Alan Greenwood

If Wednesday’s press conference at Fenway Park was meant to somehow punctuate this chapter of the sign-stealing mess, it failed – unless a stubborn question mark was its aim.

This isn’t surprising. There really is no fire hose available that could douse a scandal that will blaze through the 2020 season and beyond – unless the Red Sox brass proved willing to confess their team’s sins, volunteer their accountability and vow redemption.

Even then, after being lauded for courage above and beyond their call of duty, the owners and top administrators could not possibly end the wisecracks and suspicions that will haunt the team forever and a day.

Major League Baseball’s ongoing investigation into Alex Cora’s 2018 World Champion Red Sox actually gave principal owner John Henry, sidekick owner Tom Werner, club president Sam Kennedy and baseball president Chaim Bloom easy cover.

(Bloom, of course, had the best cover of all – he wasn’t within 1,000 miles of any alleged shenanigans.).

The closest any of them came to acknowledge the reason for their manager’s departure is when Werner said Cora “admitted what he did was wrong.”

The one direct response to a query on their 2018 team’s legacy was a chorus of “absolutely” when asked if they considered their World Series victory over the Dodgers legitimate.

Their unstated purpose Wednesday was to take questions concerning Cora’s departure. After seeing Cora roasted in MLB’s report on the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing probe – Cora, it concluded, was essentially its mastermind – there was no question that his days leading the Red Sox were done.

Even there, beyond repeatedly emphasizing that they “mutually parted ways,” and that they all liked Cora and appreciated his work in Boston, little more was heard. They took the questions and politely deflected any that inched within sniffing distance of the wide-ranging “cannot-comment” zone.

All of them looked as though they’d rather be undergoing some sort of all-day dental work than sitting on the Fenway Park riser. Henry, a man who does not enjoy public speaking under the best of circumstances, summed up:

“He was a tremendous manager for us at all levels,” Henry said, referring to Cora’s work on the field and his community involvement. But, as he later reiterated, “This was the right decision to make.”

The future, they all proclaimed, was their only focus now. In that Kennedy may have offered the slightest peek into the dark corner from which this whole sorry episode was spawned.

“We have high expectations in 2020. The bar that John and Tom have set for us is extremely high. We all feel that pressure every day,” Kennedy said.

Such pressure can bring out the best – or the worst – in people.

TIME TRAVEL: Jan. 16, 1951 – In honor of tonight’s Boston Baseball Writers dinner …

“George (Birdie) Tebbetts, now a bona fide Indian (Cleveland, that is), by virtue of his signing of a Cleveland baseball contract this week, will be a most unusual dinner guest in Boston on Thursday, Feb. 1.

“Boston’s Chapter of the Baseball Writers of America will hold its annual dinner Feb. 1 and Tebbetts, despite his present status as a Clevelander, will be honored at the writers head table as a Red Sox player.

“A member of the Boston Baseball Writers revealed Birdie will be remembered on that occasion for all the nice things he did as a Red Sox. The writer also imagined Tebbetts would be tendered one of the loudest ovations of the evening.”

Ovations tonight at the Seaport Hotel are likely to be a bit more muted.

Contact Alan Greenwood at 594-1248 or agreenwood@nashuatelegraph.com.

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