Terry Francona
Terry Francona
Terrence Jon "Terry" Francona, nicknamed "Tito", is the current manager of the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball. He was a first baseman and outfielder in the majors from 1981 to 1990. After retiring as a player, he managed several minor league teams in the 1990s before managing the Philadelphia Phillies for four seasons. In 2004, Francona was hired to manage the Boston Red Sox, and that year he led the team to its first World Series championship since 1918...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth22 April 1959
CityAberdeen, SD
CountryUnited States of America
We won 95 games in a season where things didn't go right. I'm not going to apologize for that.
After all these games we've played, we've played ourselves into a situation where it comes down to two games. That's just the way it is.
It's different. You've got to win today's game. It's almost like every game's an elimination game. I think it's a compliment to the teams the U.S. played against, and also it's the timing, so you don't get a true read of the teams. How many games of consequence do you have where a catcher plays half a game?
When you get down to your last game, you can have a bullpen full of everybody. You can't do that right now. We need somebody to make these starts. While they're still starting, they need to start. Once we get past each guy's start, you may see various guys going out of that bullpen as soon as they're available. That's a definite.
We're going home. We have a lot of business to tend to, but at home we hope to be a force. We have an important week; it'll be fun.
We won. I'm sure they'd rather play at home, ... In the end it doesn't matter. You need to win wherever you play. If that gets in the way, you're not good enough.
We signed him because he's one of the best pitchers in the league. Now we're close to having that guy back.
Maybe we can get him down to Pawtucket three days before he's eligible.
If we're talking about their pitching next week, then I'm probably not going to be smiling.
I have a limited opinion on that. I want our guy to win.
Oh, yeah. Because of what he did go through this winter, his showing up a little bit late, but showing up in the right frame of mind, is OK with me. We rely on him so much that if that's what it takes, it's OK with me.
It's hard to be a clubhouse guy without being a great guy. I mean, the nature of the job is, you know, you're picking up dirty clothes and you're doing all the tasks that the players - that nobody else wants to do.
In Boston I got to a point where I thought I was putting out fires more than being a baseball coach. And some of it was my fault. I was getting stubborn. My fuse was a little shorter than it needed to be. And that helps nobody.
I think in any organization you want your manager to have a strong opinion. You don't want them to just say, 'Yes, sir' to things they don't believe in.