Cora’s managerial career very well could have come to an end after only 324 games. The Red Sox fired him in 2020 after Major League Baseball suspended Cora for his role in putting together the sign-stealing scheme the Astros used in 2017.
The drama — and there was a lot of it at the time — didn’t last long. The COVID-19 pandemic struck a few weeks later and stealing signs in a baseball game seemed trivial after so many people died.
Cora was rehired for the 2021 season and is now working on a contract that would take him through the 2027 season.
Completing that contract would bring Cora to 1,458 games. Only Hall of Famer Joe Cronin, who managed 2,007 games from 1935-47 has as many in Red Sox history.
“When somebody mentioned 999, I was like, ‘Shoot, that’s a lot,’” Cora said Friday before the Sox and Guardians were rained out.
“A lot of ups and downs, not only as an organization, but as a person.”
Cora appreciates that Dave Dombrowski gave him a ready-to-win team as a rookie manager in 2018 and that Chaim Bloom agreed to bring him back for 2021.
Craig Breslow, who could have pushed for his own choice, negotiated the extension last season.
“A lot of people gave me a chance,” Cora said.
Cora, 49, is the epitome of the modern manager. He’s a bi-lingual former player who is young enough to connect with players but old enough to hold them accountable.
He also sees the game through the lens of his own experiences on the field but understands and embraces using data to drive decisions.
He can be polarizing. There’s a segment of Red Sox fans who find him to be too cocky and there are plenty of people around the game who think he got off too easy for the Astros scandal.
But there’s a reason Cora will get to 1,000 games on one of the hottest seats in sports on Saturday when so many others before him didn’t.
Managing the Red Sox and representing the team to the public over the course of a long season is a demanding task. The expectations can be wearying.
Terry Francona, one of Cora’s mentors, believes there’s a point where a Red Sox manager or a player gets “Boston’d out” and has to start fresh somewhere else or take some time away from the game.
Cora has found a way to start every day anew.
“My main goal is to be ready when I’m supposed to be ready, whether it’s 1:05. 4:05 or 7:05,” he said. “I take a lot of pride in that. I have some great days, some bad days and horrible days. But I show up every day.”
That Cora played for the Sox from 2006-08 helps. Francona saw him as being a manager some day and talked to him then about the important of delegating some issues to the coaching staff and how to measure success.
The standings tell only part of the story. There’s also how a manager builds a team’s culture as its leader.
“That’s a success too, you know,” Cora said. “There’s been a lot of successful managers in this organization and obviously, in the history of this game. That’s something I take a lot of pride in.”
Cora probably isn’t going to chase down Cronin; he’ll find something else to do in baseball long before that. But matching Francona with a second championship, that’s on the table.
“Still more to do,” he said.
Peter Abraham can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @PeteAbe.
