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.