CLUB BRASS FINDS A FALL GUY IN CORA
Pros, cons of cheating out window when you win it all
Late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, wherever he might be at the moment, no doubt is having a good chuckle over the penalties Major League Baseball slapped on the Astros.
You can almost hear The Boss, in his rambling way with that nasally tone, saying, “You mean the only finishing touches we need to add to win the World Series are $5 million, four draft choices and a one-year suspension of our manager. Where do I sign up for that?”
Top prospects, who have supplied more evidence than top draft choices that they one day will play in the big leagues, routinely are dealt at the trading deadline just for a shot at making the postseason.
If sign-stealing played as big a role as many thought in the Astros winning the 2017 World Series, well, it was certainly worth it. And if MLB’s investigation finds the Red Sox gained a significant advantage through their use of the replay room to decode signs on the way to the 2018 World Series title, then it was worth it for the organization.
The only ones who didn’t come out ahead were Astros manager A.J. Hinch and former bench coach Alex Cora. The latter, by the way, lost his managing job with the Red Sox because of what he did with the Astros, Red Sox executives maintained at a Wednesday news conference at Fenway Park, not because of the investigation into the 2018 Red Sox. As far as that goes, everyone spouted the line: “Reserve judgment.” At which company that line originated, the Red Sox or MLB, is up to debate.
I’m not so cynical as to assume MLB would advise the Red Sox to fire Cora and urge everyone to “reserve judgment” about the ongoing investigation in exchange for not digging too deeply, but it’s certainly worth wondering.
This news conference, held in the State Street Pavilion Club, differed from most in that usually club executives say great things about the man they’re firing, don’t mean most of what they say, and never say why he’s get
ting fired. In this case, they told the truth about why they liked Cora so much as a manager and said why he was shown the door: “He admitted what he did was wrong,” co-owner Tom Werner said.
What he did with the Astros, that is. Of course. The Red Sox would never cheat.
Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy said the club did not ask Cora to sign a non-disclosure agreement. If after MLB releases its findings and the Sox still don’t ask him to sign one, that opens the door for a guaranteed bestseller penned by Cora, or by Cora as told to a ghostwriter to be named later by Jets quarterback Sam Darnold. The title: “SIGN-STEALING: Who knew what when.”
Do you know anybody even remotely familiar with baseball who would not buy that book and buy four more for Christmas presents?
Give the commissioner credit for coming down hard on cheating, as compared to past punishments, but there is no deterrent for the players to cook their own schemes to gain an illegal edge on their union brothers, and ball clubs care less than ever about who’s managing the team, thanks to the power wielded by analytics departments.
So what might be a punishment that would deter future cheating, but would not at the same time be bad for baseball? Not vacating titles. Unless MLB is ready to refund everyone who purchased a ticket or paid for broadcasting rights, that one doesn’t make sense.
For serious violations that occur from 2020 and beyond, eliminate a team caught cheating with any participation of non-player employees from the draft for two consecutive seasons and permanently ban the offending parties from ever working in baseball. You can’t grandfather that into baseball.