Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora basically admitted to stealing the 2017 World Series while a bench coach for the Houston Astros. Cora’s blatant disrespect is all Rob Manfred’s fault.
“We stole that [expletive] World Series!”
Those are the words of current Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora according to Evan Drellich’s new book ‘Winning Fixes Everything’.
Cora was speaking about the 2017 World Series Championship won by the Houston Astros. At the time, Cora was the Astros bench coach and played a key role in the team’s sign stealing scandal that rocked the baseball world and cost A.J. Hinch and eventually Cora himself their jobs.
Alex Cora’s blatant disrespect after cheating is all Rob Manfred’s fault
But this isn’t just on Alex Cora, who should be ashamed of the way he disgraced the sport that provided him with so much success over the year. No, the bigger culprit in this entire fiasco is MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Cora’s blatant disrespect shows that Manfred’s punishment, which included suspending Hinch and former Astros G.M. Jeff Luhnow, was not nearly enough.
Cora, who was the Red Sox manager at the time, also received a one-year suspension. He and the Red Sox mutually parted ways. However, Cora was then re-hired by Boston after his suspension was up.
The Astros were also fined $5M and lost their first-round selections in both the 2020 and 2021. Not a single player was punished by Major League Baseball, which also underscores the lack of punishment on the part of Manfred.
While sign stealing has been used throughout baseball for years, it was never taken to the level seen by the 2017 Astros. The fact that Cora and the players from that year’s team are reaping the benefits of cheating while opposing pitchers, who faced an unfair matchup, may now be out of job is inexcusable.
While Alex Cora and the players from that year’s Houston Astros team are most to blame for their actions, Rob Manfred’s spineless punishment doled out under watch is indefensible.
The sign stealing scandal was bad enough, but now you’ve got a manager blatantly disrespecting the game by claiming that the Astros knowingly stole the 2017 World Series. That mockery falls squarely on the shoulder of Commissioner Manfred.