By Billy Cunningham, the Great America and there's a new aircraft carrier in town.
His name is Terry Francona. He played for the Reds in nineteen eighty seven. He's been a.
Manager of the Year three times. He also has two World Series rings, three pennants, eleven playoff appearances. He's managed about three thousand, six hundred games, and for some reason he wants again to come out more or less of retirement and coach Baseball's I think best town for baseball and its oldest team that is the Cincinnati Resident Terry Francona. Welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show, and Terry, can you tell the American people?
First of all, why are you doing this?
Well? Thanks for having me. That's kind of a loaded question. You know. I needed to take a step away from baseball because I was just so beat up and I really thought I was retiring. I didn't have the intent to come back, and it was a really good year away from baseball. But as I got healthy and then Nick and Brad came out to Tucson to talk to me, it just felt right, and I think I made a
really good decision. But there's a way I think you do this job, and to do it right, you got to have a certain amount of energy, and I didn't have that before. And these guys have been good for me this spring. I've felt pretty reinvigorated and I'm having a good time.
You know, when I look at your medical history, it's unbelievable. At least fifty surgeries, you have two new knees, two new hips, other difficulties, all of which now is short. You're like the bionic man. You're the six million dollar manager. It's unbelievable that you're doing this. And I harken back to other times in the Red's history. I know you've managed the Phillies and the Red Sox and the Indians,
the Guardians and now the Reds. But in nineteen seventy there was a manager named Dave Bristol and Red's management management decided to get a new guy in town, and that guy with Sparky Anderson and went to the World Series that year. About twenty years later, we went through the Pete Rose situation, and we all love Pete Rose in this town, and you played for him in nineteen eighty seven, and after that we got a new manager, Lou Panella went to the World Series and won it.
So here's history repeating itself. New Manager World Series, New Manager World Series Champion, New Manager World Series Champion.
What is the goal?
If somebody would tap you on the shoulder, Terry frank Cone and say what is the goal for the twenty twenty five Reds, what would Terry say?
I think it's always the same is show up every day ready to compete your ass off. That's how I always feel, because you don't know what's going to happen with guys going down. But if we show up and we play the game the way you're supposed to, I always feel like we'll end up what we're supposed to. And we obviously have high expectations we're supposed to, but I don't ever put the card to ahead of the horse.
I just try to, you know, we stay in a moment, play as good as we can today, and then show up tomorrow and see what we can play a little better.
Are you an analytics kind of a guy? At one point I couldn't spell analytics. And right now, if the Reds are pitching and there's a batter up and there's two to one, if it counts two and one he hits two ten against the curveball, three ten against the fastball, and you got the nine quadrants of a home play. Are you, as Terry Francona analytics or do you do by the seat of your pants.
I don't do it by the seat of my pants. I don't think that's fair to anybody. But the way I like to say it is, I feel an obligation to know stuff because I don't want to guess. But you're dealing with people and you never can forget that. And I feel like I, you know, I've been in the game, I think forty six years. I feel like I know what I'm watching. And again, it helps to get information. I think you can get bogged down with information if you lay yourself as.
Far as one thing, Michael Jordan. You managed Michael Jordan, the greatest of all time in basketball in nineteen ninety four with the Birmingham Barons, and then you were managed by Pete Rose. And when I think about basketball, I think about the passion, the perseverance of Michael Jordan. Then I think about Pete Rose, I beloved character. Is there some connection in your mind between Michael Jordan and Pete Rose?
How they're conducted themselves.
I've told a lot of people that the very similar personalities where if you tell them no, they're going to find the They're going to find a way to make the answer be yes. You know, they're just so driven. I mean, most people that get to this level are driven. But then there's a few and you just named two of them that take it to the anth degree and that is Michael and Pete both.
Well, how did you handle Michael Jordan?
Because I saw some of the thirty by thirty stuff and you're in it. You if he stuck with baseball, would he have made to the major leagues? Of course, the owner of the White Sox wanted him to go and playing Comiskey Park. Can you imagine Michael Jordan in a White Sox uniform and chmisky?
What was he? A major league baseball talent? Michael Jordan.
What I've told people is it wasn't fair to judge until he got about a thousand at bats. But he could do some things. Now, I mean he stole thirty bases, you know, he he could do some things that a lot of prospects, you know, you need to do. He just hadn't played in so long. But I also, like I said, I found out if you told him no, he'd find a way to make the answer be yes. So do I think he'd have found his way to major leagues? Yeah? I do. What do you have been
an everyday player? I don't know he had more developing to do, but I knew he was so respectful to the game of baseball. He made it really easy to be patient with him, and that was what I appreciated.
As far as your year with the Reds in nineteen eighty seven, your manager was Pete Rose.
What did you learn about baseball from Pete Rose?
Well, I played with Pete and eighty four in Montreal, and I tell a lot of people I've probably learned more playing cards with Pete about baseball than I did from a lot of other people. He just, you know, the game was in slow motion for him. And I know Pete brought me over here in eighty seven and I felt like I really let him down because I just I just didn't hit. I mean, I got some hits opening day and then it just went south, and I felt like I let him down and that killed me.
Oh, you bat it two twenty seven for the Reds. You were twenty eight years old, pretty good team, and I think largely that same team three years later with Lou Penella won. What was the difference between the eighty seven eighty eighty nine Reds with Pete Rose that didn't win and then a new a breath of fresh air arrived. I saw this interview that Barry Larkin conducted about you, the great number eleven Hall of Famer. You're going to be a Hall of Famer. I pray to God Lou
Panella becomes a Hall of Famer. But Barry Larkin said, after the Pete Rose situation in August September of eighty nine was resolved and spring training started, he said, there was a breath of fresh air that we needed that we thought we were better than our record indicated. In fact, in eighty one the Reds had a losing record. The next year they went to the World Series. And so how do you relate to the Reds team and Reds fans now saying this is a team that can win,
it should win. It hasn't won. We can't go why it hasn't won in the past, but why will it win this year? And are you the breath of fresh air, the Reds and the baseball's oldest franchise, knees. I'm so excited about this, I can't stand it. Are you the breath of fresh air?
I don't know if I've ever been called that. You know, I'm not here to try to piss anybody off. I think we all like to feel like we can make a difference, and we're certainly going to try. But I don't think I need to go make any proclamations. Like I said, I want us to show up and play our rear ends off every day, and if we do that, I always feel like we're going to figure it out. That's how I've always felt and I will continue to
do that. And this is a good group. This is a fun group, and it's a group that's going to get better. We're not the finished product. That doesn't mean we can't win, but I think it means we'll get better.
Let's say it's about seven pm on opening Day and the Reds are winning two to one. You look down to the look out to the bullpen. Used to be down to the bullman. You look out to the bullpen, and you got Rogers, you got Barlow. You don't have Alexis Das. Who does Terry Francona come in to nail down to win two to one victory and the ninth ending about seven o'clock on opening day, who do you bring in?
Well, I hope we're in that situation. It's a lot of it's going to depend on how we get there. You know, we're gonna have to mix the match a little bit. And I've already talked to the bullpen guys and I've talked a little bit more. But you know, we'll see again. It depends on how long our starter goes, how many guys who went through, But we'll figure it out. And I guarantee you somebody to be out there. And like I said, though, it just depends who we use. Leading up to that, how.
Would you say, Ladella Cruz, you're catching him in a second full year.
We're just so excited about him.
He could become the face of baseball and you now spent about twenty five thirty games. So with the Elladella Cruz, what kind of character is he and what does he bring to the table for the Reds in twenty.
Twenty five, Well, it brings everything to the table. I think that's why everybody you know likes him so much. Everybody wants to get a piece ofthing. And he's a great kid to boot. He plays the game right, he plays with passion, and he's only going to get better because he wants to. And you know that we're getting him in it. We're getting a lot of our guys at a good time where they've got a year or
two under their belt. You know, they start to understand they don't just belong, but maybe they can thrive and compete because there's a difference, and I hope we'll get them at that time.
In fact, you've been in baseball. I mean, your dad was in baseball fifteen years. You grew up in major league locker rooms. You've been there. You talk about in baseball forty some years. You've probably been in baseball sixty some years. If you take your time in various locker rooms and from that, give me the one or two big changes you've seen in baseball just inside the locker room in the past thirty or forty years. Used to be you had a player and you knew they had him.
But now little bit of romance has to go on. You have to make sure the players want to stay in. Cincinnati's a fabulous place to play because you're gonna you're gonna learn an opening day how important this is. But how's baseball changed the last thirty or forty years?
Uh? In your mind, well, there's been a lot of changes. I mean one of the things, like you said in the locker room is we used to sit after games and you know, we played cards and drink beer, and now you can't do that. You know, life times have changed, and I get it, but it takes some of the some of the fun away. The game, though, is still baseball, and I firmly believe, regardless of how much money you guys are making or free agency, if you can get
your players to play baseball, you got a chance. And that's what we're going to try to do.
Terry Farrek Kona. Do you feel like you're born again? Because the article is written about you, and uh, it feels like after you went through your health difficulties now came out the other side. And the involvement Marty Brownman was key to this. Do you feel like You're born again?
I don't know if I'd go that far. I am excited, you know, I gonna have to keep an eye on myself because I'm not a young pupp and you know, I've had a lot going on, but I get up and swim every day because I want to be a good manager. I want to have, you know, energy for these guys, and I try to keep my button on all day and then when I go home, I just collapse.
Well, Terry, you're the best.
I think you walk in the shoes of Sparky Anderson and Louke Panela in the sense that you're a lifer in baseball and you've come here and we're just honored to have you in Cincinnati after the year off. When this thing when Marty the story about Marty Brenneman just briefly tell me that Marty brennan connection that you had to get this job.
Well, I mean when I was here as a player, Marty and Nuxy, Joey, they were so good to be and some people in this game he just remain friends with, and me and Marty have have been friends ever since. And he reached out to me earlier this year, and next thing, you know, Nick and Brad are find out the Tucson and like I said, it just felt right. And I mean I know what kind of baseball town this can be. You know, I saw it firsthand and we got it. We got we got some baseball to play.
But if we do, these people will be excited.
Lastly, would you like to enter the Hall of Fame in a few years with Pete Rose?
In memory of Pete?
I'll never I can talk about Pete. I'll never talk about myself in that vein. I don't think that's healthy for any for a manager. With a manager, it's got to be about the players. It can never be about yourself. And when it becomes about you, I get really uncomfortable.
May fourteenth is Pete Rose Day. Whether there'll be a tear in your eye for Pete, I don't know.
If I'll cry, I'll be touched. I mean I love the guy. Like I said, I played with him and for him, and I loved him to death. And I will be one of the proudest people out there. I guarantee it.
Terry frank ConA, may you live long and prosper when about a hundred games and take the Reds of the World Series where they belong. Between nineteen seventy five and nineteen ninety, the Reds were champions in the World Series twenty percent of the time, think of twenty percent of the time. Between nineteen seventy five and nineteen ninety the Reds were the World Series champion. Since then, the last
thirty five years have been more difficult. And I think you're the Moses that may lead us into the Promised Land. And Terry Francona, once again, thank you for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show.
Thank you, Terry.
All right, Bill and Joy Man.
Thanks God bless America. Let's continue with more. That's Terry Francona Unplugged on News Radio seven hundred WLW