he doesn’t want to do moving forward.
“He kind of paces a lot during the game,” Saltalamacchia said. “I try not to do that. I feel like players feed off that. So if you're pacing and anxious, they'll get anxious.”
Saltalamacchia expressed his appreciation for Landers and his time at Bourne, though he’s ready to lead now as the field manager for Falmouth. Through 10 games the Commodores are 4-6, but they did beat Saltalamacchia's old squad with a 5-3 win on Wednesday night.
Landers reciprocated the feeling as to what it was like working with Saltalamacchia, but he wants a different result on the scoreboard next time.
“He was fine,” Landers said with a smile postgame. “He’s just on the other side now, and now I got to beat him.”
