Sale 'lost zero respect' for Cora after sign-stealing scandal
Alex Cora was one of the people punished for his involvement after the Houston Astros were found to have cheated during their 2017 championship run.
A bench coach with Houston, he received a one-year suspension and left his post as manager of the Boston Red Sox, with whom he won a World Series in 2018. But Red Sox ace Chris Sale doesn't view his former manager any differently in the wake of Major League Baseball's investigation.
"I lost zero respect for AC," Sale said, according to ESPN's Marly Rivera. "And look at what I did in 2017, in the playoffs. In the ALDS, you have to win three games, which means you can only lose two. I lost two of those three games to the Astros that were cheating, right? The very next year, AC comes over to us and we won the World Series, and I learned who he is."
Sale, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, downplayed the scandal on the whole.
"Maybe I'm different, but I believe everyone blew this thing out of proportion. Let me be clear: I believe what the Astros did was wrong. That is first and foremost," he said. "But it doesn't matter. What am I going to do? Am I going to go back and change it? Am I going to go steal the Astros' rings and put a 'B' on them instead of an 'H'?"
The 31-year-old received his own World Series ring after the Red Sox topped the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games in 2018.