Terry Francona started the decade out but didn’t gather any World Series trophies. With Francona, it is best to get the bad news on the managerial table and that is the 2011 season or a season with a September that lives in Red Sox infamy. A September when the team went 7-21 and took a playoff lock and blew it all away.
The mere mention of the combination of beer and chicken that supposedly started during the 2010 season and continued into 2011. A party atmosphere by a few star pitchers while the playoff hopes dissolved.,
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Francona had won two World Series, but only blanks since 2007 culminating in the Great Collapse. Francona was in a perfect storm of personal issues with marital difficulties, physical issues, and possible addiction issues with pain medications. The Red Sox didn’t fire, can dismiss or any other euphemism for leaving, but one that was mutual with ownership. Just a simple exercising a buyout option. I will leave off the sarcasm meter on that one.
Francona was as industrious a manager as one will find since he grew up around the game thanks to his father Tito Francona’s extensive major league career. The junior Francona honed skills as a player, minor league manager, coach, and as a manager with the Phillies where he met the fate most do – fired.
Francona was what is noted as a players manager with the ability to insulate players and distractions in the notorious Boston baseball environment. A skill that should be key to the required list of positive traits in Boston. Francona left Boston with the best winning percentage of any team manager with 500 games (.574). But the time had come and the replacement would make Francona or even Pinky Higgins look good.