Why a woman from Rhode Island receives Rocco Baldelli's congratulatory texts

How? Well, both of them have a 401 area code since they are both from Rhode Island – Baldelli from Woonsocket, Cranston's Manzi, about a half-hour drive away.

"I knew Rhode Island was small, but not so small," laughed Manzi.

Manzi, a long-time fan of the Red Sox, had already received wrong numbers, but did not think about anything, even when they had asked Rocco. Only a few weeks ago, she received a text seeking an interview at Baldelli.

She decided to have fun and answered.

"I was like, 'LOL, yeah, guy'" she says. "And he said something like," If you need management advice, I run my son's baseball team, haha, "and I thought," Uh, oh, c & # Is really someone "."

Manzi discovered that she was talking with one of Baldelli's childhood friends and then began to assemble everything. Baldelli played high school football in Warwick, was a first-round pick in 2000 and spent seven seasons in the major leagues from 2003 to 2010, including the 2009 season with the Red Sox.

On Thursday morning, Manzi discovered that Baldelli, 37, had been named manager of the Twins.

"My friends this morning tell me," You should start rumors about everything you're going to do for the Twins, "Manzi said." I'm like, "I'm not going to cross that line."

Maybe Baldelli will respond to one of Manzi's tweets and will offer him tickets for Twins-Red Sox Or maybe she'll find a way to land an assistant job in the staff of Baldelli.

"To be honest, I think I would be a great third base coach, but that's just me," she said.

Manzi works for LogMeIn, a Boston-based software company. Although she has not found new work today, she has always wanted to be a journalist on radio and television for the Red Sox.

"It could be my moment," she says jokingly.

Of course, the first thing to do is first: Baldelli must find a way to thank everyone who tries to contact him.

"I think Rocco will eventually want to receive his congratulations," she said.