Observations: Francona Still Learning His Team’s Capabilities

By Hal McCoy

UNSOLICITED OBSERVATONS from The Man Cave and with baseball finally under way I’ll steal a line from Roger Angell, baseball’s William Shakespeare: “Baseball is not life or death, but the Cincinnati Reds are.”

—TITO TALK: As a new manager, Terry Francona kept his eyes and ears focuesd on his team, trying to figure out the ins and outs of his roster.

The other teams? Not so much.

Before the start of the three-game series with San Francisco, a Bay Area writer asked him if he had any sense of the Giants and how they might shape up.

“You know what? No,” he said. “I’ve certainly tried to do my homework the last couple of days. I have a tough enough time trying to figure out our own team during spring training, let alone somebody else’s.

“I know they really pitched, like all spring,” he added. “But when the bell rings, you just never know with anybody, ourselves included.”

The writer persisted and said of this afternoon’s San Francisco starter, “You’ve seen Justin Verlander over the years. . .”

“Too much,” he shot back quickly about the 42-year-old righthander. “People I know and respect talk about his work ethic and the way he goes about his business, it is probably not surprising.

“If he wants to do it (pitch three more years). . .well, because I’ve heard about his impeccable habits, so there is a reason he is still doing it.”

Francona and the Reds get to check out Verlander’s impeccability late this afternoon.

As for Francona’s impeccability, praise keeps coming from all quarters and all corners.

Former MLB general manager Dan O’Dowd said, “Terry Francona has an effect on a team that you can’t quantify with analytics.”

But he picked the Reds to finish third behind the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers with a 77-85 record.

—LISTEN TO THE MAN: During his years managing Philadelphia, Boston and Cleveland, Terry Francona has worked with a myriad of great baseball players.

So it is eye-popping to hear the ultra-positive things he keeps saying about Elly De La Cruz, like this: “Elly is getting better. There might not be a ceiling with this kid. He does everything. As young players mature, they become more consistent. That’s what we’re seeing with Elly.”

Brian Kenny, MLB-TV’s Mr. Analytics, believes De La Cruz is already there. He predicted that Mr. Electricity will win this season’s National League MVP.

De La Cruz is already an MVP — Most Vibrant Player and Most Versatile Player. Kenny, though, means Most Valuable Player.

Could happen. A poll of MLB players made LA’S
Shohei Ohtani a landslide choice, Juan Soto of the New York Mets was second and De La Cruz was third.

Spring training stats are meaningless, of course, but if you check De La Cruz’s Book of Statistics, he was a ‘Sultan of Swat.’

He hit .400 in 44 at bats with four home runs, four doubles, 12 RBI, 14 runs, 10 walks and 12 strikeouts. His onbase percentage was .519, his slugging percentage was .775 and his OPS was 1.292.

—THIRD AND LONG: Many teams have their pitchers throwing footballs in the outfield before games, something Texas pitching coach Tom House instituted in 1984.

Pitcher Charlie Hough was asked if throwing a football helped the pitchers and he said, “I don’t know, but we lead the league in third down conversions.”

—CHEERS TO SUDDEN SAM: Remeber ‘Cheers,’ one of the all-time best comedy sit-coms? Ted Danson played a character named Mayday Malone, a former major league pitcher whose career was cut short by alcoholism.

The show’s writers acknowledged that Danson’s characterf was patterned after Sudden Sam McDowell, the Cleveland Indians pitcher whose career was cut short by alcoholism.

Many baseball experts said McDowell could have been as good as Sandy Koufax, but he couldn’t beat Demon Rum.

McDowell turned his life around by abstaining and became a well-known counsellor for people locked inside a gin or vodka bottle.

And McDowell has an interesting perspective on the game.

“When I arrived in the major leagues in 1961, baseball was the national pastime,” he said

“When I drank my way out of the sport in 1975, it still was. In fact, many believe the game reached its peak in popularity that year, greatly because of the tremendous World Series between the Reds and Red Sox.

“That’s because it featured so many memorable moments, including Carlton Fisk’s home run to end Game 6.”

Excellent point, Sam, and don’t forget it was the maturation point for The Big Red Machine.

—THE – – – – DIANS: To me, they are still the Cleveland Indians, and political correctness be damned.

The Cleveland franchise waded through a number of nicknames — Blues, Spiders Broncos, Naps.

In 1897, Cleveland signed Native American Louis Sockalexis, nicknamed ‘Deerfoot of the Diamond.’ In the next couple of years, Cleveland signed two more Native Americans, the only MLB team with Native Americans.

So, in 1915, to honor Sockalexis and the other to, the franchise became the Cleveland Indians. And it stayed that way until 2022 when the franchise buckled under some pressure.

They renamed the team the Guardians after a couple of gargoyles on a bridge outside the ballpark.

Question. Why does the Pittsburgh team get to keep Pirates as their its nickname? Don’t Pirates rape and pillage? And don’t get me started on the Atlanta Braves.

—THE BIG SCOOP: Babe Ruth was near midnight of his career in 1934 and proposed to the New York Yankees that he be their player/manager in 1935. The Yankees said no.

The Yankees didn’t make the World Series in 1934 and one of the seven New York daily newspapers hired The Bambino to be its World Series correspondents.

The World Series was between St. Louis and Detroit. When the Series moved from Detroit to St. Louis, Ruth and all the other writers were on a train platform in Detroit when Ruth was asked, “Are you returning to the Yankees next season?”

Said Ruth, “No, I woudn’t go back there if they offered me Yankee Stadium.”

All the writers scrambled to send that story to their newspapers. . .all but one. The New York Journal American’s correspondent was a neophyte reporter and he didn’t see the value of the story.

That writer was Babe Ruth.

—THE AD MAN: Koby Brea can be seen doing TV commercials in a University of Kentucky basketball uniform.

The former University of Dayton star also can be seen wearing that UK uniform launching deadly three-pointers.

“Growing up, I was told I was dreaming too big whenever I’d say my dream was to play for the University of Kentucky,” said Brea. “God has put me in a position to play for my dream school in my lst year of college.”

Oh, yeah. . .God and $1.2 million. Go green, er, blue.

—WHO’S HE: It is well-known that Jesse Owens won four Gold Medals in the 1936 Olympics in Munich, Germany, including the 200-meter dash.

Nobody remembers, or knows, who finished second in the 200 meters, finishing 0:00.4 seconds behind Owens.

It was another black American, a guy named Mack Robinson and went home and worked as a janitor in an all-white school.

Do you know who his younger brother was? It was Jackie Robinson.

—ANOTHER UECKER-ISM: From catcher/broadcaster Bob Uecker: “I hit a home run off Gaylord Perry and he said it was the worst day of his life. . .not just his baseball life, his whole life. I hit a grand slam off Ron Herbel and his manager, Herman Franks, walked to the mound carrying Herbel’s suitcase,”

—PLAYLIST NUMBER 156: From The Boss, Bruce Springsteen: “The best music is essentially there to provide something to face the world with.”

I’ve Got You Under My Skin (Four Seasons), Working My Way Back To You, Babe (Four Tops), Roll Over, Beethoven (Chuck Berry), Rose Garden (Lynn Anderson), What Is Life? (George Harrison), One Toke Over The Line (Brewer & Shipley.

Operator (Jim Croce), Day After Day (Badfinger), Small Town Girl (Scotty McGreery), She’s About A Mover (Sir Douglas Quintet), Keep Searchin’ (Del Shannon), The Race Is On (Jack Jones), Goldfinger (Shirley Bassey), Laugh At Me (Sonny Bono), Forever In Blue Jeans (Neil Diamond).