Tag Archives: Boston Red Sox

The other big shoe drops in sign-stealing scandal; more to fall?

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Red Sox have fired their field manager, Alex Cora, for his role in a scandal involving another American League baseball team.

The Red Sox had no choice but to follow the Houston Astros’ lead. The Astros canned field manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow after Major League Baseball announced they would be suspended for the next season.

What did everyone do here?

Well, the Astros were accused of using high-tech devices to steal signs during the 2017 World Series against Los Angeles Dodgers. They went far beyond the usual techniques used for many decades to swipe signs.

Cora was bench coach for the Astros in 2017. Therefore, he was a principal culprit in the sign-stealing matter.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred had warned all big league teams about the consequences if they persisted in this activity. The Astros ignored the warning … to their peril.

And so, now Alex Cora is out of a job.

The axe had to fall on the Red Sox field boss.

To its credit, Major League Baseball has become hypersensitive to cheating on the field and is seeking to take charge of this problem.

Perception meets reality, Mr. Mayor

Amarillo Mayor Paul Harpole is a good man who I believe is motivated by the best intentions.

However, for him to dismiss concerns about whether a new town-hall policy somehow isn’t driven by politics leaves me wondering whether he truly understands how some people can perceive what looks so patently obvious.

The mayor is facing a re-election fight next month. So, on the eve of that balloting, he announces a series of town hall meeting with constituents. He wants to hear their concerns. He wants to act on them, if possible. He is all ears. He’s an open book. He’s receptive to people’s gripes. He wants to let people talk for as long as they want, without the restrictions they face during regular City Council meetings.

Roy McDowell, who’s running against the mayor, isn’t buying it fully. He thinks Harpole is doing this as some sort of political stunt.

Is that how he and some others around the city perceive it? If they do, does that become some form of reality in their mind? Yes and yes.

Which brings me back to my initial point. Is the mayor tone deaf?

Harpole says he’s got meetings scheduled through the rest of the year and that whether he continues with them will depend on how responsive residents are to his outreach.

The mayor and City Manager Jarrett Atkinson conducted the first town hall meeting this week. They answered questions about city issues ranging from downtown improvement plans to street repair. I applaud them both for making themselves available to residents.

However, as the great Boston Red Sox slugger the late Ted Williams used to say about hitting a baseball, “Timing is everything.”

So it is with politics.

 

MLB right to suspend Dempster

I am no fan of Alex Rodriguez, the New York Yankees slugger facing a huge suspension for taking illegal drugs.

However, Major League Baseball at least acted symbolically by suspending Boston Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster for throwing at A-Rod during a recent game. Rodriguez is quite unpopular among his fellow athletes, given the evidence that suggests he took performance-enhancing drugs after saying he had quit taking them. He didn’t deserve to be thrown at by Dempster.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/08/20/ryan-dempster-suspended-five-games-joe-girardi-fined-following-the-a-rod-plunking/related/

A major rhubarb erupted when Dempster plunked A-Rod. The ump tossed Yankee manager Joe Girardi out of the game. He should have tossed Dempster too, but didn’t.

This A-Rod saga is starting to take some nasty turns. A-Rod’s lawyer is showing up on news talk shows to plead his client’s case. Word has leaked out that Rodriguez’s posse leaked information about other players cheating to MLB’s commissioner, which might be why Dempster threw at Rodriguez.

A-Rod has appealed the suspension and can play ball while the appeal runs its course. I’m only hoping now that this case can get resolved soon. No one — not even Rodriguez — deserves to put himself in harm’s way while he plays the Grand Old Game.