(I can’t really claim credit for this, but it did come out two hours before the Red Sox fired their manager….)

Jan. 14.

My beloved Boston Red Sox ought to fire manager Alex Cora.

There is no reason to wait for the final results from Major League Baseball’s investigation into whether Cora led the Red Sox to use cameras to steal signs in their 2018 championship season. Cora already is implicated heavily enough in the scandal of the Houston Astros doing much the same thing in its 2017 championship season, when Cora was an Astros bench coach, that his record as a cheater is already established.

The integrity of the game, and of the Red Sox, must be resuscitated. Willful, extended cheating must be penalized. Fair competition must be guaranteed.

Once MLB’s report on the Astros came out, Astros ownership reacted swiftly by firing general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch, both of them widely seen as among the most talented men at their jobs in the entire league. If the Astros can bite the bullet and fire the architects of their greatest successes, then surely the venerable Red Sox, a perennial powerhouse and a pillar of the league, can do likewise.

MLB’s report puts the blame for the Astros’ scheme more directly on Cora than on Hinch. It appears Cora brought those dishonest practices to Boston when the Sox hired him. Either way, though, he clearly faces sanctions from the MLB no matter what the report on Boston’s practices shows. The Red Sox should cut the cord now and move quickly to hire a new manager and then willingly accept whatever other punishment MLB metes out. …

[The rest of the column is at this link.]

 

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