Manager of the Boston Red Sox, Alex Cora, issues an apology and claims to have received his just desserts.
Alex Cora anticipated returning to baseball in the next two to three years. But not like this, and certainly not as the Boston Red Sox’s manager, a team he helped win the 2018 World Series.
After Cora was discovered to have played a key role in devising plans to use the Houston Astros’ replay room to illegally send signs while serving as the team’s bench coach in 2017, the Red Sox and Cora mutually parted ways in January. Eleven times in the nine pages of the report, Commissioner Rob Manfred highlighted Cora. Officially, Cora was suspended by MLB till the completion of the World Series in April.
“This is the last thing I was thinking when the suspension happened,” Cora remarked during his Fenway Park press conference on Tuesday, the day he was reintroduced as Red Sox manager. “I had to take care of a lot of things at a personal level, take care of my family, and baseball was far away from my thoughts.”
Cora said it was a difficult year and expressed regret for his part in the Astros’ sign-stealing fiasco.
“I was spending time in my home for the wrong reasons,” he stated. “This year’s events were ones I deserved. I’m not pleased with it. I ultimately received and served my punishment.”
Following the World Series, there was much conjecture that Cora would be rehired by the Red Sox to take over as interim manager in lieu of Ron Roenicke. However, Cora and Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom both stated that Cora’s hiring was far from certain. A number of candidates were interviewed by the Boston front staff, but Cora’s popularity and track record with the players and fans was undoubtedly a major factor in his return.
The Red Sox won 108 games in 2018—a club record—beating the Yankees and Astros, two teams with 100 wins, to advance to the World Series, where they were defeated in five games by the Dodgers. Cora’s first season as manager began that year. Despite the Red Sox’s 84-78 record in 2019, Cora’s 192 victories rank fourth among managers in their first two seasons of management.
Cora was still required to respond and clarify his involvement in the events of 2017. “You need to make sure you get every question answered that’s on your mind, that you ask everything you need to ask,” Bloom told himself before seeing Cora. Not only to assess whether or not he would be a good manager, but also because this is a significant incident that affected all of us.”
Cora said that the interviewing process was really demanding. It was sincere. It was difficult. Some really good questions were asked,” he remarked. He had to wait after that. “As they went through the procedure, I gradually began to feel a little nervous. I wasn’t employed. We’ll be alright if this doesn’t occur, so go spend time with your family. However, I wasn’t positive that would occur.”
When asked if he was aware that the Astros’ actions were improper at the time, Cora stated that the “way we did it with the group over there wasn’t the right way” but that he didn’t want to discuss specifics of 2017. He declared that the cheating scandal would always be a part of him. “I don’t want people to treat this like it’s a great comeback story,” he stated.