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Dodgers return to mountaintop with first World Series title in 32 years
SportsPulse: The Los Angeles Dodgers are 2020 World Series champions. USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale reflects on the Dodgers finishing off the Rays to win the World Series for the first time since 1988.
So, let me get this straight, we are supposed to be outraged that the Chicago White Sox named Tony La Russa, 76, to be their manager, but not when the Detroit Tigers hired A.J. Hinch?
We are supposed to still be incensed at the Houston Astros, and wish them the worst, but can’t wait to celebrate if the Boston Red Sox hire Alex Cora, to become their next manager?
Trevor Plouffe, the former major-league infielder and now an analyst on the Jomboy Media network, put it best on Twitter when he simply asked Sunday:
“I’m sitting around thinking about how dumb it is that Brad Hand (All Star in each 2017, 18, 19) is unemployed but Hinch (suspended for the worst scandal in baseball history) is freshly employed.’’
Yep, he got a whole lot of folks thinking.
When Hinch was suspended and fired as manager of the Astros in January, and Cora resigned as manager from the Red Sox and was later also suspended by MLB, everyone wondered whether they’d ever be welcomed back in the game again, particularly as managers.
The sign-stealing crime was considered so heinous that the entire Astros organization was ostracized.
The New York Mets fired manager, Carlos Beltran, just two months after hiring him, for his role as an Astros’ player in the cheating scandal.
An entire country was outraged, with books and documentaries scheduled to be released in 2021 on the scandal that rocked the baseball world.
Well, here we are, with Cora and Hinch’s suspensions lasting only three months, baseball is rolling out the red carpet for their return.
Just look at the White Sox. Their fanbase is livid that they had the audacity of hiring a 76-year-old manager who’s in the Hall of Fame, winning the third-most games in history, instead of hiring a manager who cheated his way to a World Series title.
“Wrong is wrong,” Hinch said Friday. “And it was very wrong. It was on my watch. And I’ll never forget it.’’
It didn’t stop the Tigers, of course, from calling Hinch just 30 minutes after the final out of the World Series when his suspension was lifted, putting him on a flight the next morning and hiring him before he left town.
Yep, they got the man they wanted all along.
It didn’t prevent the Red Sox from contacting Cora, too, telling him they want to interview him for the job, where, of course, he is the ownership and fanbase’s overwhelming choice.
Where is all of the outrage now that Hinch and Cora violated the morals and ethics of baseball?
The White Sox never considered Cora. They never interviewed Hinch. But instead of being praised for taking a stand, they were mocked for it.
You don’t think there was a fear of the salacious details that could emerge from the upcoming books and documentaries on the cheating scandal? Or how the White Sox would be received by opposing fans on the road for having a manager at the forefront of the scandal? Or to have people openly raise suspicions if they have a long playoff run?
WHITE SOX: Hall of Famer Tony La Russa named manager
TIGERS: A.J. Hinch, ex-Astros manager, named the new skipper
Just ask Dusty Baker, manager of the Astros this season. He wasn’t even in the game at the time of the Astros’ scandal, but still had to bear the brunt of the attacks along with his players.
Hinch knows that his new team, the Tigers, will receive ridicule this upcoming season, or perhaps even longer, simply because of his transgressions.
“That’s part of my story and my career,’’ Hinch said. “It’s not the Tigers’ story. It’s not a part of the players that I’m going to be managing. I’m sorry that they’re going to have to deal with it.
“We’re going to have to talk about it.’’
“We have high expectations for how we’re going to perform on the field, in terms of wins and losses,’’ said Chris Ilitch, Tigers chairman and CEO, “but also how we conduct ourselves. And I believe, to my core, that A.J. is going to conduct himself in the appropriate manner beyond appropriate manner in all regards.’’
The Red Sox may soon be borrowing the same statement for themselves, just changing the name.
Hinch is back.
Cora could be on his way.
And all of that public outcry, how these two men disgraced the game of baseball, suddenly has vanished.
Follow Nightengale on Twitter: @Bnightengale
