Terry Francona is the best manager the Red Sox have ever had.
Why are we trying to run him out of town?
Francona has his flaws but he’s also a Red Sox manager with two rings in four years. He has an uncanny knack for managing the Boston media, a well-earned reputation as a players manager and an ability to manage the game itself when he has to (the latter is why we have a ring from 2004).
Yet at any given point in the season, you will hear Francona referred to as Francoma, insinuating that he manages games in a coma and anyone could do a better job than him.
Not true. No one can do a better job than him. The only other manager of the Red Sox that can say he managed the Red Sox to two World Series titles is Bill Carrigan, who managed the Red Sox from 1913 through 1916 (he replaced Jake Stahl during the 1913 season). Carrigan won back-to-back World Series in 1915 and 1916, and the Red Sox tried to make his magic work again from 1927-1929, when the Red Sox were in the middle of being the doormats of the American League. Carrigan didn’t help.
Terry Francona has managed four full years (and is signed through this year) for the Red Sox. He’s had a winning record in every season, made the playoffs three times, and for the third mention so far, won two World Series titles.
There’s something to be said about a manager is only as good as his team. Bobby Cox or Joe Torre never would have succeeded as much as they have if they were managing in, say, Pittsburgh. (Aside: god, that team is inept. Hopefully their new GM can change things.)
But what about the other side of it? A team is only as good as its manager?
Managers come (Grady Little) and they go (see ya, Grady!). They stay when they succeed, and the winning percentage of the team doesn’t matter. Hell, when Grady was fired, he owned the best regular season winning percentage as manager of the Red Sox. Anyone willing to call Grady Little a great manager? How about good? No? Thought so.
Maybe managers show a complete failure to win in the postseason (San Diego Chargers ex-coach Marty Schottenheimer) or aren’t able to get their team over the final hump (Buck Showalter in the Bronx and Arizona). There’s a lot to be said for the fact a good manager wins when he has a good team (Jim Tracy, who is no longer the manager of the Pirates, had a good run with the Dodgers from 2001-4 and suffered through a down 2005. He moved to Pittsburgh and well, predictably didn’t do so well. But that didn’t come as a surprise.)
If a team is World Series-caliber, then it stands to reason the manager has to be, too. The manager is the one who chooses who to play and when. The one who chooses how he’s going to react to the media, how he’s going to fold Eric Gagne into the team without disrupting chemistry. The ones who consistently win with their teams because not only is their personnel good, the manager has done what is required of him to make sure that the personnel succeeds.
It boils down to this: there are terrible managers, which comprise a very small percentage of the pool of managers to dip into and are very quickly weeded out and banished forever (Miami Dolphins’ coach Cam Cameron is probably in this category, and does anyone remember Carlos Tosca? No? Thought so.) while most of the managers that stick around in the game today are decidedly average. They don’t cause the team to win, but they don’t cause the team to lose.
Then there is a very small percentage of managers who improve the team, who define the team. Football has Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. Basketball has Larry Brown, George Karl, Phil Jackson, Don Nelson. Baseball has Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, Jim Leyland, Lou Pinella, Tony LaRussa and… Terry Francona. Yes, I said it. I consider Terry Francona not only a great manager, but a historically great manager.
Unfortunately, in today’s heavy, stat-driven world, there’s no easy way to qualify for a manager. We have to rest on our own observations. Here are mine.
- Remember the days of Jurassic Carl? The days of a poisonous clubhouse that was ‘fixed’ when Nomar Garciaparra was traded? Why have we not heard of one clubhouse issue with Francona and the Red Sox other than when Jay Payton engineered his trade out of Boston by publicly showing up Francona? A move that Payton later said had nothing to do at all with Francona and everything to do with that he knew that’s how he could be traded to a better situation? How about just general clubhouse issues, period? Remember when we heard Curt Schilling yelled at Scott Williamson and questioned if Williamson was hurt? These instances are few. They’re far between. The clubhouse of the Red Sox has never been an issue with Francona at the helm of the ship. Wily Mo Pena could have made the clubhouse situation untenable due to not getting any playing time. He didn’t. Even in 2005 when Francona battled everyone’s new egos after winning the World Series, the battles were done behind the scenes.
- He doesn’t make headlines. For anything. The only headlines he makes is for his success… like the headline in ESPN Magazine, when he was featured as the 15th most compelling 2007 story of the year. Who else does the same thing? Oh gee, let’s see… Bill Belichick for one. Mike Gundy, he is not.
- To keep the theme from the previous point, good teams — nay, great teams — all espouse a common bottom line. No matter who you talk to, the theme is the same. The Patriots care about winning one game at a time with no accolades. That could have come from any Patriots player. With inept coaches like Norv Turner, Bill Simmons says it best: “There’s definitely a weird energy with this particular Chargers team. Even after they clinched the Colts game, CBS cut to the sidelines and Rivers was angrily taunting Indy fans while Tomlinson looked like a married guy at a couples baby shower pretending to be excited because his wife just opened up another pink onesie. I don’t know what to make of them — I could see them somehow shocking the Pats in Foxborough, and I could see them losing by 46 points and starting a postgame brawl in their own locker room that would make the riot in the ring after the Bowe-Golota fight look like a shoving match.” This is why Joe Torre succeeded so much in New York. He was able to keep the Yankees in line, for the most part. This is also why Derek Jeter’s intangibles are off the charts. It’s much the same in Boston, players are always saying the party line — and believing it.
- Two World Series in four years for a franchise who’s last title was 1918. Why aren’t more people realizing this?
There are going to be times in 2008 where Francona makes mistakes. There will also be times when he is brilliant. The fact is that most of Francona’s brilliance is either (a) unnoticed, (b) unknown or (c) attributed to other people, usually players. The times where he makes mistakes are also the only times that the media and fans zero in on him. The manager, the most vital person on the club, is also often the most hated by fans. When things go wrong, it’s the manager’s fault. When things go right, Player A was the reason why.
It’s also fact that Francona’s brilliance greatly outweighs his negatives.
Terry Francona is the reason why we have the rings. He is the singular man most responsible for this, even more so than Theo Epstein.
Francona doesn’t trumpet his own horn. He often trumpets others at the expense of himself. That’s a manager’s job. Comes with the territory.
It’s our job, however, to realize that we only hear negative things about Francona because positive things don’t make headlines.
It’s our job to realize that Terry Francona is the best manager the Red Sox have ever had, and management will make a huge mistake if they opt to not extend Francona’s contract before the regular season. Fans will make a huge mistake if they ever try to drive Francona out of Boston.
In Bobby Cox’s second go-round with Atlanta, he’s been the manager for 18 years. I can only hope Francona matches, even surpasses that.
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Just like with Theo…the rings are the only real barometer. (Waits for Sean’s head to explode….)
I have a lot to say but I’ll spare you and just say I’m with you 100%. This guy has done a fantastic job since coming here and I hope he is here for many years to come.
As a Red Sox manager – absolutely fantastic. Francona is the perfect guy to manage a team with a lot of talent. He has a calming effect on egos and players know they can trust him.
He is not, however, a teacher – as evidenced by the poor play of the Phillies during his tenure. No, it probably didn’t have anything to do with him, but he certainly didn’t change anything.
Some guys are tremendous teachers, like you said, and some guys are just tremendous MANAGERS (managing time, egos, emotions). Francona is one of the best in the game at keeping everyone’s head on.
A lot of the criticism pointed his way stems from the fact that he isn’t a teacher as a manager. Well, Daniel-Day Lewis is my favorite actor, and arguably the best actor ever… and ALL he does are period pieces. Does that mean he isn’t a tremendous actor because he has never been in a romantic comedy and doesn’t have range?
No, he’s a tremendous actor because nobody else can do what he does in his area. In Francona’s case, only a select few can do what he can do.
I have to disagree with him being a great manager. He handles the media and the ego’s great, there is no doubt about that. When it goes to an in game manager, he is below average. I’ve sited the many examples about this before so i’m not gonna do it again.
That being said, i want him here. Managing outside of the game is more important than in the game.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3206971&type=blogEntry
Yeah Evan!
I concur, the mark of a good manager is his ability to keep his team focused and playing hard. Although, Francona sticks with a pitcher longer than I would like, more often than not he turns out to be right. Besides, on field moves are greatly overrated. Its all about getting the effort from your players. Francona is very good at that.
Not just two rings . . . two rings from two very different teams, and against very different competition.
Also in 2007, the best record in baseball despite injuries, and offensive let downs from big ticket players (Julio, Coco, JD, Gagne, Pineiro and even Manny, Tek, Schill, Daisuke). Which means, to win another ring, he not only managed through that, but also managed the blossoming of “the kids” (Dustin, Jacoby, Lester, Buckholz, MDC, Oki, SP Pap, Youk). And in the midst of what would be chaos on most teams, Becket, Lowell, Papi, Lopez, Snyder, Corey have breakout years. Only a great manager could pull that together. C’mon Theo. Give him the contract, now . . . and Youk, too.
His regular season management often befuddles me, but I like his proactive stance in the postseason. I.e. it’s the fifth/sixth inning, and the starting pitcher is clearly struggling…time for the bullpen!
I just think someone who can manage a team to an unlikely comeback twice in four years clearly keeps everyone where they should be psychologically.
Best Red Sox manager of all time? Come on. You provided absolutely no evidence for that.
What about Cronin, who managed the team for 13 years and had them finish in the top 3 in winning percentage in 8 of those years?
Evan:
I agree that Francona is one of the best managers in the game right now, but I think you went a bit too far in calling him one of the best ever.
Tito is the right manager for the Sox — a strong team that simply needs someone to handle it. He isn’t the type of skipper who can take a team from the ground to the top, and I’d argue that that’s a significant attribute that a skipper needs to have before you can call him one of the best ever.
There probably isn’t a skipper in the majors right now whom I’d prefer to Tito (when it comes to the Sox), but you’re going out on a pretty thin ledge by saying he’s the best manager the Sox have ever had.
I do agree though, that the Sox should extend him before his contract expires…assuming, of course, that Tito wants to stay.
MCE: What about Francona who has two titles in four years?
Winning 2 titles doesn’t really mean all that much. I mean, of coarse, it is what people play for but it doesn’t always show someones worth. If we repeat does that improve Lugo as a SS? Of coarse not. If he stinks again, he stinks. Sometimes teams win because and in spite of people. I feel like Tito is a completely neutral force in the Red Sox two wins. He for everything he does bad, he does something good.
Well, then we differ in opinion :) And that’s perfectly fine. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. I just think that Tito helps the Sox far more than he hurts – otherwise he’d be long gone.
I think great managers improve a team’s win total. Just like the Dodgers will see an increase, I think Tito’s reached that point. I also think that the Phillies would have floundered these years without him.
As for Eric’s comment: He taught Scott Rolen pretty good. Pat Burrell. Etc.
Beckett raves about him.
I do agree he’s a great manager. As for teacher, thats only something that comes along with time, and I think Ellsbury, Lester, et. al will be a great barometer there. So far, so good.
Evan, can you prove that the Red Sox wouldn’t have won those titles without Francona? Teams win titles, not managers. You can’t judge a manager by how many titles their team wins. Besides, there is some luck involved in winning titles, no?
Sure Evan, Tito really increased the Red Sox win total when he used Gagne in important spot after important spot, after important spot. You have no proof for anything you’re saying.
Terry manages the players and his “teaching staff”, the coaches, who are also keys to his success. Like a good manager, Tito teaches his coaches/teachers, and learns from them, and listens to them. In terms of “hands-on” with the players and coaches, we hear alot of sincere praise and almost no negatives; amazing among a bunch of alpha types. That’s a good manager. Only time will tell how good. Sign him, Theo. And sign Youk now, because he is still well below his ceiling and movin’ up.
And Evan, if you want to talk championships, Francona never won back to back championships like Bill Carrigan, now did he?
Funny thing is he might not even have the Red Sox job if not for Schilling being in love with him… and Schilling wanted to sign with the Phillies in 2004 but, for some reason, they felt more comfortable throwing Vicente Padilla and an injured Randy Wolf out there.
You have no proof either, MCE. Like I said, it boils down to opinion, and I’m not changing mine.
He is the right man for the job … I think thats the best way to sum it up … he has done a superb job in ALLOWING this team to succeed … he allowed the players to play the game … and yet he showed the ability to set the tone needed to succeed every night … whether it meant being consistent and patient during the long haul of the regular season … or whether it meant he needed to ramp it up and intensify things for the postseason … he has balanced everything beautifully during his tenure here and has allowed a good team to be great … he is the right man for this job and I hope he is around for a long time and proves without a doubt that he is the best we’ve ever had
in other words … let’s extend him … like … right now
Just thought I’d mention: Terry Francona’s Red Sox have pulled up in the American League’s top three winning percentage (tied for the top twice in the bargain) in three out of his four seasons on the bridge. That was how many World Series rings to which Joe Cronin and his top-three-winning-percentage-in-eight-of-his-thirteen-years led the Olde Towne Team?
Francona can be in the best-manger-ever running as soon as he stops using Javier Lopez as a lefty specialist.