GOODYEAR, Ariz. — How wonderful it must be for Terry Francona to feel baseball’s warm embrace again. To wake up and drive to a ball field again, pull on a pair of baseball pants again, have his own team — the Reds, this time — to manage again.
The game is in Francona’s bones, in his soul, imprinted on his brain. Coming out of retirement this offseason to shoot his shot in the National League Central must be pure bliss.
“Just to be really honest, at 4:30 in the morning, it doesn’t feel too [bleeping] good,” Francona said.
See? One of the best, funniest and most colorful managers of the 2000s is right back in his element, his signature dryness already in full bloom.
“I’m getting used to getting up early and getting going,” the 65-year-old said. “But it’s funny because [before] I signed with the Reds, I could get up whenever I wanted and my biggest decision was do I have a second cup of coffee or not before I do the crossword puzzle? …
“But my mind [is] back into baseball, and it kind of feels good. I love coming to the ballpark. There’s no place on this earth I’m more comfortable. I think that’s why I enjoy talking to players, because this is my home, man. I grew up in this place. It’s all I know.”
Sometime in the not-too-distant future, the Hall of Fame will welcome Francona, who guided the Red Sox to World Series championships in 2004 and 2007 and is only 50 wins shy of becoming the 13th major league manager with 2,000 of them. His 1,950 managerial wins is tops among the NL’s active skippers and the most in the majors next to the Rangers’ Bruce Bochy, whose 2,171 ranks eighth all-time.
But before making any plans for Cooperstown, Francona will take aim at the Cubs beginning immediately.
The division favorites? The Cubs. The division’s top payroll? The Cubs. The game’s highest-paid manager ever? The Cubs’ Craig Counsell.
All that and 10 bucks will get the Cubs an Italian beef at the Portillo’s a mile and a half west of Sloan Park, just beyond the Mesa border in Tempe.
At Reds camp, the hope and expectation is that Francona — on a three-year deal, with a club option for a fourth — will bring out the best in a young, talented roster and take advantage of a division in which no team is remotely close to going for the jugular à la the huge-spending Dodgers, Mets and Phillies.
And in case anyone can’t picture what that looks like, consider the American League Central throughout Francona’s 11 seasons in Cleveland, the last of which was in 2023. His teams won four division titles, posted nine winning records and, oh, by the way, finished below the White Sox in the standings a grand total of once. Why, again, did the Sox hire inexperienced Robin Ventura instead of the available Francona going into 2012?
Francona finished one win short of a third World Series title, in 2016, but you knew that already.
“Obviously, I would’ve liked to have won,” he said. “That’s stating the obvious.”
A visitor asked Francona if he was surprised the young Cubs core that ended a curse in Cleveland didn’t end up winning bigger together or, to this day, faring better individually.
“I couldn’t give a [bleep] where guys from the Cubs went,” he said. “They got a parade. They were happy.”
Francona has much to be happy about these days himself, the most important thing being that his strength and vigor are up after a restful year-plus during which he addressed various ongoing health issues. A shoulder replacement and double hernia surgery were pieces of that puzzle.
“I needed to be away from the game,” he said, “and when you say that, when you know it yourself, you’re probably a little late. I really needed it. Physically, I was so beat up that it starts to become mental and it wears on you. You become short on patience and things like that. Those are not good attributes for a manager. So I think I’m situated now where I can do the job the way you’re supposed to, the way I want to.”
The building blocks are exciting. Hunter Greene, only 25, is a fireballing, electrifying staff ace. In shortstop Elly De La Cruz, Francona has maybe the most physically talented player he has ever managed — unless one counts Michael Jordan with the White Sox’ Double-A Birmingham (Ala.) squad in 1994.
One afternoon last week, Francona was delighted when De La Cruz popped into his office for what turned into a 20-minute chat before both called it a day. The 23-year-old Dominican practiced his English while, in appreciation of that, his old skipper worked on his Spanish, as is their deal for the year. “Nunca te rindas” — never give up — Francona typed into his phone so he wouldn’t forget.
Francona isn’t much for the newfangled terminology that permeates baseball. He simply tells his superstar, “I want you to be the best player in baseball on the best team in baseball.”
And what he has told his fast, athletic, team is, “Play with your pants on fire, but be intelligent.”
It’s the kind of clear, straightforward messaging for which Francona is known. There’s no BS with him and never has been.
“I told [the Reds], ‘If I come, I’m all in,’ ” he said. “That’s the only way I know how to do it. When the season’s over, I’ll turn my motor off and collapse. But until then? Let’s go.”