Netflix's new Red Sox docuseries is not the usual rags to riches tale... but instead an unflinching look at a battle with mediocrity and inner demons

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As cold openings go it doesn't get much colder. 'I have no hope for this team, because mentally they don't have it. They're a weak group. They just don't have it.'

And with those words from a Boston radio analyst, the scene is set for Netflix's latest foray into sporting documentaries, The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox.

Straight away we know this is no The Last Dance, no rose-tinted retrospective at one team's shot at immortality. We have been granted access to the inner sanctum of a club who have been the worst in the AL East for three of the previous four years: this is a team's struggle towards mediocrity.

But that's only to look at it in purely baseball terms. Which misses the point. As becomes evident quite quickly this is a collection of human stories; of failure and crippling fear of failure; of errors and atoning for past mistakes; of overcoming personal demons and Fenway's Green Monster. And of beer showers in those moments when the tough times can be briefly forgotten. The result is a highly enjoyable ride through the longest season in sports.

For while the pursuit of greatness is compelling in its own way, there is an added human dimension to watching players fighting external and internal pressures from a city where baseball means more. As Alex Cora, the manager, says: 'People don't understand what this is. Not only the big leagues, but the Boston Red Sox and this city. This is more than baseball.'

Baseball on its own is a tough enough gig - 162 games in 185 days. Little time for training, no playing your way back into form in the batting cage: your struggles are laid bare for all to see as technical issues turn into mental ones that manifest themselves in new technical flaws.

Brayan Bello in the Red Sox clubhouse, as shown in the brand new Netflix docuseries

Netflix went behind the scenes with the Boston Red Sox team throughout the 2024 season

'You have to have a short memory to be good in this game because it is so tough it will eat you alive if you don't let things go,' says Tristan Casas, who was only 24 at the start of last season.

He is one of a number of young players on whom Boston is pinning its hopes.

There is just one problem with that. 'Sometimes you can win with young talent. that hasn't historically happened in Boston. And if that's the plan that the Red Sox are banking on, then everything needs to go right,' The Athletic's Jen McCaffery tells the cameras.

We are given a potted history of the franchise - condemned to frustration and failure for much of the 1900s before a burst of four World Series titles between 2004 and 2018. Then they traded star man Mookie Betts to the LA Dodgers (where he has won two World Series). In 2020, 2022 and 2023 they finished bottom of the AL East.

And we are introduced to a cast of these 'kids'. There is Casas - the first baseman who paints his nails, does yoga on the outfield and feeds off the earth's energy - 'The unspoken rule is, you can be different if you produce,' explains Cora. Though as one teammate says of Casas: 'Most of us have a hard time understanding what is real, what's an act, what is performative and what's not.'

Then there is Jarren Duran, 27 years old at the start of the campaign, who is regarded as the team's next leader, who 'runs like he's angry at the ground'. And it quickly becomes apparent that for all the frustration that the fans and media show towards him, it is nothing like the pressure he puts on himself.

Jarren Duran sits on a cooler to watch his teammates play during the 2024 season

The docuseries shows the ups and downs - and mainly downs - of the struggling 2024 Red Sox

As Sean McAdam, a journalist with MassLive, says: 'This is a draining game. It demands a lot of you mentally, just having the physical tools, talents and abilities isn't enough.' It is fascinating to hear Duran unashamedly admit that it is a side of the game he has struggled with, with almost tragic circumstances. But the strength of the show is that we are told - by him - of how he has been shaped by his upbringing. Indeed, parental influence is a repeated theme.

We meet Brayan Bello, the young pitching phenom from the Dominican Republic, who is handed the Opening Day start. At the other end of the age scale look out for Cam Booser, a hard-throwing leftie with some impressive facial hair, who gets one last shot at making it in the majors after serious injury and time out of the game to be a carpenter.

But in many ways the most fascinating story involves the man tasked with melding these disparate talents into a winning team, Alex Cora. We are reminded of the Red Sox manager's involvement in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal, for which he served a year's suspension.

It is a win-at-all-costs stain on the game that seems at odds with the personable man who seems to have an innate ability to judge a player's mood and adapt his interactions - and team lineups - accordingly.

'This is not "show up at the weekend and perform". This is every day, over and over and over and over again.' Cora explains. 'It's not always about your swing or your defense or your base-running, it's about "How are you feeling?" "What have you got tonight?" "How's the family doing?"'

Joe Castiglione makes notes from the commentary booth on OpenIng Day at Fenway Park

Triston Casas even leaves his own teammates baffled with some of his off-field antics

One particularly impressive example of his man-management skills comes when Casa makes a dreadful attempt at stealing third and gets picked off. Cora's response: 'There's no point in talking to him, he knows he shat the bed.' And no more is said of it - well, not on camera at least.

Director Gregg Whitely, a four-time Emmy winner, says: 'Baseball is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. Each game is filled with cinematic one-on-one battles: pitcher versus hitter; catcher versus base stealer; or manager versus manager. Yet the most intense battles we witnessed occurred inside a player’s mind. 

'All sports are mentally demanding, but the frequency of failure (and the sheer length of the 162-game baseball season) requires a remarkable kind of fortitude. Even ardent baseball fans will be surprised at the intensity of those mental battles -transpiring in the dugout, a hotel room, or the clubhouse - far away from the spectators’ usual view.'

Covering all 162 games is something that thankfully Whiteley has not even attempted to do, rather filtering a handful for extended treatment, such as when Cora outsmarts the Yankees by picking up on the weakness of their catcher to prevent stolen bases. We get glimpses of the individual preparation needed for pitchers against a whole line-up, for example, and the sheer biomechanical analysis they are subject to, and have to learn from.

But it is the personal stories that grab the attention - Tyler O'Neill's attempts to have a normal family life from hotels during the 81 road games; or the surprising admission from Casas, regarded as a star of the team already at such a young age, that he lives in a hotel aware that a trade or a demotion to the minors could send him halfway across the country at any stage.

Bello sits in the clubhouse with a towel around his neck as he chats to teammates and coaches

Casas sits in the ice bath in the clubhouse as fans are given a behind-the-scenes look

We see the mood swing in the dressing room, in the stands and across a whole city as a run of wins is backed up by an abject spell blighted by bad fielding and poor choices. We learn of the devastating impact on players and morale. We hear from the journalists who get to know these guys across six months rubbing shoulders with them who clearly take no pleasure in chronicling their pain.

But it's not just to the team itself that they bring some customary cynicism. Of the whole Netflix enterprise itself MassLive's McAdam says: 'This is not LA Dodgers, where it's World Series or bust and Shohei Otani and [Yoshinobu] Yamamoto and a million stars, including Mookie Betts. 

'This is not a team that is now a regular October participant. And the fact that this project is being undertaken in the face of all that, I think has fans wondering, where are the priorities here? Is it to enhance the Red Sox brand? Is it to win baseball games?'

For those who don't know the fate of the 2024 Boston Red Sox, I can tell you they did win some baseball games. And they also lost some. Time will tell if it enhances the brand, but time spent with Netflix's latest sports offering will certainly enhance your appreciation of what it takes to make it in the big leagues.

The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox premieres globally on Netflix on April 8