Tag: alex cora

Alex Cora unleashed a wild tirade on the umpires after getting ejected for arguing an interference call

Alex Cora was HEATED.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora might’ve had some NFL games to watch on Sunday because his afternoon at Fenway Park ended just in time for the early kickoff.

Heading into the season, MLB made interference calls around the bags a point of emphasis for umpires. Basically, the league wanted to legislate out of the game fielders blocking the bag with their legs. Still, it’s a seldom-called rule, and the selective enforcement understandably doesn’t sit well with most managers.

That’s exactly what happened during the first inning of the Red Sox-Twins game.

With the speedy Byron Buxton on second, Nick Pivetta threw over to the bag for a pick-off attempt. The play wasn’t close with Buxton returning safely. But Vaughn Grissom somewhat impeded Buxton with his leg.

Second base umpire Dan Merzel didn’t make the interference call, but a conversation with Alan Porter at third base had the crew ruling interference. Buxton was rewarded third base on the play, and Cora went into full tantrum mode.

No manager wants to get ejected in the first inning, but if it’s going to happen, might as well put on a show. Cora certainly did that.

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Alex Cora threw a weird tantrum and was ejected over a correct call from umpire Pat Hoberg

He’s baseball’s best ump for a reason…

When teams see umpire assignments, they know right away that they’re in for a long night when certain umps (i.e. Angel Hernandez, Brian O’Nora, Laz Diaz …) are scheduled to work behind the plate. Pat Hoberg is not one of those umpires.

That’s what made Red Sox manager Alex Cora’s tantrum on Tuesday night so strange.

While no human umpire can compete on a daily basis with an automated strike zone (ABS or robot umps), Hoberg is the one umpire to have a perfect game behind the plate … and he did so in he World Series. He’s not going to be perfect every night, but he has the credibility to call games as he sees it.

So, if a manager is going to freak out on Hoberg, he best be certain that Hoberg missed the call. Or else he’ll end up looking like Cora did here:

During the seventh inning, Cora was furious when Mauricio Llovera’s 3-2 pitch to Alex Bregman was accurately called a ball. He came storming out of the dugout and drew a line around the plate to argue with Hoberg. Cora was quickly ejected. And though the frustration might not have been about that single pitch, Hoberg hadn’t missed a call in that half of the inning.

The Red Sox broadcast tried to frame the exchange as if Hoberg was having an off night, but his scorecard — though not his best performance — showed that his missed calls were borderline. He was consistently calling the lower edge of the zone as a ball, but otherwise, it was a fine outing that actually favored the Red Sox.

No wonder fans were perplexed by the whole tirade. It didn’t make sense.

Mics picked up Justin Verlander’s NSFW response to Alex Cora during a PitchCom issue

Sound on!

In an effort to cut down on sign-stealing, MLB instituted the PitchCom as an option for teams in 2022. The system allows the pitcher and catcher to communicate calls through an earpiece and wristband — rather than the catcher showing fingers to call pitches.

Like anything with technology, the system isn’t perfect. It malfunctions on occasion, and some pitchers have even claimed to have PitchCom issues just to buy some extra time in the pitch-clock era.

Just don’t accuse Justin Verlander of doing that — he won’t take kindly to it.

During Tuesday’s game between the Red Sox and Astros, Verlander signaled in the second inning that he was having trouble with his PitchCom. Red Sox manager Alex Cora wasn’t buying it. He emerged from the dugout to have some words with Verlander and home plate umpire Pat Hoberg. That was when Verlander channeled his inner Logan Roy, and mics picked up all of it. (NSFW language)

If Verlander was really trying to buy time, it certainly wouldn’t have been in that situation — nobody on in the second inning with no outs. He genuinely seemed to be having trouble with PitchCom and even had to switch out a system that was set to Spanish.

Cora and Verlander– who both were in Houston for the initial Astros sign-stealing scandal — having that argument was ironic in its own right. But if there is any takeaway from the exchange, it’s that we need more uncensored conversations from baseball games. That one conversation showed fans a side of the game that they hardly get to experience.

Kevin Plawecki and Alex Cora were ejected after arguing a terrible, bases loaded strike three call

What an awful, game changing call!

This is not the kind of call you want to see in a bases loaded situation.

During Wednesday night’s game between the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves, Kevin Plawecki was called out looking on strike three on a pitch… that wasn’t even close to the zone. With two outs, a full count, and the bases loaded, the pressure was on for Plawecki to deliver a run in a 3-3 tied game in the top of the sixth.

Plawecki took the pitch, which was low and out of the zone, but the umpire called it a strike for the punch out to end the inning. How bad was the miss? See for yourself.

Oh yeah, that’s… really bad. Plawecki was ejected immediately and Boston manager Alex Cora wasn’t far behind as both were incredibly heated after the call.

And for good reason! The pitch was clearly ball four and would have scored the go-ahead run for the Red Sox. Instead, Boston had to march back to the dugout with nothing to show for their efforts.

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Red Sox manager Alex Cora wants to emulate consistency of Bill Belichick, Patriots

Alex Cora wants to find similar success to the Patriots.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has impressed many coaches and sports personnel over the years. You can add Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora to that list.

Cora has had success in his own right. Winning a World Series in 2018 with the Red Sox, Cora led Boston to a playoff appearance last year. Cora shared his thoughts on Wednesday on what admires about the Patriots.

With 284 wins in three years, Cora has been a dependable presence, much like Belichick and the rest of the Patriots coaching staff. Although playing different sports, there are notable parallels between the Patriots and Red Sox, two big market teams who have found recent success.

The Patriots formula is something Cora would like to emulate, the Sox manager said during an interview on WEEI this week:

“This is what we are going to do, this is how we are going to practice and on Sunday this is our gameplay and we’re going to do it this way. I know that some people don’t agree with it, but they do a great job of preparing those players. The mindset that they have regardless of the conditions or regardless of the opponent, I love the way they do it. Bill and the group, they are very consistent. They’re very good at what they do and that’s a group for us, as a coaching staff, we want to be like them.

“I would love for our coaches to become managers at some point in their careers. I want our group to be recognized as one of the best in the big leagues or the best, and we have the Patriots, how they go about their business and we’re trying to emulate them. We try and be as consistent as possible. Surrender to winning. Do everything possible to win and hopefully, that works and we can bring another World Series trophy to Boston.”

The Patriots have been a model of consistency over the last two decades. Winning 18 division championships, nine conference championships, and six super Bowls, New England has found a blueprint that works. As New England tries get back to that level of success, they have become a model for which other teams want to learn from.

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MLB fans laughed at the timing of report that the Red Sox had re-hired manager Alex Cora

The timing!

You might have noticed there’s A LOT going on in the news right now having to do with the 2020 presidential election, especially on Friday morning.

So you absolutely may have missed it and that’s perfectly fine: per multiple reports, including from USA TODAY Sports, the Boston Red Sox are rehiring Alex Cora as their manager.

Yes, that’s the same Alex Cora who brought the Red Sox to a title in 2018, who was then let go by Boston in January of this year (yep, that happened in 2020!) and was suspended for the entire season because he was the Houston Astros’ bench coach during the sign-stealing scandal of 2017.

And that report dropped right in the middle of news breaking regarding the election, around 9:16 a.m. ET on Friday:

There were lots of laughs to be had:

Pretty amazing.

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MLB Suspends Alex Cora for 2020 Season and Docks Red Sox Draft Pick

MLB Suspends Alex Cora for 2020
Season and Docks Red Sox Draft Pick Major League Baseball completed its investigation
on Wednesday into allegations of illegal sign stealing
by the Boston Red Sox. Former manager Alex Cora, who was fired
in January for his role in the scandal, was suspended by MLB commissioner
Rob Manfred for the upcoming season. Cora’s punishment is only for his role in Houston,
where he served as bench coach for the
Houston Astros during the 2017 season. Manfred said that he does not believe Cora was aware of the sign stealing in 2018 as manager of the Red Sox. Boston’s video replay system operator, J.T. Watkins,
was suspended without pay for one year for his role. The team was stripped of its
second-round draft pick this year. Ron Manfred, via report

MLB Suspends Alex Cora for 2020
Season and Docks Red Sox Draft Pick Major League Baseball completed its investigation
on Wednesday into allegations of illegal sign stealing
by the Boston Red Sox. Former manager Alex Cora, who was fired
in January for his role in the scandal, was suspended by MLB commissioner
Rob Manfred for the upcoming season. Cora’s punishment is only for his role in Houston,
where he served as bench coach for the
Houston Astros during the 2017 season. Manfred said that he does not believe Cora was aware of the sign stealing in 2018 as manager of the Red Sox. Boston’s video replay system operator, J.T. Watkins,
was suspended without pay for one year for his role. The team was stripped of its
second-round draft pick this year. Ron Manfred, via report

MLB Suspends Alex Cora for 2020 Season and Docks Red Sox Draft Pick

MLB Suspends Alex Cora for 2020
Season and Docks Red Sox Draft Pick Major League Baseball completed its investigation
on Wednesday into allegations of illegal sign stealing
by the Boston Red Sox. Former manager Alex Cora, who was fired
in January for his role in the scandal, was suspended by MLB commissioner
Rob Manfred for the upcoming season. Cora’s punishment is only for his role in Houston,
where he served as bench coach for the
Houston Astros during the 2017 season. Manfred said that he does not believe Cora was aware of the sign stealing in 2018 as manager of the Red Sox. Boston’s video replay system operator, J.T. Watkins,
was suspended without pay for one year for his role. The team was stripped of its
second-round draft pick this year. Ron Manfred, via report

MLB Suspends Alex Cora for 2020
Season and Docks Red Sox Draft Pick Major League Baseball completed its investigation
on Wednesday into allegations of illegal sign stealing
by the Boston Red Sox. Former manager Alex Cora, who was fired
in January for his role in the scandal, was suspended by MLB commissioner
Rob Manfred for the upcoming season. Cora’s punishment is only for his role in Houston,
where he served as bench coach for the
Houston Astros during the 2017 season. Manfred said that he does not believe Cora was aware of the sign stealing in 2018 as manager of the Red Sox. Boston’s video replay system operator, J.T. Watkins,
was suspended without pay for one year for his role. The team was stripped of its
second-round draft pick this year. Ron Manfred, via report

Alex Cora’s old press conference quote about Carlos Beltran sure looks suspicious now

Awkward …

The Boston Red Sox “mutually parted ways” with manager Alex Cora on Tuesday after MLB’s report on the Astros cheating scandal mentioned Cora nearly a dozen times.

Cora served as Astros bench coach when Houston was operating its sign-stealing scheme during the 2017 World Series season, and Carlos Beltran was a member of that Astros team — heavily involved in the scheme as well.

So, with the benefit of hindsight, Cora’s 2019 press conference from Boston’s London Series with the Yankees couldn’t have looked more suspicious.

Speaking to reporters after the Red Sox’s two losses in London, Cora — with a pronounced wink — credited the Yankees’ signing of 42-year-old “special advisor” Carlos Beltran as the team’s most important acquisition.

Cora said:

“It wasn’t a good weekend on the field. That’s a good offensive team. We know that. They’re a lot better than last year. Their attention to detail is phenomenal. I was joking with somebody that their biggest free-agent acquisition is Carlos Beltran. (wink). I know how it works. He’s helping a lot. They’re paying attention to details, and we have to clean our details. It was eye-opening, the last few days — from top to bottom. And I’m not saying devices — all that stuff. It’s just stuff that the game will dictate and will scream at people. And he’s right there. Throughout the evening, I was looking and I saw it. And right now, they’re a lot better than us.”

I mean … that doesn’t seem great.

The fact that Cora was so quick to credit a dude in an advisory role as some secret to the Yankees’ success and the now-ironic, unsolicited use of “devices,” it’s incredibly easy to watch that video and conclude that Cora was alluding to Beltran’s role as one of the masterminds behind the Astros’ trash-can-whacking, sign-stealing scheme.

At the time, reporters took the comments as Cora simply complimenting Beltran for his ability to detect tipped pitches.

Aw, how nice.

Beltran has since been hired as Mets manager, and it’s unclear if his role in the scandal will cost him that job as well.

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MLB world reacts to the Boston Red Sox parting ways with Alex Cora amid scandal

Alex Cora is out as the manager of the Boston Red Sox.

Alex Cora led the Boston Red Sox to a World Series title in his first year as manager back in 2018.

Now, he is no longer employed by the team.

The Red Sox announced late Tuesday that they have parted ways with Cora due to MLB’s ongoing investigation into the sign-stealing cheating scandal.

This comes a day after MLB suspended Houston Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch for a year. The team then fired both men later on Monday.

Many have speculated that Cora, who was the bench coach for the Astros in 2017, might face an even stiffer punishment for his role in the scandal with both the Astros and Red Sox.

Here’s the Red Sox statement, which includes a comment from Cora:

Twitter had reactions:

https://twitter.com/AnthonyPute/status/1217242261207109637

https://twitter.com/AlbertBreer/status/1217245726717153281

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