Terry Francona: Let the Man Manage!

I do not track these statistics, but if I were a betting man (and I am), I would wager that the percentage of calls into WEEI that cry for Red Sox manager Terry Francona’s head to be put on a chopping block is somewhere around 10-15%.  He might be the most unpopular Red Sox manager since, well…. Grady Little.  The more things change…However, as much as people in Boston might not like Francona’s Howdy Doody-esque mannerisms, his “Gosh, Schill gave us everything he had today” personality, his unending, unflappable optimism, his tendency to sugar-coat and dance around difficult issues, his often head-scratching in-game moves (or lack thereof), and his bizarre habits of rocking back and forth, Rain Man-style in the dugout and wearing a watch on his right wrist during games, overall he seems to be the right man for the job.  I realize I just listed a lot of negatives, but bear with me.  

There is this aforementioned segment of Red Sox Nation of indeterminate size and questionable intellect which rather enjoys calling into WEEI and demanding that the Sox fire Francona after every game.  After an April game against the Blue Jays, when “Tito” left Curt Schilling on the mound too long, eventually giving up a game-deciding grand slam, these idiots called the station to demand that he should be fired on the spot, insisting that GM Theo Epstein march to the visitor’s clubhouse in SkyDome and tell him to clean out his office (presumably upon return to his office in Boston, but there was probably a movement to throw him out on the streets of Toronto to hang with Snow).  These people are about as stable as a pedophile in a preschool.  Yeah, that’s exactly what a team needs: to fire its manager two weeks into a season.  That’s the equivalent of telling me I am not allowed to write for this website anymore because I used a misplaced modifier in my Barry Bonds article last month.  While there is probably a segment of our readers who wouldn’t mind that, the point is that, as the saying goes, overreaction isn’t just a river in Egypt.  

Truth be told, the ignorant fans who want a hard-nosed, ass-kicking, Leo Durocher/Dick Williams-type manager need to wake up.  Those days are long gone, and today’s players (through no real fault of their own; it’s an overall trend in society) do not and will not respond to that old-school style.  Even the foremost symbol of the tough, edgy manager, Lou Piniella, has mellowed quite much from his younger days of throwing bases and swapping spit with umpires.  Lou is still intense, still loves to win, and still demands a lot of his players, but he is no longer a Parcells-esque disciplinarian.  No manager is; it is impossible with today’s dynamics to get away with that.  The Phillies’ Larry Bowa is another example, but he merely proves the point that that style is overrated.  Bowa is a good manager, and Philly fans must love his hard-nosed style, but for many ballplayers, it wears thin.  Notice that Bowa (like any Red Sox managers of the last 18 years) has not been to a World Series as a manager.  So much for kick-ass managing as a solution to players not doing well.  

Many fans in Boston, spoiled by the success of the Patriots and their demigod head coach, Bill Belichick, seem to assume that baseball players are soft, and they need a tough disciplinarian to go in and “show these guys who’s boss.”  This is probably a column for another time, but you cannot compare baseball and football in this regard.  The sports are too dissimilar; it is like comparing apples and Scandinavian midgets.  Francona was reviled for letting Manny Ramirez sit out the last game before the All-Star break (after Manny came to him and told the skipper that his hamstrings were tight and he needed a rest); many callers to WEEI pointed out that if Tedy Bruschi came to Belichick and said he was sore and couldn’t go, Belichick would respond with, roughly, “The hell they’re sore.  You take a cortisone shot, get dressed, and kick some ass for us today.”  They are sorely mistaken.

There is no way Belichick, or Francona, or any professional coach/manager today, can make that call.  As much as you want guys to be tough and play through pain, there is no way that when an athlete comes to his coach and says that he can’t go that day, the coach is going to tell him to get his butt in the training room and get out on that field.  Does that mean that the coach is not going to question the player, or communicate to him the importance of putting team before individual?  Of course not.  But a professional coach who puts a player in a lineup while risking his health is doing a disservice not only to the player but also to the organization that has invested sometimes millions of dollars in him.  

Football is not baseball.  Baseball players play six, seven games a week, over seven or eight months of the year.  Football has one game per week over a 16 week regular season.  Is football a more physical game?  Of course.  But if a linebacker gets banged up on Sunday, he can take his Monday off-day, Tuesday film day, Wednesday practice, Thursday practice, Friday walk-through, and Saturday travel day to recover, and not miss a snap in the next game.  A player’s absence from a baseball lineup is more visible to the fans, since there is more than likely a game the very next day.  What’s more important, a player playing in a July game while hurt, or preserving his long-term health over the course of an entire 162-game season?  As much as you want to win every game, I’d rather have Manny healthy and mashing the ball for a playoff stretch run, then sending him out in July and having his watch from street clothes in September.

I love football, and I love baseball as well.  Both sports present a mental and physical challenge to the athlete, but it is a mistake on the part of fans to assume that what works for one should work for the other.  The system of contracts and union power struggles present a major difference between the two sports, and is exactly why a Bill Parcells, a Tom Coughlin, or a Da Senator Mike Ditka approach wouldn’t work in the major leagues.  Francona, and many players and managers in baseball, are unfairly denigrated by fans who do not clearly understand the differences between the two, and the realities of what managing a baseball team entails.    

Overall, Francona does a good job of balancing the day-to-day desire to win that particular ballgame with the big picture of the marathon that is the baseball season.  Would I like the Sox to show a little more sense of urgency sometimes?  Of course, I’m a Boston fan; we are intense, we love our team, and want to see them win every night.  It’s in our nature, but it’s also unrealistic.  We got spoiled by having our football team win 15 straight games and the Super Bowl; maybe now we expect to win everything.  I have never managed a major league baseball team, so I am content to follow what the manager does, even though I reserve the right to question it.  However, I think I am smart enough not to convince myself that I could do a better job than he can.  Is Terry Francona perfect?  No, of course not.  But who is?  Joe Torre or Tom Kelly’s presence in the dugout this year wouldn’t guarantee a World Series appearance any more than picking up Randy Johnson would guarantee a championship. Questioning Francona, Epstein, the owners, and the players is all part of being a die-hard fan, but let’s try to keep some perspective and not call for the guy to be fired every time he doesn’t give an order to sacrifice bunt with one on and nobody out in the fifth inning.

Now, if he leaves Pedro in too long in the eighth inning of Game 7, though, all bets are off and this entire column is null and void.

By Ryan McGowan    2004