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Alex Cora Says He Would’ve Returned to ESPN Had Red Sox Not Rehired HIm

“I think Bristol, Connecticut [is what I would’ve done]. That was actually my plan.”

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Alex Cora returned to the Boston Red Sox as field manager after serving a one-year suspension from Major League Baseball for his involvement in the Houston Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal.

Following a report released by MLB that said Cora played a key role in the system, calling the Astros’ video replay room to get the opposing team’s signs and relaying them to players. Later, he helped set up a monitor near the dugout that allowed players to see signs and infamously bang a trash can to inform the batter at the plate which pitch was coming.

Due to the suspension, the Red Sox dismissed Cora for the 2020 season, two years after winning the World Series, and Ron Roenicke managed the club. However, after a disappointing 24-36 season and fifth-place finish, and Cora having served his penalty, the team decided to bring him back as manager.

But what if Boston general manager Chaim Bloom had opted for a different direction and not rehired Cora. What would Cora have done? Steve Perrault asked him that very question on Audacy’s new Red Sox podcast, Inside the Monster.

“I think Bristol, Connecticut [is what I would’ve done]. That was actually my plan,” Cora told Perrault. “At the moment, going through the whole thing in 2020, talking to the family and planning ahead, it was go back to Bristol, people will see you, you talk about everything and then somebody will give you a chance in two or three years.”

Cora was previously with ESPN from 2013 through 2016 as an analyst for Baseball Tonight and ESPN Deportes. He left for the bench coach position with the Astros.

“But it just happened that this group, they believe in me, they gave me a chance to talk to Chaim and try to convince him or try to convince the organization that I was the right guy for the job,” he continued. “They gave me a chance, and I’m here because of that. It was going to be Bristol 100 percent. Go back to the Homewood Suites or whatever and stay there for a few days and do the playoffs and all of that, which it’s great, but I never thought it was going to happen this quickly to be honest with you.”

Bringing Cora back was obviously a good decision for the Red Sox. Boston rebounded with a 92-70 record, qualified for the American League playoffs as a Wild Card, defeated their rival New York Yankees in a one-game playoff, and upset the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Division Series.

Cora would surely rather be in a major-league dugout managing or coaching. And the Red Sox surely don’t want him going anywhere. But broadcasting is there to fall back on if he ever needs a break. And if ESPN doesn’t have an opening, there are arguably more opportunities now with MLB Network and baseball’s new streaming partners in Apple TV+ and Peacock.

Inside the Monster is available on Audacy.com and the Audacy app, in addition to your podcast app of choice.

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Ian Rapoport: ‘I Would Be Surprised’ If a Thursday Night Game Gets Flexed

“I think basically is the kind of thing where, like, they want it available, but it’s only going to be used if they have literally no other choice.”

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Is all of the consternation and hand-wringing about flex scheduling much ado about nothing? Ian Rapoport was on with Pat McAfee Tuesday and said despite the NFL owners voting to bring flex scheduling to Thursday Night Football, it isn’t the weekly threat some are making it out to be.

“I would say this from what I know of this, I would still be surprised if any game was flexible,” the NFL Network insider said. “I would be surprised if any game was flexed because they don’t want to use it.”

Flex scheduling in Sunday Night Football is used to create the best matchups in the league’s marquee window. With the option coming to Mondays and Thursdays this season, Rapoport says the bar for justifying moving not just kickoff times, but days, is going to be high.

Thursday Night Football has the most restrictions. The league will have to announce any moves almost a month ahead of when the game actually kicks off. When McAfee pointed to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ visit to New England in Week 14 as a prime candidate to be flexed out of Thursday night, Rapoport outlined a very specific scenario where he could see it happening.

“It’s not going to be like, ‘Well, we have a little bit better game, so maybe we’ll do that,’” he said. “It’s going to be like, ‘Okay, we have Mason Rudolph starting versus Bailey Zappe. Like, no one will watch this. We have to move.’ That’s to me, that’s under the circumstances that you’d see a flex.”

Last season, the matchups for Thursday Night Football were especially bad in some weeks. Al Michaels even made reference to it on the air during games. Having flex scheduling could help to avoid that, but Rapoport says the option is about protecting Amazon in the event circumstances around a game change drastically, not simply placating critics.

“I think basically is the kind of thing where, like, they want it available, but it’s only going to be used if they have literally no other choice.”

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Hall of Fame Baseball Writer Rick Hummel Dies at Age 77

“Hummel is best known for his work covering the Cardinals for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.”

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Rick Hummel has passed away after a brief illness. The legendary baseball journalist was 77 years old.

Hummel is best known for his work covering the Cardinals for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His death comes in the first season after announcing his retirement.

Covering the team was something of a dream come true for the St. Louis native. He reported on three World Series wins and seven National League pennants. He was recognized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

The 2022 season was Hummel’s last of a 51-year run covering the team for the Post-Dispatch. It wasn’t the end of his career though. He went to Jupiter, FL in February to cover spring training as a free lance writer for a number of different outlets.

Rick Hummel will certainly be missed by his friends and loved ones. He will also be missed by the Cardinals community, who already mourned the loss of Mike Shannon earlier this month.

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Pablo Torre Explains Goals of Future Meadowlark Media Project

“I want to take the position of also being able to zoom way in and way out and engage with the news cycle, but not be beholden to it.”

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While we know that Pablo Torre is going to have a new show with Meadowlark Media in the future, he hasn’t exactly been specific as to what it will be. We continue to look for bits and pieces from Torre about his show that will begin sometime before the NFL season begins. 

Torre was a guest on The Rights To Ricky Sanchez: The Sixers Podcast with Spike Eskin and Michael Levin (around the 22 minute mark) and he said that he is at Meadowlark to follow his curiosities and he thinks back to the story he wrote for ESPN The Magazine in 2015 about the 76ers and trust the process serves as a guide to him.

I have things I am obsessed with that I want to explain to people, and I believe there are stories in sports and in the national cultural conversation that either could use a little more smarts or a little more humor and I want to figure out how I can be the place where you find smart and funny when it comes to storytelling in sports in a narratively informed way. I’m being very vague about it, but the magazine sensibility of that process story is something that serves as a North Star in my brain.

“How do I tell a story that people from afar are maybe somewhat familiar with, but can get under the hood of to articulate and reveal and report some things that serve as something close to a definitive treatment to it?”

One thing that Torre thinks is a big opportunity in the media landscape is that there is an open lane to tell sports stories in the audio format. 

“There’s a lot of narrative series, some of which are excellent, but in terms of an always-on show where someone’s job is to follow a curiosity down the rabbit hole and/or tell a story/interviewing a person as a way of explaining something larger. I want to bring a viewpoint that because sports is so much about living or dying with these games as we have been, I want to take the position of also being able to zoom way in and way out and engage with the news cycle, but not be beholden to it.”

Torre isn’t going to be able to cover everything in sports, but he said that he wants to take a complicated story and make it simpler for the listeners.

“My goal is not that I’m going to cover everything, but I’m going to give you stories of a different genre, stories that explain and go deeper. I want to make this fun, but also premised on contextualizing complicated stories in a simpler way.”

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