The Boston Red Sox had no choice but to fire manager Alex Cora Tuesday, not after a scathing report from Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred that implicated Cora in a cheating scandal while a bench coach with the Houston Astros in 2017 and not after Astros owner Jim Crane axed his manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow on Monday about an hour after Manfred had suspended them for the 2020 season, fined the Astros $5 million and stripped the club of its first-and second-round draft choices in 2020 and 2021.
The Red Sox announced Cora’s dismissal in a statement Tuesday night, saying the club and the manager “mutually agreed to part ways.”
Wow, talk about the mighty having fallen! In 2017 the Astros won the World Series and became one of baseball’s dominant teams. In 2018 the Red Sox won a club-record 108 games, barraged through the playoffs with 11 victories on 14 games and won the World Series. Cora could do no wrong. He couldn’t walk on water, but he could ride in a duck boat parade through the streets of Boston.
Now he is out of a job. MLB is still investigating a report published in The Athletic last fall that the Red Sox in 2018 broke the rules against illegal sign-stealing. Based on the penalties dealt to the Astros, it’s reasonable to think Manfred will suspend Cora for the 2020 season, fine the Red Sox the maximum $5 million and take away draft choices for two years.
Anything less would be shocking and puzzling.
The real puzzle is why Cora employed his sign-stealing scheme in Boston. In 2017 the Red Sox, and Yankees, were caught and fined for illegal electronic sign-stealing. Red Sox staff and players used an Apple Watch to communicate what kind of pitch was coming. Manfred issued a stern warning that teams should stop using electronic means to decipher signals.
Cora obviously did not get the message. The Red Sox stashed someone in a video room to decode the catcher’s signals and get them to someone in the dugout who was supposed to flash a sign to a base runner who then signaled the batter what pitch was about to be delivered.
According to MLB rules, using the video feed from the center field camera and other electronic means to convey information is cheating. The Red Sox, and the Astros, cheated.
And Cora was in the thick of it. In Houston, players used the video feed and banged on a trashcan to send the final message.
“Cora was involved in developing both the banging scheme and utilizing the replay review room to decode and transmit signs. Cora participated in both schemes, and through his active participation, implicitly condoned the players’ conduct,” Manfred wrote in his nine-page report. He cited Cora’s name 11 times.
It’s impossible to know the impact of sign-stealing on individual at-bats. In fact, in 2017 and 2018 the Astros hit better on the road, where stealing signs is more challenging for the lack of readily available stealth technology.
Assuming the accuracy of The Athletic report, this latest bit of chicanery to gain an edge raises anew an embarrassing question. Is Boston the home of champs or cheats? The six-time Super Bowl champion Patriots videotaped Jets practice in Spygate in 2007 and used deflated footballs against the Colts in the AFC Championship in 2015, a game forever known as Deflategate. The four-time World Series champion Red Sox used a smart watch in 2017 and video review 2018.
What about the Celtics and those 17 championship banners hanging in the rafters of TD Garden? Forget about teams that starred future Hall of Famers like Cousy, Russell, Heinsohn, Havlicek, Cowens, White, Bird, McHale and Parish. Critics will tell you the Celts won because Red Auerbach arranged cold showers in the visitors locker room of the old Boston Garden and planted dead spots in the famed parquet floor.
Is Boston the best sports town in America because of trickery or talent? The Cora case guarantees the debate will rage on.
