Dodgers: Alex Cora’s Sad Transformation From Fan Favorite to Villain
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora was fired this past Tuesday for his role in the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal. The former Houston bench coach and the Red Sox “agreed to mutually part ways”. Please hold the tawdry public relations verbiage – dude got fired for cheating.
Cora was instrumental in beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in back-to-back World Series. Rewind to a year ago, Cora was one of, if not the, best young manager in the game. His players loved him. Analysts adored him. His native country of Puerto Rico revered him for his philanthropy.
Rewind over two decades ago and Cora was a young, sure-handed middle infielder coming up through the Dodgers system.
In an inconsistent era, featuring one lone playoff appearance, Alex Cora and Cesar Izturis’s artful double plays were one of the few things Dodger fans could cheer for. Endearing themselves to the fanbase one smooth double play at a time. Cora, who averaged 34 RBI a season with the Dodgers, was hardly a threat at the plate. His steady glove always made the bus.
Years ago, Cesar Izturis, Paul Loduca, Jim Tracy and Haysin Werth all said one March day that Alex Cora was the smartest man in baseball
— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) October 22, 2017
Every fanbase adores the offensively deficient grinder, but whose hard work on the less glamorous side of the ball, or puck, shines through.
The fact that it was Alex Cora who devised the sign stealing system that cheated the very team that drafted him out of their first World Series title since 1988 reads like a network television plot twist. The team that gave a 22 year-old his first shot at playing in the major leagues. The team that drafted him.
[adace-ad id=”118525″]A man we all cheered for, who was regarded in baseball circles as a “stand up guy” who “wants to get things done the right way”, illegally ripped our guts out. Maybe twice. Even worse, Cora’s actions, leave the Dodgers faithful in a hollow emotional position: we aren’t legitimate champions, but neither is the team that beat us in the championship.
Nobody knows how to twist the knife deeper into the heart than a true killer.
There is a good chance Cora was cheating with the Dodgers. Beltran probably cheated with Yanks. I doubt two longtime veterans just happened to start cheating in 2017. Baseball has a major problem. They want to keep it confined to two teams.
As long as there is millions of dollars at stake people who crave fame and fortune will do WHATEVER it takes to win including our “heroic” athletes. These men aren’t gods, they are human…and humans will cheat if they can get away with it. Cheating exists in all professional sports. Welcome to reality.
The urge to cheat may always be there, especially with big bucks and fame at stake. But that doesn’t mean you tolerate it. Drug testing for steroids has gone a long way toward eliminating that form of cheating in baseball and football. There are policing measures that could and should be used in baseball to prevent sign stealing. Examples include no video or audio in the dugout or on a player, including cell phones, unless they are used by MLB to actually monitor the dugouts. And how about some umpires who aren’t deaf and actually investigate strange sounds coming from a dugout. If the hitter can hear it, surely an ump can. Baseball isn’t supposed to be high tech for the players, but high tech for enforcing rules makes sense. The urge to cheat in society at large is countered by policemen. The same approach will work in baseball. You just have to be proactive, and punish offenders.
Yet players can get total blood transfusions, pain killers, bionic arm surgeries, shoulder surgeries, & knee surgeries which all add strength they never had before.
Pure hypocrisy.
Good article, Eric
A career .240 hitter would devise such a scheme
It’s the crappy players who can’t hit that have to learn to cheat. Cora obviously learned all the methods of cheating. No wonder he hates the President. He is part of Baseball Swamp.
Trump would actually respect the win at all cost attitude. Just my guess
Cora was always a bit dim, limited..
Boston coach Ron Roenicke is who really led Boston to the 2018 title.
Fully agree with RC. Not to say he is not guilty, but common!!! This was masterfully orchestrated by the Astros management, Beltran and Cora were the escape goat. He was the bench coach and the other one a player. Who paid the camera analyst and the drummers? Cora and Beltran or the Astros? Not so sure if Boston did it, since they were awful last year. The whole Astros organization was systematically rotten, from players to FO. May sound cheesy here but the 17 Title should be given to LA. All the organiztion should be suspended a year but money talks …MLB
It was actually the other way around. The players cheated and management was the scapegoat. MLB cleared management, but they paid the price. Hinch smashed two monitors as a message to stop, but they didn’t. Luhnow wasn’t totally aware of what was going on.
If Cora is a “villian”, then surely “Heysin’ Worth is too, WTF.
I think it’s time we dodgers fans get over this sign stealing thing. We just saw LaRussa get accused of same back in in 1987. So fair to say LaSorda might have been doing it in 88? And as for anything affecting Kershaw, well were the Mets, Cardinals and Brewers also stealing signs in previous years? Heck my question is why don’t we hire Cora now to help us in 202? And more importantly when is management bringing in meaningful free agent help?
The time to get cora was in 2016 instead of Roberts then we probably cheat and win in 2017. If we got him now he wouldn’t be able to cheat the heat would be on us every day of his tenure
I wouldn’t hire Cora to clean the toilets. He can cheat for other teams. Not the Dodgers
Not a fan of AC after he ditched the White House.
Yeah, Cora boycott’s the White House because his “Ethics” just won’t let him lower his standards to attend. Because you know, he is such a honorable player. Puerto Rico got record breaking money and Cora was unhappy because their corrupt government stole most of it, so he blames the President. Shows how stupid he is and now he feels the brunt of heading up this huge cheating scheme. Alex Cora Karma came down like a sumbiditch
I guess Cora was a bit judgmental about Trump . Karma is a bitch .
Thank you for knowing the names of basic baseball statistics. Many writers have written something like “Cora, who averaged 34 ***RBI’s*** a season with the Dodgers” rather than “Cora, who averaged 34 RBI a season with the Dodgers.” Pulitzer inbound for sure.
holy crap. I’m sick of all the talk about it honestly, but the Cesar Izturis mention made me LOL. Hilarious, I totally forgot about that guy!
He skipped because his country is STILL in shambles after that storm. A country that is that the responsibility of that white house. Just saying