*Photo from Yahoo! Sports*
Former Boston Red Sox manager and Houston Astros bench coach Alex Cora, for the first time since being implicated as a main cog in the Astros sign stealing scandal, talked about it. After a recent rumor surfaced that Cora and 2017 Astros player Carlos Beltran were the leading figures in the scandal, Cora told ESPN's Marly Rivera that it wasn't true.
Cora told Rivera that "Out of this whole process, if there is one thing that I completely reject and disagree with, it's people within the Astros organization singling me out, particularly Jeff Luhnow, as if I were the sole mastermind, the commissioner's report sort of explained, in its own way, what happened. But the guys have spoken up and refuted any allegations that I was solely responsible. If there is one thing I am absolutely sure of, it is that it was not a two-man show. We all did it. And let me be very clear that I am not denying my responsibility, because we were all responsible."
Cora was also caught up in the Boston Red Sox cheating scandal in 2018, but was deemed to be innocent in that scandal, but was suspended one year for his involvement in the Astros system. Cora was fired by the Red Sox shortly after the Astros punishment became public, and Red Sox video operator JT Watkins was the sole person punished in the Red Sox scandal, having been suspended for one year and re-assigned when he returns to the team. The Red Sox also were stripped of their second round draft picks of this year's draft as well as the 2021 draft.
Cora is eligible to be hired by any team after whatever occurs of the 2020 season concludes, but Cora isn't focused on that right now. He told Rivera that "Right now, all I care about is my personal life and my family. This has not been an easy time for us, and it's my fault, do I want to return the game? Absolutely. That's why I worked so hard for so many years before being named Red Sox manager. But right now, all of that is secondary. My focus is on much more important things."
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