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SPORTS Thursday 16 January 2020
Cora remorseful, Red Sox

begin search for new manager

By JIMMY GOLEN return to baseball. "While it mulate a short list. "The short
AP Sports Writer was difficult personally for a answer is we don't know
BOSTON (AP) — lot of people, (and) profes- yet," Bloom said when
The Boston Red Sox need to sionally, it was ultimately an asked about the current
find a new manager, and easy decision for the Red coaching staff. "Obviously,
it sounds like they haven't Sox and for Alex," Kennedy this just happened."
gotten over their old one. said. "Alex is an incredibly Complicating the search
Heaping praise on Alex talented manager and ac- for a replacement is that
Cora a day after show- complished great things the Red Sox don't know if
ing him the door, Red Sox with us. He expressed re- anyone else will face sanc- In this Sept. 9, 2019, file photo, Boston Red Sox manager Alex
owner John Henry said on morse. He apologized yes- tions from the commission- Cora talks about the dismissal of president of baseball operations
Wednesday the team was terday to us for the embar- er. And with just a month Dave Dombrowski, during a news conference before the team's
baseball game against the New York Yankees in Boston.
going to miss "just about rassment that this caused." before spring training other Associated Press
everything" about the man The decision leaves the teams may be reluctant
who led Boston to the 2018 Red Sox, who went 84-78 to grant permission to in- managerial search," Bloom along with ones from out-
World Series title only to be and missed the playoffs last terview members of their said, "Being this close to side the organization.
torpedoed in a cheating year for the first time since staffs. The Astros are also spring training, it's impos- Among those who have
scandal. 2015, without a manager looking for a manager, and sible for that not to be a been mentioned are Jason
"It was a sad day because and less than a month to New York Mets manager factor in how we proceed. Varitek, the former catcher
we all have such respect find one before spring train- Carlos Beltrán was also im- But it's not going to be the who is now a special as-
for Alex," said chairman ing. Chief baseball officer plicated in the cheating only factor. And we want sistant, and bench coach
Tom Werner, who was one Chaim Bloom, who was from his time in Houston. to make sure we do this Ron Roenicke, who man-
of several Red Sox officials hired in October, said he "There's no question it's an justice." Bloom said there aged the Milwaukee Brew-
keeping in touch with the hadn't had time yet to for- unusual time to be doing a will be internal candidates, ers from 2011-15.q
deposed manager since
his departure. "He admit-
ted that what he did was
wrong, but that doesn't
mitigate, in our opinion, the
extraordinary talent that
he has. And we continue
to be very fond of Alex."
A player on Boston's 2007
World Series-winning team
who led the club to anoth-
er title in his first year as a
rookie manager, Cora was
ousted on Tuesday, a day
after baseball Commission-
er Rob Manfred identified
him as the ringleader in a
sign-stealing scheme when
he was the bench coach
for the 2017 Astros.
Major League Baseball is
also looking into whether
Cora installed a similar sys-
tem in Boston after arriv-
ing the following year. No
conclusions have been
reached, and there is no
timetable; the Astros inves-
tigation took two months.
"We would ask that every-
one to reserve judgment
until MLB completes its
investigation and deter-
mines whether rules were
violated," Henry said. "I can
tell you that we are work-
ing with baseball to the full-
est extent possible."
The Red Sox insisted that
Cora's departure was a
mutual decision because
he could not continue to
lead the team effectively.
Team president Sam Ken-
nedy said he anticipated
a day that Cora would