The Boston Red Sox Manager, Alex Cora, defends himself by missing one of the team’s games to attend his daughter’s university graduation.
Cora jumped Monday’s game between the Red Sox and New York Mets at the Boston Fenway Park to see his daughter, Camila, participate in a graduation ceremony in Boston College.
“I made the best decision for my daughter, and for those who do not understand, I will not try to convince them,” Cora told journalists on Tuesday in a video that NBC Sports Boston shared on Tiktok.
Cora was criticized in the local media to omit the game, which the Red Sox won 3-1.
Mike Felger, a popular radio personality in 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, criticized Cora’s decision, noting that Boston College’s graduation ceremony took place in the morning while the Red Sox game began at 6:45 pm
“I think they were done at noon, which means you can have a great party in the middle of the day,” said Felger, according to Boston Herald. “Simply travel the street and manage the game.”
“It’s just the leadership and optics of the whole matter,” Felger added. “It is a very easy opportunity to say: ‘Nothing is more important than the game tonight.'”
In the NBC Sports Boston video of the monitoring press conference, you could see Cora shaking his head disagree when a journalist suggested that he could have “hurried” his daughter’s graduation to attend the game.
“(Camila) wanted her to be with her and it was her day, so this is secondary,” Cora replied.
“You know, we are in this world for a purpose, and for me, it is raising it, trying to do our best. Obviously it was not perfect, but at this time, it is perfect,” he said.
“I wasn’t going to surprise me,” he added later.
Cora later laughed after another journalist asked him if the criticism bothered him.
“People have their own opinions,” Cora replied. “I bet that these people also have families. And in a moment, they also had to make decisions. And I bet that they made decisions for the best of the family.”
Sports fans applauded Cora’s decision to prioritize his son in the comments section of the NBC Sports Boston video.
“There are 162 games in the baseball season for some reason. His daughter graduated once,” one wrote.
“He is a father first,” another fan wrote in support.
“Who in their healthy judgment is arguing against this?” He asked someone else.
Cora published a photo on Instagram that showed more than a dozen family members who celebrated Camila in his graduation on Monday. He wrote in his subtitle, #Familiaesfamilia or #Familyisfamily.
“It is not necessary to elaborate,” he added.
