Thursday, January 24, 2013

What’s up with Francona?


Nineteen degrees in Cleveland, snow and slush everywhere. It must be a good time to talk some baseball.

That’s certainly what new Indians manager Terry Francona has been doing lately. Question is, why is talking more about a team he last managed in 2011 than the team he will skipper this year?

Francona was on ESPN just the other day talking about the Red Sox, the team he led to World Series titles before new owners took over and fired him after the 2011 season. [Can you say Paul Brown?] Then yesterday, I’m in the store and I see a magazine cover where he’s on the same topic. Has this guy got a book coming out?

Without bothering to google the answer to that question, but wanting to satisfy my curiosity, I called a Red Sox lifer in Boston yesterday and put the question to him: why hasn’t Francona moved on? Why now?

My source defended Francona, saying the new Boston owners threw him under the bus unmercifully when they fired him in 2011. They spread all kinds of stories about his flaws in the aftermath of Boston’s epic meltdown in September 2011. Francona just left town, nursed his wounds, and said nothing until he got another contract. Now he’s just setting the record straight.

Sounds like this Francona’s a smart guy. As B. B. King and Ernestine Anderson like to sing, "Never make  your move too soon".

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