Red Sox fire Terry Francona
This one is tough because I have a few rules. First, I wanted to pick something I’ve been around for. Second, I wanted it to be something that actually hurt the team. It would be great to say they shouldn’t have traded Nomar Garciaparra. If he stayed healthy he would’ve been one of the greatest players ever. He didn’t stay healthy though, and the immediate aftermath to trading him was winning a World Series.
So I’m going with Terry Francona‘s firing. Boston won another World Series shortly after he left. However, they had a year of Bobby Valentine (oh dear lord that was terrible). Then after one great year with John Farrell, there were ups-and-downs. And big ones too.
It looked like the Red Sox found their answer with Alex Cora. Now that’s very uncertain though. Wouldn’t it be great to have the steady hand of Francona still managing the team? The players loved him, the fans loved him and he won games. It’s not hard to imagine Boston still would have won their two World Series rings since he left too, as he definitely isn’t hurting a team.
If Cora was still here, maybe this answer would be different. He might not return though, and having Francona would give fans a lot of reasons to believe. Dustin Pedroia would probably love all those extra Cribbage games too.
-BSI Contributor, Hunter Knoll