04/26/24
December 03, 2003
Duh duh dant dant dunt dant dunt dant dunt dant da duh duh dant dant dunt dant ... My Francona!: The Red Sox will apparently grab the former Phillies manager, passing on (among others) Whitey Herzog, Los Angeles third-base coach Glenn Hoffman, Anaheim bench coach Joe Maddon and Texas first-base coach DeMarlo Hale. Man, there's a group of big names. How say you, RedSocked Nation?
And in further efforts to one-up the Red Sox, the Yankees will announce they are signing Jose Canseco as the official team bus driver.
posted by jerseygirl at 09:06 PM on December 03, 2003
in seriousness? i don't know much about francona except that he wasn't given much to work with during his Philly tenure and well, schilling seems to think the world of him. i trust theo and the trio, and they had all the time in the world to make this choice (unlike the fire-kerrigan-fire-duquette/hire-grady-in-the-middle-of-ST episode), so i am sure they feel confident in tito.
posted by jerseygirl at 09:16 PM on December 03, 2003
I like it. He's got experience managing in a media circus (since he managed Jordan); he also knows what East Coast baseball is like. Philly is a pretty serious sports town. He's spent some time in the A's organization, so it's likely that he appreciates stats in a way that will mesh well with Theo's approach. Schilling likes him, which could be a minus if it drives the pair of them apart from the rest of the team. However, I suspect it's an indication that he can reach difficult players. From all accounts, Schilling can be a tough guy to manage. Tentative thumbs up.
posted by Bryant at 10:16 PM on December 03, 2003
I don't think Francona is anything special but he sure beats the hell out of grady. If he doesn't possess some of Grady's bench-manager like qualities (he was good to have around but just bad at decision making in games) the players may not really like him, but from what I've heard players aside from Schilling like him too.
posted by Bernreuther at 03:46 PM on December 04, 2003
Listening to the press conference today, here's what I learned from his mouth. Basically, he's a player's manager. He's up front, he's honest and he knows he has to deal with players differently. Some can get a "kick in the ass" and others need to be pulled aside and chatted with and he's cool with that. He wants them to police their own clubhouse. He's strict and he wants them to respect the game, respect each other and (gasp) put in effort to be on time and hustle when you leave the batter's box and out in the field. I'll note that the latter half of his methodology (respect the game, ... hustle...) is SO not Manny Ramirez. I still wonder if they are going to keep Manny, having placed someone like Francona at the helm.
posted by jerseygirl at 03:57 PM on December 04, 2003
The Red Sox reportedly have offered a three-year deal worth about $24 million, and Horwits indicated Boston might be more attractive to Foulke with A's bench coach Terry Francona expected to be named manager today. That from this source, which has a bit more info on the possibility of Foulke moving along. Also, how did I miss the Phillies landing Eric Milton?
posted by wfrazerjr at 05:01 PM on December 04, 2003
I went a long way for what in effect is a Knack-Knack joke.