"There is not limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." -- Ronald Reagan
1.) This is the second memoir that I've read since starting this project. Like W's, I came away realy liking Tito. He's the right mix of regular guy and arch competitor. He's got some great stories, like Mike Lowell telling Dustin Pedroia "Simmer down, Napolean," or driving down to spring training in 2005 and flipping off dejected Eagles fans driving back from Jacksonville after the Birds lost Super Bowl 39.* Francona can also have a bit of mean streak as well. When the media was in the process of fluffing Bobby V, Terry said "I wanted to put rings on both fingers and say, 'We were a little above average.'" Love it.
2.) If my son is half as awesome as Dustin Pedroia, I'll be happy. Even better, he's almost as tall.
3.) At one point in the book, Francona refers to Queer Eye for the Staight guy as "the TV show with the homosexuals."
4.) Francona only made $500K/year his first three years with the Sox. At the time he was hired, the Sox had recently been purchased for about $700M or so. It seems absolutely insane to me that ownership would turn over the car keys to a guy making that little compared to other managers. I also don't understand playing hardball with him on the salary. His salary would eventually get up into the $3.5M/year range.
5.) People in baseball are babies and weirdos. It is such an insular society and that fraternity makes people into loons. Whether it's guys like David Ortiz or Mike Lowell refusing to accept a smaller role commensurate with their declining skill or idiosyncrasies like Derek Jeter refusing to step in the batter's box until he got a nod from Francona, everyone is insane. I completely understand how a Manny Ramirez could exist in this world.
Francona is no better. He really loves everything about being in baseball's oddball universe. It must be the 162 games because his mind does seem addled at some points. He is incredibly protective of his routine and projects that love of routine on a lot of other actors. His morning routine is especially weird, but is grounded in his love of the clubhouse. Every morning he would pull up to Fenway and give his keys to the clubbies. He'd tell them that they could use the car, but not to tell him about it.
Tito also would get extremely frustrated with line up suggestions from baseball ops (read: stats guys). This one puzzled me. He wasn't given orders. He was given something to think about. More information is usually a good thing, especially if it is concise. I think he saw it as an affront to his role as manager.
Francona also had an "open wallet" policy that struck me as generous but odd. He would leave his wallet everyday on his desk and the clubbies woud be able to take a loan from it whenever they wanted. One of the attendants even bragged that he went into his wallet like once a day. Call me crazy, but that is absolutely insane. Is this is a baseball thing? I googled it and it doesn't look like it. I just wish that we had stats on this. How much was loaned? How much was paid back? How much did Manny take?
6.) Not to be too mean here, but being a baseball manager doesn't seem to be too difficult. I've read Halberstam's Belichick book and it seems like the difference in degree of difficulty between jobs is off the charts. I don't think that Belichick has a lot of time for cribbage with Julian Edelman. I do understand that there is a lot more personality management in baseball and it's obvious that Terry Francona has the perfect temperament for it.
7.) This is a follow up note to my thoughts on HGH. Simmons asked at the end of his podcast why players wouldn't consent to blood testing. Terry Francona's story is the best case against blood testing. When Francona went to the team doctor and through a MLB sponsored program, it was set up so that only four or five people would know about it. It was reported in a local paper just days after Francona left the team. The moral here is that leagues and/or player associations have not shown themselves to be trustworthy with confidential health information. Until we live in a world where this doesn't happen, blood tests can't happen.**
8.) It is bizarre that Tito and Theo Epstein attempt to deflect blame the September 2011 collapse from Francona's use of pain killers by pointing out that he used way more pain killers in 2004.
RECOMMENDATION: Must read for Red Sox fans regardless of hat color and Yankee fans. I'd also suggest it for anyone looking for a baseball fix waiting for spring training and fantasy baseball prep to start.
*Francona managed the Phillies during their lean years. He was not popular in Philadelphia. I went to law school in Philly and people were not happy when he won the World Series in 2004. Steve-o, friend of the MMOM, has often said that he would rather a hump on his back than Terry Francona. What most fairweather Phillies phans don't understand is that their team sucked in the late 90s and nothing any manager could do would fix that.
** If you had VD, would you want Larry Lucchino to have access to your blood samples? Would you trust Tom Werner to not have your blood genetically tested?
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