00:00Greg, let's hear from former Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora
00:03on how much of a challenge it was here in the city of Boston.
00:08For him, here was Alex Cora.
00:10That city, that city, the one I managed, Boston,
00:17challenged me every single freaking day, every day, every day.
00:21From day one in that press conference in November,
00:25I want to say 7th of 2017, all the way to April 25th in Baltimore this year.
00:33Just the expectations and the, I mean, shoot,
00:39you feel that you have to win 162 games in Boston,
00:43and they push you to be great.
00:46And when you have bad days, you remember that you are in Fenway Park
00:50and you're playing in Boston and you cannot, you know, mope around.
00:54You have to show up and do it over and over and over again the right way as a manager.
01:01As a manager, you know, I don't know what the future holds, you know,
01:04I'm in a good place right now.
01:06But from that day when I signed that contract all the way till the decision was made,
01:12you know, that fan base challenged me, man.
01:14It is nonstop.
01:17It's actually very intense.
01:19And honestly, I can feel now kind of like, oh, okay, this is kind of like life, you know?
01:27Okay.
01:28Well, I mean, you were making $7 million a year, so I hope that helped.
01:34Can I just stop this nonsense?
01:36So you sign in 2017, you win the World Series the next year, greatest season in Red Sox history.
01:42We all agree.
01:43You then are embroiled in a massive cheating scandal.
01:47You sit out a year.
01:48We have a dead guy manage the team and Ron Renike.
01:50You come back.
01:51You have one playoff berth and then consecutive last place finishes.
01:55You are then rewarded as the second highest paid manager in baseball
01:58and loved and adored by the fan base.
02:01Tell me again how this is such an impossible place to do your job.
02:05Alex Cora was beloved here even after finishing in last place.
02:11It's so strange.
02:13Compare that to Francona and, like, what he endured or even Jimmy Williams or Grady Little or Kerrigan or any
02:20one of those guys.
02:21Well, didn't David Ortiz also say that Boston was a hard place to play before?
02:24And he was beloved.
02:25Like, David Ortiz has said that.
02:26We've talked about it on the show.
02:28So, I get what he's saying, but to Curtis's point, like, talk about a place who turned a complete blind
02:34eye to cheating, a cheating scandal,
02:37welcomed him back with open arms, and it didn't matter if they, myself included, didn't matter if they were winning
02:43or losing.
02:44Like, Alex Cora was not the issue in a lot of people's minds, even when he was let go this
02:49past season.
02:50Like, people were on his side over the teams, and the team made the right decision.
02:54But for Alex Cora saying Boston's a hard place to play, that's not new news.
03:00Yeah.
03:00I mean, Jenny Ty in the Twitch chat basically says that Alex Cora can F right off on these comments.
03:08Like, it's a great place to manage.
03:11You had an unbelievable job.
03:12Didn't go the way that you wanted it to go.
03:15And we can argue.
03:17Listen.
03:17Jack Tracy's done a better job with a lesser team this season.
03:21Yeah.
03:21I mean, currently, things are evening out a little bit.
03:26They'd have to even out a lot.
03:27He was 7-20 when he got fired, I believe, in April.
03:32Oh, I don't know.
03:33I'll double check.
03:34So, they were, or whatever, 12-20, whatever it was, they were 7-8 games under .500 when he was
03:41fired.
03:41They were 10-17.
03:43Okay.
03:43So, now they're what?
03:4410 games over .500?
03:46Something like that, yeah.
03:46Okay.
03:47So, they are 17 games better without him.
03:50Eight games over .500.
03:52Text from my adopted home continent of Maine where I will be next week on vacation.
03:58I don't think Alex Cora was saying anything bad.
04:01He's just speaking the truth.
04:03Boston fans demand a lot.
04:05So, consecutive last place finishes, and he was beloved.
04:09Tell me where the demanding a lot comes in.
04:11Well, also, like, we've talked about this so many times.
04:13Yeah, fans demand a lot.
04:14But, at the same time, when you give the fans good baseball, they reward you with exceptional fandom.
04:21Like, what you saw on that Red Sox win streak, those fans were electric.
04:25They weren't leaving a ballpark at 11 o'clock at night and 13 innings into a game because you're giving
04:30them a good product.
04:30When are we going to get that good baseball again?
04:33That's a great question.
04:34That I don't know.
04:35I can't answer that.
04:35Is it this weekend?
04:37I'd like that.
04:38Is it this afternoon?
04:39I mean, 3-0-7 first pitch.
04:413-0-7 first pitch.
04:42Are we working hard to avoid the sweep today?
04:46Is that on anybody's mind up there?
04:48I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm just, I'm hoping, I'm very hopeful.
04:55But do you understand?
04:56I've been very, I've been very hopeful over the last four nights, three nights.
05:00I respect the optimism.
05:01Yes.
05:01But, Greg, like, do you, do you in any way think he had it hard?
05:06Um, I don't, I, I wonder if he's not, I wonder if we're hearing it like he's complaining about
05:13it, but he's just talking about it like he, like, like it was, if you wanted to, if you
05:18wanted to bitch about the front office and ownership, not giving him the resources to
05:23do his job.
05:24And then he was, you know, whatever, like I would, he was bitching.
05:27Like I, to me, he's like, yeah, I was tested every single day.
05:29I think he was explaining to people that don't live or play or coach in Boston, what it's
05:34like to be here.
05:35Yeah.
05:36I just don't, I think he was of all the managers in my lifetime.
05:39Nobody was given a bigger free pass than Alex.
05:42Well, and also I mentioned it earlier, but I got to give it to the guy.
05:45He was on with us in Fort Myers and said he wanted to donate 20 grand to the Jimmy fund
05:53radio telethon.
05:54And he wrote the check.
05:55Awesome.
05:56Um, I man of his word, Alex Cora.
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