Alex Cora Deflecting Blame Onto Others Proves He Wasn't Punished Nearly Long Enough

Alex Cora, former Boston Red Sox manager and Houston Astros hitting coach, was one of the individuals fingered as a ringleader with regards to the Astros' sign-stealing scandal, and he was punished for his cheating ways by being slapped with a one-year suspension and losing his job as Red Sox manager.

Rather than come clean and take his suspension on the chin, Cora is playing the blame game, claiming former Astros GM Jeff Luhnow is trying to make it seem like he and ex-Astros manager AJ Hinch were behind everything.

"If there is one thing that I completely reject and disagree with is people within the Astros organization singling me out, particularly Jeff Luhnow, as if I were the sole mastermind," Cora said to ESPN. "The commissioner's report sort of explained what happened. The players have spoken up and refuted any allegations that I was solely responsible."

While Cora might technically be correct, as the sheer size of the scheme meant that the entire organization was in on this, this sounds like Cora trying to wiggle his way out of responsibility by painting himself as another helpless patsy caught up in the middle of something he didn't have the power to stop.

If he really wanted to, Cora could have either blown the whistle or drawn a line in the sand to force the team to give up on their cheating ways. Instead, he just let the cheating happen unabated (and, by all accounts, spearheaded it!) and picked up a championship. He must have been a big fan of what the Astros were doing, as he brought sign-stealing to Boston when he was hired as manager.

Cora could have been a man and owned up to his transgressions without any caveats, but, while he did admit wrongdoing, he and several other prominent figures in this scandal are still pointing fingers like immature schoolchildren.