Alex Cora spent the last year on the sideline after being suspended for his role in the Houston Astros license plate theft scandal. Now, sitting on his manager’s bench with the Boston Red Sox after the team gave him a second chance to lead, Cora is absorbing every moment of being back in spring training.
“This is where I wanted to be. This is where I am,” said Cora last week. “I love every second of it, and I’m not taking it for granted.”
Cora became one of Boston’s most popular sports figures after leading the Red Sox to a World Series championship in 2018, her first season in the Fenway Park manager’s chair. When Boston fired Cora after the Astros’ trash can destruction scheme ended, many Red Sox players expressed disappointment that Cora was no longer his coach.
“He’s someone that we all love to play for, and I love to sit down and have a good conversation with him when it comes to baseball,” shortstop Xander Bogaerts said last January. “He will be someone we will miss a lot, especially me.”
If there were doubts about whether the Red Sox club would accept Cora after the consequences of the plaque theft scandal, these questions were answered quickly in the early days of spring training.
“You know everything we’ve been through, winning the World Series in 2018, I’m just happy that he’s back,” said pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez. “He’s like a father, like a brother. Sometimes I feel like a teammate when I talk to him, and that’s part of the relationship we have together and we can make it better. Let’s make it better.”
Even when Cora did not manage the Red Sox, Chris Sale said he maintained regular communication with the captain, especially when he was beginning his rehabilitation after Tommy John’s surgery.
When asked to describe the impact of Cora’s return to the team, Sale invoked the words camaraderie, trust and passion. Around the Red Sox club, Sale is known as a leading figure who brings an old school approach to the game (usually seen wearing an “All me, PED free” T-shirt) and does not speak in clichés.
“He wants to win, he does everything to improve himself, the coaching staff, the team, the organization,” said Sale. “To be able to have this confidence in the captain, he is the guy who runs the show, he is the guy who is putting the lineups, he is making pitch changes and having this confidence in knowing that he is turning his back on the end . “
This year, Cora brings the value of a season of pent-up enthusiasm and excitement over baseball that he was unable to channel while watching games on his couch instead of on the bench, something he hopes can help Boston avoid. a repeat of the last place in 2020 to finish in the American East League.
“I’m going to do it the same way I did it on the 18th and 19th,” said Cora. “Confident, with conviction and trying to put these guys in situations to succeed. That’s how I know how to do it. That’s what I do and let’s see where it takes us ”.