January 16, 2020 • 12 mins
This week on Inside the (Rob) Parker, Rob discusses the fallout from the MLB sign stealing scandal, why he thinks the Astros punishment was appropriately harsh, the Red Sox firing Alex Cora as a result of his involvement, and why the Mets need to fire Carlos Beltran.
Guests: Julian McWilliams - Boston Globe Red Sox Beat Writer reports on Alex Cora
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
From the Burke Shears to the sound from wherever you
live in MLB America. This is Inside the Parker. You
give us twenty two minutes and we'll give you the
scoop on Major League Baseball. Now here's Baseball Hall of
Fame voter number one oh three, Rob Parker. Welcome into
Inside the Parker. I'm your host, Rob Parker, and you
(00:24):
know baseball news has been breaking all over the place.
We're only doing monthly podcast until the baseball season kicks back,
but we had to do a special edition podcast about
all the cheating scandals and punishment. So we'll dive into
that all over baseball. Plus Boston Globe Red Sox Beat
(00:46):
writer Julian McWilliams will stop by. He'll give us some
insight to the Alex Corre firing in Boston. That and
much more. Let's go to lead off. It's getting robbed
to keep him on, Robs hot take and the three
biggest stories in Major League Baseball. Number one, stop the
(01:07):
noise about Major League Baseball going soft. Major League Baseball
did what it had to do. Uh bravo to Commissioner
Rob Memfort, because it ain't an easy thing to deal
with a cheating scandal. We've seen the NFL goes off
on the Patriots a couple of times, including when Bill
(01:28):
Belichick got caught. He wasn't even suspended, there was just
a fine. So people were saying that Baseball kind of,
you know, took it easy on the Astros. I'm not
buying into that at all. I think they did what
they had to do, which was to uh suspend the
general manager and the manager who basically let you know
what was going on go on without doing anything to
(01:51):
stop it. And then the Astros followed up on those
one year suspensions and then said, you know, both of
these guys, including the manager A. J. Hinchen is out.
They're fired, and they heard him in the draft next
year and the year after, they're gonna lose a number
of top draft picks. That hurts an organization. So people
(02:12):
who are pooh pooling draft picks, do not kid yourself.
And there's a five million dollar five I get it,
there's a lot of money involved. And as far as
taking it easy on the owner, I just don't know
what baseball. You gotta remember it's their game, these these owners.
How much he really knew about what was going on
and what could you do? Did you do? You want
(02:32):
to take the team away from him? And the notion
of taking the championship away from the Astros. I've never
been in favor of that kind of stuff. I get
what people want, you know, they want them to vacate it,
not give it to the Dodgers, but just say nobody
won that year. Here's my only problem. If knowing what
(02:53):
pictures coming is so good and it helped them win
the World Series for sure, how come they lost games?
How come they didn't win every game during the regular
season if they knew what pictures were coming? So it
ain't that easy, you know what I mean. I mean,
it's definitely a benefit. It's definitely cheating. They need to
be punished, But I'm not into taking away championships. I
(03:13):
think the commissioner got it right. Number two. I'm not
gonna sit here and celebrate the Boston Red Sox for
firing Alex Cora their manager, even before the report comes
down from Major League Baseball into the cheating investigation with
the Red Sox, I just think that they were just
doing the most obvious thing. You cut ties, you try
(03:36):
to make the blow uh softer because they already know
that Alex Cora was connected with the Astros fiasco and
cheating scandals, so they don't really need to get the
Boston side. They already know their manager was involved. He,
according to the reports, are basically the ring leader and
the brains behind it. So it is no surprise to
(03:59):
me that uh Boston did what it did. And uh,
you know, Alex Cora could wind up getting banned by
Major League Baseball for being involved in two cheating scandals
were two different teams, and it is just so crazy. Obviously,
the Astros won the World Series one year, then he
goes to Boston. They put up a hundred and eight wins,
(04:21):
a franchise where I could have their best season ever
in baseball and win a championship. So when you look
at these two things, alex Cora um looked like he
was totally involved, and uh is going to pay a heavy,
heavy price. I can't imagine him not being banned and
I can't imagine him getting another job as a manager
(04:42):
in Baseball. Number three, the New York Mets should fire
Carlos Beltran. I know he was a fan favorite. I
know they just hired him and he hasn't managed a
game for the Mets. Sorry, he's connected with this cheating
scandal in Houston, and he was a player and not
(05:03):
a management person. But now to have a guy who
was that involved, apparently according to the reports, in this
cheating scandal in Houston, and now he's supposed to be
the face of your organization, it just doesn't feel right.
It really doesn't. If I'm the New York Mets and
giving what's happened to Hinge and what's happened to Cora.
(05:24):
I just think that it's just natural to want to
have a manager not tied up in some sort of
cheating scandal, one of the biggest cheating scandals in the
history of baseball, and your manage it's gonna be a distraction,
is There's gonna be more stuff coming out, questions about it?
Will that be all they talk about a spring training
rather than the Mets themselves. I think the Mets should
(05:47):
think about this long and hard, get in front of it,
talk about what your organization is supposed to be about,
about doing it the right way, about playing fair and
being honest. I don't know how Carlos Belt could be
the manager of the Metropolitans and people not look sideways
at the Mets for not doing what the actuals did,
(06:08):
for not doing what the Red Sox did. I'm sorry,
Carlos Beltran has to go. When Rob was a newspaper columnist,
he lived by this motto, if I'm writing, I'm ripping.
Let's bring in a writer, a broadcaster, older new All right,
let's welcome to the podcast. One of my favorite people,
(06:30):
one of the big bright baseball writing stars out there
in the business, Julian McWilliams from the Boston Globe. He
covers the Red Sox. Julian, welcome to the podcast. What's up, man?
I know it's crazy in Boston. Please tell me what
What was the reaction in Boston first when the Red
(06:50):
Sox decided to part ways. I know they tried to
say it nice, but basically they fired Alex Cora. Yeah, basically,
I mean nobody wants to say it at and you know,
you like obviously you read you read the in between
the lines. They had to get rid of them. Uh,
it's like you're surprisingly like the fans knew like they
had to get rid of them, right, Like the fans
(07:11):
weren't against getting rid of them. They were particularly on
board for getting rid of them. But it's just it's
just a sad that you could tell really that the
organization itself was was was was sad because like, realistically,
Court really didn't even need all that stuff, all the
teammates and everything always already raped about how much of
a great sign to me he was just with his eyes,
(07:32):
and how much of a baseball Savanni was and all
this stuff. So, um, the organization know they lost it.
They lost the big guy. I mean, he looked he's
a responsible for Xander Bogart's to come at what he is,
Raphael Devor is becoming what he is. Mookie Betts took
the next step and became an m v P under him.
So it's a huge void that they're gonna have to
fill in the Red Sox to know that for sure. Julian,
(07:53):
the problem I had with the statement that was released
with h Cora was that he didn't apologize when the
wrong doing and that's statement. How in the world could
you put out a statement where you don't apologize for Hey,
I'm sorry for my actions. I'm sorry I heard the organization,
the ball club, the franchise, the fans of Boston, none
of that. Why not you know what I now, did
(08:16):
you point that out? That's actually interesting. They said today
that he was remorseful here, apologized for embarrassing the franchise.
But I get it, you have to make that public statements, Julian,
How can you look aten and talk about all the
good stuff that happened franchise record hundred and eight wins,
all these players blossom and not feel like it was
(08:36):
fraudlyn or maybe helped or aided by the cheating Skins
or how can you feel good about well? They told today,
they said today they kept saying, uh, please saying, uh,
keep your judgment until the actual investigation it comes comes out.
You know, they were they were they were kind of implying.
They didn't say it, but they felt like they were
(08:57):
implying that, you know, this and astigation for them won't
go through. But then John Henry made a John Henry
made a made an interesting comment where he said, you know,
we were surprised by what they found in the Houston thing,
so we have to wait and see what comes out
of this. But you know, today when they were asked
if they felt to his tainted, they said no, absolutely not,
(09:18):
like we won that fair and square. So they might not.
They might know something that we don't know, but you know,
judging from Corus Path, that wouldn't be surprised by anything
at this point. Yeah. Uh. And the other thing is
what do you expect the punishment will be for Core?
I know speculation with the Red Sox, but if he
did it for two UH franchises and tainted two of them,
(09:39):
I think there's a chance that he could be banned
a lifetime band. As far as managing, you think that's
too harsh. If they do found out find out that
he did it both in Houston and in Boston, I
think that would be harsh. But I wouldn't be surprised
at this point because you for if you remember they
had the Apple watched incident the Red Sox and the
(10:00):
commissioner said came out and said gave him a slap
on the risk and said knock at all, don't do
it again. And then you have the Houston situation where
Houston chiefs for a year and that's that was kind
of spearheaded by Cora. And then now you have this
other allegation. So clearly he just slapped the commissioner in
the pace twice saying that like you know I'm gonna
do what I want to do, So the commissioner came
(10:21):
down heavy on these guys. I wouldn't be surprised iFly
it might be a lifetime van you never know. I mean,
this impacted two World Series teams, right if you think
about it like this, the Dodgers, and it would be
one thing if he did it with the Mets and
the Mets didn't make the playoffs. No teams went back
to back World Series off of this. Now, if it
has to do with if, if it has to do
(10:41):
with them possibly uh giving him a lifetime band, I
wouldn't be surprised. Last thing I said earlier on the
podcast that I believe that the Mets should fire Carlos
Beltran even though he didn't get uh any kind of
punishment from Ajor League Baseball. But don't you think it's
(11:02):
kind of weird that a team would put a guy
out front and center who was involved in a pretty
serious cheating scandal, right. And I think the fact that
he was a player and they said all the players
are granted immunity, I think that would be one thing
that he can hold up to him and saying, look,
I was the player at the time. But it comes
(11:22):
down to trust, right and I think going back to November,
when he was asked about the allegations that came out,
he lied about it. He lied about it, and that's
that's the that's the issue that I had. If he
came out and said, look, I can't comment on this
or or I can't I can't talk about this while
the investigation is going on, that's one thing. But he
blatantly came out and live And if you're a Mets
(11:45):
culture where you're trying to change the culture around around
the Mets organization, we all know the culture around the
Mets is that you you have to probably fire this
guy because I mean, it's it's it comes down to
a trust issue and you and right now you just
can't trust him. His name Julia McWilliams the five Baseball
bet writer for the Boston Globe. He covers the Red Sox. Julian,
(12:06):
always a pleasure. Thanks for joining the podcast, bro Hey,
thanks b I appreciate it. Rob. In the words of
New York TV legend the late Bill Jorgensen, thanking you
for your time this time until next time. Rob Parker out.
(12:26):
He can't get it. This could be an inside the Parker.
To see you next weekend, same bad time, same station,
From the Burke Shears to the sound from wherever you
live in MLB America. This is Inside the Parker. You
give us twenty two minutes and we'll give you the
scoop on Major League Baseball. Now here's Baseball Hall of
Fame voter number one oh three, Rob Parker. Welcome into
Inside the Parker. I'm your host, Rob Parker, and you
(00:24):
know baseball news has been breaking all over the place.
We're only doing monthly podcast until the baseball season kicks back,
but we had to do a special edition podcast about
all the cheating scandals and punishment. So we'll dive into
that all over baseball. Plus Boston Globe Red Sox Beat
(00:46):
writer Julian McWilliams will stop by. He'll give us some
insight to the Alex Corre firing in Boston. That and
much more. Let's go to lead off. It's getting robbed
to keep him on, Robs hot take and the three
biggest stories in Major League Baseball. Number one, stop the
(01:07):
noise about Major League Baseball going soft. Major League Baseball
did what it had to do. Uh bravo to Commissioner
Rob Memfort, because it ain't an easy thing to deal
with a cheating scandal. We've seen the NFL goes off
on the Patriots a couple of times, including when Bill
(01:28):
Belichick got caught. He wasn't even suspended, there was just
a fine. So people were saying that Baseball kind of,
you know, took it easy on the Astros. I'm not
buying into that at all. I think they did what
they had to do, which was to uh suspend the
general manager and the manager who basically let you know
what was going on go on without doing anything to
(01:51):
stop it. And then the Astros followed up on those
one year suspensions and then said, you know, both of
these guys, including the manager A. J. Hinchen is out.
They're fired, and they heard him in the draft next
year and the year after, they're gonna lose a number
of top draft picks. That hurts an organization. So people
(02:12):
who are pooh pooling draft picks, do not kid yourself.
And there's a five million dollar five I get it,
there's a lot of money involved. And as far as
taking it easy on the owner, I just don't know
what baseball. You gotta remember it's their game, these these owners.
How much he really knew about what was going on
and what could you do? Did you do? You want
(02:32):
to take the team away from him? And the notion
of taking the championship away from the Astros. I've never
been in favor of that kind of stuff. I get
what people want, you know, they want them to vacate it,
not give it to the Dodgers, but just say nobody
won that year. Here's my only problem. If knowing what
(02:53):
pictures coming is so good and it helped them win
the World Series for sure, how come they lost games?
How come they didn't win every game during the regular
season if they knew what pictures were coming? So it
ain't that easy, you know what I mean. I mean,
it's definitely a benefit. It's definitely cheating. They need to
be punished, But I'm not into taking away championships. I
(03:13):
think the commissioner got it right. Number two. I'm not
gonna sit here and celebrate the Boston Red Sox for
firing Alex Cora their manager, even before the report comes
down from Major League Baseball into the cheating investigation with
the Red Sox, I just think that they were just
doing the most obvious thing. You cut ties, you try
(03:36):
to make the blow uh softer because they already know
that Alex Cora was connected with the Astros fiasco and
cheating scandals, so they don't really need to get the
Boston side. They already know their manager was involved. He,
according to the reports, are basically the ring leader and
the brains behind it. So it is no surprise to
(03:59):
me that uh Boston did what it did. And uh,
you know, Alex Cora could wind up getting banned by
Major League Baseball for being involved in two cheating scandals
were two different teams, and it is just so crazy. Obviously,
the Astros won the World Series one year, then he
goes to Boston. They put up a hundred and eight wins,
(04:21):
a franchise where I could have their best season ever
in baseball and win a championship. So when you look
at these two things, alex Cora um looked like he
was totally involved, and uh is going to pay a heavy,
heavy price. I can't imagine him not being banned and
I can't imagine him getting another job as a manager
(04:42):
in Baseball. Number three, the New York Mets should fire
Carlos Beltran. I know he was a fan favorite. I
know they just hired him and he hasn't managed a
game for the Mets. Sorry, he's connected with this cheating
scandal in Houston, and he was a player and not
(05:03):
a management person. But now to have a guy who
was that involved, apparently according to the reports, in this
cheating scandal in Houston, and now he's supposed to be
the face of your organization, it just doesn't feel right.
It really doesn't. If I'm the New York Mets and
giving what's happened to Hinge and what's happened to Cora.
(05:24):
I just think that it's just natural to want to
have a manager not tied up in some sort of
cheating scandal, one of the biggest cheating scandals in the
history of baseball, and your manage it's gonna be a distraction,
is There's gonna be more stuff coming out, questions about it?
Will that be all they talk about a spring training
rather than the Mets themselves. I think the Mets should
(05:47):
think about this long and hard, get in front of it,
talk about what your organization is supposed to be about,
about doing it the right way, about playing fair and
being honest. I don't know how Carlos Belt could be
the manager of the Metropolitans and people not look sideways
at the Mets for not doing what the actuals did,
(06:08):
for not doing what the Red Sox did. I'm sorry,
Carlos Beltran has to go. When Rob was a newspaper columnist,
he lived by this motto, if I'm writing, I'm ripping.
Let's bring in a writer, a broadcaster, older new All right,
let's welcome to the podcast. One of my favorite people,
(06:30):
one of the big bright baseball writing stars out there
in the business, Julian McWilliams from the Boston Globe. He
covers the Red Sox. Julian, welcome to the podcast. What's up, man?
I know it's crazy in Boston. Please tell me what
What was the reaction in Boston first when the Red
(06:50):
Sox decided to part ways. I know they tried to
say it nice, but basically they fired Alex Cora. Yeah, basically,
I mean nobody wants to say it at and you know,
you like obviously you read you read the in between
the lines. They had to get rid of them. Uh,
it's like you're surprisingly like the fans knew like they
had to get rid of them, right, Like the fans
(07:11):
weren't against getting rid of them. They were particularly on
board for getting rid of them. But it's just it's
just a sad that you could tell really that the
organization itself was was was was sad because like, realistically,
Court really didn't even need all that stuff, all the
teammates and everything always already raped about how much of
a great sign to me he was just with his eyes,
(07:32):
and how much of a baseball Savanni was and all
this stuff. So, um, the organization know they lost it.
They lost the big guy. I mean, he looked he's
a responsible for Xander Bogart's to come at what he is,
Raphael Devor is becoming what he is. Mookie Betts took
the next step and became an m v P under him.
So it's a huge void that they're gonna have to
fill in the Red Sox to know that for sure. Julian,
(07:53):
the problem I had with the statement that was released
with h Cora was that he didn't apologize when the
wrong doing and that's statement. How in the world could
you put out a statement where you don't apologize for Hey,
I'm sorry for my actions. I'm sorry I heard the organization,
the ball club, the franchise, the fans of Boston, none
of that. Why not you know what I now, did
(08:16):
you point that out? That's actually interesting. They said today
that he was remorseful here, apologized for embarrassing the franchise.
But I get it, you have to make that public statements, Julian,
How can you look aten and talk about all the
good stuff that happened franchise record hundred and eight wins,
all these players blossom and not feel like it was
(08:36):
fraudlyn or maybe helped or aided by the cheating Skins
or how can you feel good about well? They told today,
they said today they kept saying, uh, please saying, uh,
keep your judgment until the actual investigation it comes comes out.
You know, they were they were they were kind of implying.
They didn't say it, but they felt like they were
(08:57):
implying that, you know, this and astigation for them won't
go through. But then John Henry made a John Henry
made a made an interesting comment where he said, you know,
we were surprised by what they found in the Houston thing,
so we have to wait and see what comes out
of this. But you know, today when they were asked
if they felt to his tainted, they said no, absolutely not,
(09:18):
like we won that fair and square. So they might not.
They might know something that we don't know, but you know,
judging from Corus Path, that wouldn't be surprised by anything
at this point. Yeah. Uh. And the other thing is
what do you expect the punishment will be for Core?
I know speculation with the Red Sox, but if he
did it for two UH franchises and tainted two of them,
(09:39):
I think there's a chance that he could be banned
a lifetime band. As far as managing, you think that's
too harsh. If they do found out find out that
he did it both in Houston and in Boston, I
think that would be harsh. But I wouldn't be surprised
at this point because you for if you remember they
had the Apple watched incident the Red Sox and the
(10:00):
commissioner said came out and said gave him a slap
on the risk and said knock at all, don't do
it again. And then you have the Houston situation where
Houston chiefs for a year and that's that was kind
of spearheaded by Cora. And then now you have this
other allegation. So clearly he just slapped the commissioner in
the pace twice saying that like you know I'm gonna
do what I want to do, So the commissioner came
(10:21):
down heavy on these guys. I wouldn't be surprised iFly
it might be a lifetime van you never know. I mean,
this impacted two World Series teams, right if you think
about it like this, the Dodgers, and it would be
one thing if he did it with the Mets and
the Mets didn't make the playoffs. No teams went back
to back World Series off of this. Now, if it
has to do with if, if it has to do
(10:41):
with them possibly uh giving him a lifetime band, I
wouldn't be surprised. Last thing I said earlier on the
podcast that I believe that the Mets should fire Carlos
Beltran even though he didn't get uh any kind of
punishment from Ajor League Baseball. But don't you think it's
(11:02):
kind of weird that a team would put a guy
out front and center who was involved in a pretty
serious cheating scandal, right. And I think the fact that
he was a player and they said all the players
are granted immunity, I think that would be one thing
that he can hold up to him and saying, look,
I was the player at the time. But it comes
(11:22):
down to trust, right and I think going back to November,
when he was asked about the allegations that came out,
he lied about it. He lied about it, and that's
that's the that's the issue that I had. If he
came out and said, look, I can't comment on this
or or I can't I can't talk about this while
the investigation is going on, that's one thing. But he
blatantly came out and live And if you're a Mets
(11:45):
culture where you're trying to change the culture around around
the Mets organization, we all know the culture around the
Mets is that you you have to probably fire this
guy because I mean, it's it's it comes down to
a trust issue and you and right now you just
can't trust him. His name Julia McWilliams the five Baseball
bet writer for the Boston Globe. He covers the Red Sox. Julian,
(12:06):
always a pleasure. Thanks for joining the podcast, bro Hey,
thanks b I appreciate it. Rob. In the words of
New York TV legend the late Bill Jorgensen, thanking you
for your time this time until next time. Rob Parker out.
(12:26):
He can't get it. This could be an inside the Parker.
To see you next weekend, same bad time, same station,
Host
Rob Parker
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