Alumni Profile: David Page ’89
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Second Series Title a Little Sweeter
Boston Red Sox fans have long believed their team and its following are unique.
Our man on the inside confirms it.
“You go away for eight years and come back, you realize this place isn’t like every place else,” says David Page ’89, the former Husky baseball player who just completed his second season as the Red Sox’s strength and conditioning coach. He was with the Red Sox every step of their long march to the 2007 World Series championship, the team’s second in four seasons.
It was also a second world title for Page, who joined the Red Sox in December 2005. He was on the staff of the Arizona Diamondbacks team that won it all in 2001.
“When we won it in Arizona, the parade was 12 minutes long, maybe four city blocks square,” he says. “Here it was three hours long, and louder than you can ever imagine.”
Growing up in Fairfield, Maine, Page made many trips as a fan to Fenway Park. But today he speaks with a cool professionalism about the team. “We would have been more disappointed had we lost, than we were excited about winning,” Page says. “Winning the World Series was the theme from the very first meeting in spring training. I wouldn’t say winning was expected, but it was a goal and they worked toward it. They’re a pretty professional group.”
Page’s job was to keep the players in top condition, or at least as healthy as possible. He designs fitness programs for each player to follow year-round. He says he has little trouble getting them to take care of themselves.
“These guys are very much creatures of habit. They like routine. It’s a stress release for them,” Page says. “They don’t reach the big leagues or stay very long without knowing how to do things.”
Page admits the hardest part of his job is exactly the same part that makes it so special.
“It’s the day-to-day pressure of working with the Boston Red Sox,” he says. “It’s a results-oriented organization. Every day is Game 7. People want to know about the status of this guy or that guy, and when I’m asked questions, I have to have answers.”
Page says he enjoys the work, and working with the coaching staff, especially pitching coach John Farrell and manager Terry Francona. “They’re a great group. I couldn’t ask for better guys to work with.”
Page, who lives in Methuen, Mass., with his wife, the former Lori Ellis ’92, and their children, said he intends to come back to campus to visit with his old friends and coaches Ed Flaherty and Al Bean. He regrets missing the ceremony in September in which he was among seven former athletes inducted in the Husky Hall of Fame.
“I’ve got to get up there to thank all those guys in person,” Page says. “I wasn’t able to make it back for the ceremony, but the honor means a lot to me.”
Given what else Page had on his calendar this fall, chances are all is forgiven.
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