After Wednesday’s fight night at Fenway Park between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, a former manager and player have a bone to pick with Boston skipper Alex Cora.
As the brawl was defused, the YES Network showed Cora in the dugout waving his hand at Yankees third base coach Phil Nelvin as if Cora was shooing him away and drew a box in the air with his hands.
The two who spoke wished to remain anonymous because they still are employed by a Major League Baseball club.
“That was bush-league stuff. You don’t disrespect the other coaching staff like that,” a former manager told John Harper of the New York Daily News. “Nevin is a well-respected guy in the game, a former No. 1 pick … the guy had a good career. What has Cora done? He’s a first-year manager. Not Mike Scioscia.
“I don’t know what was said, but Cora was waving Nevin away like, ‘you’re not on my level.’ And (Cora) was back in the dugout by then. It looked like that got (Yankees manager Aaron) Boone fired up, and I don’t blame him.”
Thursday, Cora said on a conference call with WEEIÂ that his gesture was out of character for him, but not something he will back down from because he didn’t like the fact he was getting screamed and pointed at.
That doesn’t seem to matter to the former player and manager, who believe because of Cora’s gesture, more bad blood will boil over down the line between the two rivals.
“You do that to someone on my staff, and we’re going to have a problem,” that manager said.
The Sox and Yankees wrap up their first series of the season Thursday and don’t meet again until May 8th in the Bronx.
