Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Cora! Cora! Cora!

So much for sticking to a budget - I just saw on Metsblog.com that, according to the Times, the Mets are signing a Scott Boras client who is an infielder named Alex!

Oh, wait, it's not that Alex - it's Alex Cora, whose $2M salary will add up to about one of A-Rod's paychecks.

But that raises a question - how is this guy one of Boras' clients in the first place? Doesn't Boras have an eight-figure buy-in or something like that? Isn't this like spam sneaking onto the menu at Peter Luger?

Boras is known for creating elaborate books to promote his clients. Surely Cora doesn't have a book. He'd be lucky to get a Post-It.

I dimly remember an old TV commercial with a character named Cora. I thought it might be Nancy Walker and paper towels, but after a Web search I discovered it was Margaret Hamilton selling Maxwell House Coffee.

Hamilton is best known as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz, and since Boras is kind of the Wicked Witch of Baseball, maybe he has a soft spot for the name Cora.

Or maybe Boras gives out players like Cora as consolation prizes: "I'm so sorry, you're not getting Derek Lowe. But just so you don't go away empty-handed, here's a copy of our home game, as well as backup shortstop Alex Cora!"

According to Wikipedia, Boras has other clients that are more A-Cor than A-Rod. In fact, a couple of these played for the Mets recently, and the track record is not so good. Let's hope Cora pans out better than Scott Schoeneweis or David Newhan.

And let's hope signing Cora somehow helps the Mets land Oliver Perez.

2 comments:

Bernadette Pasley said...

I totally forgot about those Maxwell House commercials and I had no idea that was Margaret Hamilton. Thanks for the trivia, lol!

Uncle Mike said...

Cora is also the name of Mrs. Phil Rizzuto. "I tell ya, Murcer, it's unbelivable, I was telling Cora the other day, I said, Cora, these games are getting later and later. I gotta get over that bridge, Murcer. Holy cow... "

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