Alex Cora's 'Nobody Believes in Us' garbage falls laughably flat after Red Sox clinch

Plenty of MLB managers make their living spewing BS. Usually, though, it's in order to obscure information and somewhat foolishly protect their players - Yankees fans know the lengths Aaron Boone will go to claim the sky is actually red, and it's also not going on the Injured List with a strained cloud.

But Red Sox manager Alex Cora might be the most proficient at ejecting so much hot garbage you can sip it through a straw. Sometimes, he does it to hide the truth about what's going on behind closed doors - like when everything had cooled down with Rafael Devers, except for the massive trade on the horizon. But most times, he does it to concoct some sort of rallying cry to add a chip to his team's collective shoulder.

After Boston - a team that surged all summer and held a 99+% chance to make the playoffs a few weeks back before they vomited a little and nearly gagged - clinched their playoff berth on Friday night, Cora launched into a stream of invective, claiming that nobody saw Boston's surge coming. In fact, Cora says, everyone preferred New York, Baltimore, and even Toronto to start the season. Anyone who claims otherwise is - according to Cora - "f***ing bullsh*t".

Only one problem, though. Boston, a team that made a series of winter splashes, may have finished 2024 as an afterthought, but had become a popular World Series dark horse by Opening Day. Did ... did he mean the Blue Jays? Now that was a team nobody believed in.

Alex Cora tries to pretend nobody believed in Boston Red Sox before 2025 season, but they obviously did

All local pundits, it would seem, believed in the Red Sox. Most national pundits picked them to represent the American League in the World Series. You just know Cora's gonna pull some nonsense about how he meant "February, specifically before they signed Alex Bregman". Sure. Sure.

AJ Hinch was in town with the Tigers this week. You think, whenever they see each other, Hinch greets Cora with, "You son of a gun, we all got fired for the same cause. Why are you the only one they allowed to come back?"

Maybe, instead of "nobody believes in us", he meant "nobody believes me".

Yankees fans wish the Red Sox hadn't been quite so believed in. Maybe there wouldn't have been so much belief if they hadn't traded for a Cy Young co-favorite, signed the de facto captain of New York's tormentor from the 2010s, and prepared to graduate the game's best young class of rookies.

We'll give 'em this, though: fewer people believed in the Sox after they traded their best hitter midseason with very little justification. That's not quite so dishonest.