Red Sox, MLB neatly move on, but Cora’s cheating leaves a stain
Over and over, Red Sox ownership and management asked for media and fans to reserve judgment. Over and over, they stressed Alex Cora hadn’t been fired, that there had been a mutual agreement he would no longer manage the team.
Considering the glowing words that would follow, you’d think they were nominating Cora for some sort of humanitarian award or president of the United States rather than call him what he is.
C-H-E-A-T-E-R.
Only once during their press conference Wednesday did they stop using 10 topsy-turvy, curveball words when a one-word fastball would do. That was when they were asked if the Red Sox won the 2018 World Series over the LA Dodgers fair-and-square.
“Absolutely,” Red Sox president Sam Kennedy told the gathered reporters.
“Absolutely,” Red Sox principal owner John Henry said.
Whether that means they didn’t think Cora had cheated with the Red Sox like he had with the Astros, or Major League Baseball had so surrounded the dugout in the postseason that it became impossible to continue to steal signs, or Henry and Kennedy were simply talking trash, well, reserve judgment until MLB completes its investigation of the 2018 Red Sox.
There has been something a little too neat, a little too tidy about the swift punishment and official reaction to the scandal that has rocked the sport this week. That goes for the Astros. That goes for the Red Sox. That goes for MLB. Hit harsh. Hit surgically. Take out who you want to take out. Move on quickly for the good of the game.
It’s no wonder that, according to national reports, a number of unnamed owners and executives think Astros owner Jim Crane skated after he immediately fired manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow following MLB’s ruling for their role in signstealing with the 2017 world champions.
“The entire thing was programmed to protect the future of the franchise,” a team president told Jeff Passan of ESPN. “(Crane) got his championship. He keeps his team. His fine is nothing. The sport lost, but Crane won.”
As I watched Henry,
Tom Werner, Kennedy and Chaim Bloom on television, as they talked about what’s good for “the family,” what’s good for the future, and how the integrity of the 2018 world championship was the only thing they vehemently defended, that’s how I felt. The entire thing was programmed to protect the future of the franchise.
In Cora’s case, since he made a deal to leave before getting fired for masterminding the Astros’ signal stealing as their bench
coach in 2017, the Red Sox hierarchy appeared eager to let him down as generously as possible.
“We’re going to miss just about everything about him,” Henry said. “He was a tremendous manager for us on all levels.”
“We’ll miss his passion, his energy, his sense of humor, the way he cared about the entire organization,” Kennedy said. “He knew it was important to participate actively in the New England community. He knew it is was important to give to back to Caguas and all of Puerto Rico. He knew it was important to engage in MLB marketing initiatives. He knew it was important to win. He developed a close relationship with a lot of people here. It doesn’t excuse the conduct from the commissioner’s report. We recognize that, but we’ll miss a lot.”
“I remember when Alex came aboard, the only thing he asked was we bring a plane load of relief supplies to Puerto Rico (after the hurricane),” Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said. “He’s an incredibly selfless man. He’s an extraordinary manager and we’ll miss him.”
Alex Cora didn’t die. He C-H-E-A-T-E-D. Not sure how selfless that is.
You think owner Charles Comiskey spoke so fondly of the eight players thrown out of the game after the Black Sox scandal? It was the wrong time for Cora sound like St. Francis of Assisi. Wrong time. Wrong place.
Yes, Cora was the glue of the Red Sox. Smart, communicative, well-humored, accessible, he was popular in the clubhouse, especially with the young stars. Management could work with him on the analytics level. He loves baseball, loves it so much he forgot where the details of the game ended and outright cheating via electronic surveillance started. Banging on a trashcan to tell hitters what pitch was coming next was the old-fashioned way of banging out the message, “You are dishonoring the game you love.”
And now it’s Bloom’s mission to find a manager. Does he go with the bench coach Ron Roenicke or is he stained by the scandal? Does he go to his Rays’ roots for Matt Quatraro or is too late to go outside the organization? Jason Varitek would win the fan vote.
Stealing signs isn’t against the rules. Using electronic equipment is. Some will argue how fast and effectively the information can be absorbed by the hitter at the plate. Still, there are a lot of numbers showing Red Sox averages jumped with men on base in 2018. And there’s no denying the 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox are the ones with the World Series rings. The playing field was compromised. “We were all surprised to read this report (on the Astros) on Monday,” Henry said.
Really? Really?
All of baseball had been on alert for months. Granted, if pitcher Mike Fiers hadn’t told The Athletic at the conclusion of the season about the Astros, the general public wouldn’t have been so aware. Yet speculation had swirled for a few years. Baseball security even stepped in during the 2018 postseason. In 2019, preventive measures were taken, including delaying video in the park for 10 seconds — except for the replay official.
Maybe banning the GM and manager for a year and costing the Astros a firstand second-round draft pick surprised the Red Sox, but the $5 million fine is pocket change to a billionaire. And besides, the Red Sox were fined in 2017 for reportedly using Apple Watches (actually they were Fitbits) to steal signs during a Yankee series. Manfred put the Sox and teams on notice. This was even before Cora arrived from Houston.
“We did take steps after Apple Watch to ensure we didn’t have a problem going forward,” Henry said.
The steps evidently didn’t work, John. And once warned, if the 2018 allegations are proven, the Red Sox should be twice burned in their punishment. Who knew the Red Sox would cheat more than the Patriots?
Hinch, who wasn’t directly involved in the sign-stealing yet didn’t stop it, was banned from baseball for a year. By that standard, appearing 11 times in the report as a mastermind of the scheme, Cora deserves two years. The Astros’ use of surveillance dragged on from the 2017 season, through the playoffs and into 2018. They beat the Red Sox and Yankees that October. George Springer of New Britain and UConn won World Series MVP. Cora going to Red Sox and potentially duplicating some of scheme? A five-year ban from the game for Cora doesn’t sound wrong to me. Some want him banned for life.
In many ways, we have become immune to controversies and cheating in sports. The entire steroid scandal has so immersed us the Hall of Fame debate that we have forgotten how historically and dramatically the dynamics of baseball changed with the juicers. We also seemed to have forgotten sometimes PEDs are now banned. It’s horrible stuff. It cheats the game.
Like high-tech sign-stealing.
How uncomfortable is it to now watch that video of Cora winking and joking about Carlos Beltran being the Yankees most valuable addition and “devices” after the Sox got trounced by New York in those London games last season? MLB decided not to punish any of the Astros players, giving them immunity in exchange for information, although Beltran was the one player named as part of the scheme.
Beltran was a member of the Yankees front office last year after retiring. MLB has said the Yankees are not under any investigation.
He is the new Mets manager. We await word if they will retain him.
Beltran is carrying a lot of baggage into Queens. If the Mets keep him, it will be messy. He is a C-H-E-A-T-E-R, just like his friend Alex Cora.