Terry Francona

Terrence Jon Francona (born April 22, 1959), nicknamed "Tito", is an American former baseball manager and player who was the manager of the Cleveland Indians/Guardians in Major League Baseball (MLB) for eleven seasons.

Previously, he was the manager of the Boston Red Sox for eight seasons, whom he led to two World Series titles, ending the franchise's 86-year championship drought.

Francona was born on April 22, 1959, in Aberdeen, South Dakota, to Tito Francona (1933–2018), who played outfield for several Major League clubs from 1956 to 1970, and Roberta Jackson (1932–1992).

He is of Italian descent.

Francona grew up in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, about 30 mi northwest of Pittsburgh, where he got his start in baseball at New Brighton Area High School.

Francona represented the United States at the 1979 Pan American Games and attended the University of Arizona, where he played college baseball for the Arizona Wildcats baseball team.

Francona and the Arizona Wildcats won the 1980 College World Series and Francona was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Francona won the 1980 Golden Spikes Award.

Francona was drafted in the first round of the 1980 amateur draft by the Montreal Expos, using the 22nd overall selection.

After briefly playing in the minor leagues, Francona made his major league debut with Montreal on August 19, 1981, a week after the end of that summer's player strike.

He appeared mainly as an outfielder that first year, and he went 4-for-12 in the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, an extra playoff round utilized that year because the season was conducted in two halves as the result of the strike.

The Expos won that series, three games to two.

As the seasons went on, Francona shifted to first base, where he ultimately played one hundred games more than he had in the outfield.

He also developed a reputation as a contact hitter, with very few home runs, walks, or strikeouts.

The Expos released Francona after the 1985 season, during which his batting average had slipped to .267 after posting a .346 average in limited action in 1984.

He went on to sign one-year contracts with the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, and Milwaukee Brewers.

He also made an appearance as a pitcher with Milwaukee on May 15, 1989, late in a game that the Brewers lost 12–2; he threw 12 pitches and struck out one batter (Stan Javier) on three pitches.

After retiring as a player, Francona began coaching, spending several years in the Chicago White Sox organization.

The Brewers re-signed Francona for 1990, but he only played in three games for the Brewers that year, the last on April 19.

In 10 seasons and 708 games, he posted a .274 career average, with 16 home runs and 143 RBI.

In 1991, he managed the rookie league Sarasota White Sox of the Gulf Coast League.

In 1992, he ran the South Bend White Sox of the mid-level Class A Midwest League.

As manager of the AA franchise Birmingham Barons in 1993–95, he posted a 223–203 record and won two distinctions: Southern League Manager of the Year in 1993, Baseball America's Minor League Manager of the Year in 1993, and top managerial candidate by Baseball America in 1994, the same year Michael Jordan played for Birmingham.

Birmingham won the Southern League championship in 1993.

He managed in the Dominican Winter League with the Águilas Cibaeñas, and he also won the championship and the Serie del Caribe in 1995–96.

That team included Miguel Tejada, Manny Ramirez, and Tony Batista.

Francona became third-base coach for the Detroit Tigers in 1996, working under their new skipper, Buddy Bell, a former teammate of Francona on the Reds.

After the 1996 season ended, he was hired as manager of the Phillies, who had won the NL pennant in 1993 but then had three consecutive losing seasons.

In Francona's four seasons (1997–2000) as the Phils' skipper, the club never rose above third place in the National League East.

In 1998 and 1999, the Phillies finished in third place, behind the Atlanta Braves and their division-rival New York Mets.

His best finish with the Phillies was 77–85 in 1999.

He was fired following the 2000 campaign.

He finished with a 285–363 record.

He spent the following season as a special assistant to the general manager with the Cleveland Indians in 2001, which was followed by two one-year terms as a bench coach for the Texas Rangers (2002) and Oakland Athletics (2003).

After a four-year stint as the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, Francona was hired to manage the Red Sox in 2004 and led the team to their first championship since 1918.

The Red Sox hired Francona to manage their club in 2004, after Grady Little's contract was not renewed following the Red Sox loss in the 2003 American League Championship Series.

Francona led the Red Sox to a 98–64 record in 2004, the second-best record in the American League behind their biggest rival, the New York Yankees.

The club gelled in the second half and won more games than any other team in the American League after the All-Star break.

He won another World Series with Boston in 2007 and continued to manage the team until the end of the 2011 season.

In 2013, Francona became the Cleveland Indians’ manager, leading them to an American League pennant in 2016, a 22-game win streak during the 2017 season (the longest in American League history and the second-longest in MLB history), and became the Indians/Guardians all-time leader in wins by a manager.