If he never managed another big league game, Terry Francona had done enough to make his way to baseball’s hall of fame in Cooperstown.
Four years in Philadelphia to start things off. The magical time in Boston which included the end of the curse in 2004 and another world series title three years later.
There were four more years in Boston, all winning seasons but the last one ended poorly. The Red Sox lost a nine-game lead to the Tampa Bay Rays in September 2011, missing out on the AL wild-card spot.
Familiar ending in Boston
Was he fired? Did he leave on his own? It was clear as mud. There was the Boston Globe report that came out after he left the team that identified the former Sox manager’s marital issues and use of pain medication as a concern to the Red Sox during his final season.
“I just didn’t appreciate somebody went out of their way to hurt me that I was working with,” Francona said. “That will forever stay with me, because I didn’t appreciate that.”
After a season away Francona was back in the saddle. He took the job in Cleveland where the team had missed the playoffs in ten of the previous eleven seasons and five in a row.
They were coming off a fourth straight losing season finishing twenty games out of first place at 68-94. The Francona effect was immediate. Twenty-four more wins and a ninety two win season.
Success in Cleveland
In eleven seasons in Cleveland there were four first place finishes, six post seasons appearances including the heart breaking seven game world series loss to the Cubs in 2016.
At the end of the 2023 season after a rare losing season and at the age of sixty-four, Francona walked away from the game. Retirement? ‘Tito’ wasn’t ready to label it that:
“I don’t foresee managing. Again, I don’t have a crystal ball. Nobody does. Because if I was gonna manage, I like doing it here. But I also don’t want to just turn away from the game.”
Now Francona has turned back to the game. He’ll stay in Ohio. In October he signed a three year deal to manage the Cincinnati Reds. With 1950 career victories Francona sits thirteenth all time.
Over the next three seasons he should surpass legends Leo Durocher (2008), Walter Alston (2040), Joe McCarthy (2125) and Bucky Harris (2158) to sit ninth all time.
Francona has spent a lifetime in the game. Running around clubhouses as a kid when the first Tito Francona played the game. He was a college star winning the 1980 Golden Spikes award. He was the Most Outstanding Player at the 1980 College World Series.
Francona was a first round draft choice by the Montreal Expos, was hitting .346 on June 14th, 1984 when he blew out a knee for the second time and was never the same as a player.
He famously managed Michael Jordan’s attempt at moving from basketball to baseball.
So many amazing stories to be sure but the book on his life in the game is about to have another chapter written. Tito ain’t done yet.
