When Alex Cora left his position as bench coach of the Houston Astros to take over as manager of the Boston Red Sox just after his former club defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series, he had one stipulation during the negotiations for a new contract:
A major contribution of goods and services for his home island of Puerto Rico, which had been decimated by Hurricane Maria in September of that year.
“It was right before Game 6 of the [American League] Championship Series,” Cora told ESPN last year. “[The Red Sox] said this and that, this and that, the money, housing. I said: ‘That’s all cool. But here’s what I want: I want a plane full of supplies for my hometown. If you can do that, I’m the manager of the Boston Red Sox.'”
Cora signed for $800,000, a contract that was extended and certainly was enhanced after he and his Red Sox defeated the Dodgers in last year’s World Series.
While the deal may have been one of the lowest for a manager in Major League Baseball, the Red Sox made good on their promise. Cora is from Caguas, Puerto Rico, and on Jan. 31, 2018, a JetBlue cargo plane delivered 10 tons of supplies to his hometown, along with a donation of $200,000.
He was joined by a contingent of dozens of members of the Red Sox organization, including chief executive Sam Kennedy, assistant general manager Eddie Romero and pitcher Rick Porcello.
“Not to be selfish,” Cora said back then, “but I’ve been looking forward to this trip even more than opening day.”
The effort hardly made a dent; recovery from the Category 4 hurricane has been agonzingly slow. Blackouts still occur regularly on the island for 24 hours or more at a time. As of March 1, only $14,000 of $20 billion in recovery funds earmarked by the U.S. Congress has been spent on reconstruction, the money stuck somewhere in the planning and permitting process.
It’s no surprise, then, that under the shadow of all this, Cora declined to visit the White House on Thursday for a Rose Garden celebration of last year’s five-game World Series victory. It just didn’t feel right with the backdrop of all this suffering, he told El Nueva Dia of Puerto Rico in an exclusive statement.
Eleven players, including last year’s AL MVP, Mookie Betts, as well as pitcher David Price and catcher Christian Vazquez, another Puerto Rican native, said they would also not attend.
Cora took a moral and ethical stand, rather than a political one.
“Puerto Rico is very important to me. During the winter I spent a lot of time back home, visiting my family and friends. Unfortunately, we are still struggling, still fighting. Some people still lack basic necessities, others remain without electricity and many homes and schools are in pretty bad shape almost a year and a half after Hurricane María struck,” Cora said in the statement.
“Even though the United States government has helped, there’s still a long road ahead and that is OUR reality. I’ve used my voice on many occasions so that Puerto Ricans are not forgotten and my absence [from the White House] is no different. As such, at this moment, I don’t feel comfortable celebrating in the White House.”
Caguas, a mountain town some 20 miles south of San Juan, the capital, is home to about 142,000. It’s just 60 miles from the Caribbean Ocean to the city of Ponce hard on the Atlantic.
To put the size of the U.S. commonwealth into perspective, the length of the New Jersey turnpike from the northern part of the state to the south is 117.2 miles. For those on the West Coast, it’s about 60 miles south down Interstate 5 in California from San Clemente to San Diego.
That little corridor in Puerto Rico has always been a hotbed for young baseball talent: Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Ivan Rodriguez, Roberto Alomar, all Hall of Famers.
Alex and his older brother Joey, now a coach with the Pittsburgh Pirates, grew up and played winter ball in Caguas. Their late father, Jose, was a scout. Former catcher Benito Santiago hailed from Ponce.
The brothers Alomar—Sandy Jr. and Roberto—are from nearby Salinas. Their father, Sandy Sr., was a major league infielder, coach and scout.
All of them, sans Alex, were once in the San Diego Padres organization.
Alex, an infielder who played high school ball in Caguas and college ball at Miami, was a third-round pick by the Dodgers in the 1996 June amateur draft and played his first seven of 14 big-league season for the Dodgers.
But his heart has always remained with his family and friends in Puerto Rico.
In November, Cora returned again to Caguas, this time bearing the World Series trophy. This time, Cora and members of the victorious Red Sox team rode a flatbed truck after disembarking from the plane in San Juan on a parade route to his hometown. It was certainly less somber than his January visit.
"It was very emotional," Cora said. "I'm not a guy that shows too much emotion, but I had to take a step back, to tell everybody how much I love them, from my family, and all those fans, and to thank our mayor and the Red Sox, and what it means to me, and to thank the players. That was a cool moment, and hopefully we can do it again."
It’s a bifurcated experience, of course. Win another World Series. Raise money for hurricane recovery. For Cora, the two are not mutually exclusive.
