Leading By Example
President Joe Biden hosts an event for the 2021 World Series Champion Atlanta Braves, Monday, September 26, 2022, in the East Room of the White House. Anthopoulos is eighth from the left, next to Max Fried. | Photo credit: Official White House Photo by Hannah Foslien)
These are the best of times for the Atlanta Braves, who have won six straight division championships and appear to be built for the long haul. General Manager Alex Anthopoulos has had a lot to do with the team’s success, but you won’t hear him singing his own praises.
He knows how fickle sports can be and understands the adage that the best team does not always win. That distinction goes to the team that plays the best.
In a short series in baseball, anything can happen. Nonetheless, Anthopoulos is relentless in his efforts to consistently win – day in and day out – as he leads one of the best franchises in Major League Baseball.
Canadian by birth and of Greek heritage, Anthopoulos is fluent in English and French and speaks some Spanish and Greek. A music aficionado who never encountered a concert he didn’t like, he has always been involved in competitive sports. As a kid in Montreal, he loved the outdoors and couldn’t get enough of winter sports, from ice skating to snowboarding to downhill skiing.
He watched Atlanta games on WTBS, never once imagining that he would be responsible for bringing a World Series title to Atlanta.
He was the son of an engineer who owned a successful heating and ventilation business, but he simply did not have the passion for that business. He wanted a career in sports.
Anthopoulos started out as an unpaid intern with the Montreal Expos (working as a bank teller to pay the bills) but quickly transitioned to a fulltime position in scouting. Before long he was promoted to assistant scouting director.
With the future of the Expos franchise in doubt (the team later moved to Washington D.C.) he joined the Toronto Blue Jays as a scouting coordinator and made his way up the ladder to become general manager. His six seasons in that role were successful, with the Jays winning the American League East title in 2015.
Next stop for him was with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Then he came to Atlanta.
When he was unpacking at his new home in Buckhead, he ran across a photo of himself with his daughter. He was wearing a hoodie with “Atlanta” across the front. He suspects that in his constant travel as a scout, he passed though Atlanta during a cold spell and bought something to keep warm. “Maybe it was a sign that I would wind up here someday,” he says.
He and his family (wife Cristina, daughter Julia and son John) are smitten with the capital city. They, too, are sports fans who enjoy living where there are balmy days in winter. While they love to ski, “you can get on a plane and go where you can ski,” Anthopoulos says. “I would never have guessed in a million years that I would be able to work in sports and be where I am today, living in the United States and working for a team like the Braves. I love being in Georgia and enjoying warm weather.”
When there is opportunity, he will take in a live music concert and an occasional college basketball game, but mostly he tries to spend as much time with his kids as possible. Sporting events are great for family outings.
That same family atmosphere is evident with the Braves. “A winning team is made up of players who really do enjoy and care about each other,” he says.
Anthopoulos reports to the Braves’ chairman, Terry McGuirk, for whom he has the highest regard. “I like working with him because he trusts me and is a person with whom you enjoy good dialogue and communication. In a lot of ways, it is a partnership. I am a big chain-of-command person. You respect authority; you respect [someone’s] position; you respect the organizational chart.”
So far, the highlight of his seven-year tenure in Atlanta is the World Series title in 2021. His view is that his job is not about collecting talent but about putting the right pieces together and building a team.
“Everything is about those 26 players on the field. They are the engine that drives the bus,” he says.
If the boss is a team player, that usually means you’ll find that same team spirit in the locker room and on the field. And that’s a big plus – if your goal is to win championships.
Loran Smith is a veteran sportswriter and longtime UGA sidelines reporter.
