Former Boston Redsox coach, Terry Francona was the latest person featured in ESPN’s E:60 series. Here he sits down with E:60’s Jeremy Schaap to discuss his new book “Francona: The Red Sox Years,” out at bookstores, iTunes and Kindle this Tuesday.
Francona was hired in 2004 after their 2003 heartbreaking ALCS loss to the Yankees as he would become the clubs most successful skipper of all time including ending the “Babe Ruth” curse in 2004 when the team overcame a 0-3 deficit to upset the Yankees in the ALCS then winning the World Series in sweeping fashion against the St. Louis Cardinals.
It had appeared Terry would be a Redsox for life with second World Series victory three years later against the Colorado Rockies but things would change in the years to come.
The more successful Francona became, higher expectations grew upstairs with an expectancy rate of making it to the playoffs every year. After having one of the biggest regular season collapses in MLB history, Boston parted ways with Terry only four years after their second World Series. In his new book he cites the three headed ownership group of Larry Lucchino, John Henry and Tom Werner as the blame for the teams collapse with management problem and outside the game distractions.
A day after the announcement of his firing, the Boston Globe published a controversial article laying the blame on Francona saying he was an addict to pain killers due to an injury in the 80s during his career. In his book, Terry speaks on the leak about his privacy but doesn’t blame the Redsox owners for the leak. In October, the Cleveland Indians hired Francona as their new manager which he’s set to return to the dugout after a year layoff.
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