OBSERVATIONS: Francano Is Better Than Most

By Hal McCoy

UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave as I prepare for vacation. . .and it’s all Greek to me.

—A WHO’S WHO: What do these former great baseball managers have in common: Casey Stengel, Billy Martin, Tommy Lasorda, Whitey Herzog, Lou Piniella, Davey Johnson, Earl Weaver, Buck Showalter, Jim Leyland and Joe Maddon?

Not one of them has as many victories as Terry Francona’s 1,950. . .and soon to be climbing when he begins his tenure with the Cincinnati Reds.

He has the 13th most managerial wins in history and all but two ahead of him are in the Hall of Fame. And the two others, Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker, are headed that way.

If fans wonder about Francona taking a year off before coming back, well, Bochy and Baker both took time off then came back to lead Texas and Houston to World Series victories.

During his 11 seasons with small market Cleveland, Francona compiled nine winning records, took the Indians/Guardians to six playoffs and he won three Manager of the Year awards.

While in Cleveland, he lived in a downtown hotel and rode to and from Progressive Field on a motor scooter. So, fans, when driving in downtown Cincinnati, be careful. It wouldn’t be cool to run over the new skipper of the Reds.

Let’s see, Francona has 1,950 wins as a manager. That’s just 22 wins behind the 1,972 winning games Pete Rose played in.

—QUICK ON THE QUIPS: As we all know, not only was Pete Rose the epitome of baseball hustle and acumen, his sense of humor was off the wall. To wit:

“My son, Pete Jr., was playing for the Long Island Ducks and called me and said, “Dad, can you help me out, I’m 0-for-21,” said Pete.

“I asked him, ‘Why in the hell are you calling me? Call Dave Concepcion. I ain’t never gone 0-for-21.’”

And this one from not too long ago.

“I’ve known Tony Perez for more than 50 years and I love Tony Perez,” he said. “But I talked to him on the phone recently for a half hour and I didn’t understand a damn word he said.

“You know Perez drove in 1,652 runs and he batted behind Johnny Bench,” said Rose. “So he had to drive in Bench. If he was on first he’d score if Perez hit a triple. He couldn’t score from first on a double.

“Bench knew he couldn’t run and I’d tell him that it was all right to carry a piano on his back when he ran, but don’t stop to play it,” said Rose.

Rose was asked what he thought about today’s way of giving every kid who plays in a baseball league a participation trophy.

“Not in my house,” he said. “One year when we won the World Series, a player from the other team came into our clubhouse to congratulate us. What the hell? I couldn’t do that. I’d be sitting in my own clubhouse trying to figure out why we lost.”

—A GOOD DEED: Murray Cook, a great friend who tore me apart on the tennis court, was General Manager of the Montreal Expos in 1984 and takes some credit for Pete Rose landing in Cincinnati. . .and rightfully so.

“He never would have ended up in Cincinnati that year if we had not released him in Montreal,” said Cook. “And he was really po’d at me when we gave him the news. He’s a Hall of Famer for sure, along with Lou Piniella.”

After Montreal released Pete, the Reds signed him right away as player/manager.

Cook? In 1989 he became general manger of the Cincinnati Reds, just in time for the Rose gambling investigation. And he was the GM in 1990 when the Reds went wire-to-wire under Lou Piniella and swept the Oakland A’s in the World Series.

But two years under owner Marge Schott was too much, as it was for anybody under the controversial St. Bernard lover.

—JUST FEED ME: Henry Aaron hit 755 career home runs and his playing weight was a steady 175 pounds, pretty slim for a power hitter.

Asked why he was so slim for a home run hitter, he said, “Making the kind of money I was makin’ back then, it probably was malnutrition.”

—COUNT ‘EM UP: During the fourth game of the New York Giants four-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians in 1954, the Indians had a runner on third with two outs.

A fly ball was hit to center fielder Willie Mays. Mistakenly thinking there were less than two outs, Mays caught the ball and fired it home.

Up in the press box, Cleveland Press baseball writer Frank Gibbons leaped to his feet and shouted, “Finally, we have found Willie’s weakness. He can’t count.”

Yeah, but I’ll bet he could count to 660 — the number of home runs he hit.

—OFF THE CUFF: Some quickies:

No more small market excuses, OK? These are the payrolls for three ‘small market’ teams in this season’s playoffs: Detroit ($98.5 million), Cleveland ($106.7 million), Kansas City ($122.5 million).

The Milwaukee Brewers ($105.8 million) lost two of three to the New York Mets ($305.6 million), but it took an improbable opposite field three-run home run by Pete Alonso in the ninth-inning off usually invincible closer Devin Williams to do it.

It was Alonso’s first opposite-field home run all season.

This one is mind-boggling. From 1995 to 2003, Atlanta Braves pitcher Greg Maddux threw a total of 8,006 called balls to 8,025 batters. That’s only one ball to every batter he faced.

One wonders how many strikes the umpires missed and even more, who took the time to count these?

PLAYLIST NUMBER 101: Yep, we’re into our second century of songs:

Torn Between Two Lovers (Mary McGovern), I Just Want To Be Your Everything (Andy Gibb), Take A Chance On Me (Abba), If You Leave Me Now (Chicago), When I Need You (Leo Sayer), Don’t Give Up On Us (David Sayer), I Feel Love (Donna Summer),

Three Times A Lady (The Commodores), Reunited (Peaches & Herb), We Don’t Talk Any More (Cliff Richards), Kiss And Say Goodbye (The Manhattans), Refugee (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), Please Don’t Go (K.C. & The Sunshine Band).