Reds’ Terry Francona – Best Manager in the NL Central? – Goal on Cubs, Division Crown

Goodyear, ariz. – How wonderful it must be for Terry Francona to feel the warm hug of the baseball again. To wake up again and go back to a ball field, put on baseball trousers again, you have your own team – the red, this time – to manage again.

The game is in Francona’s bones in his soul, which is characterized on his brain. Retirement in this low season to turn his shot in the National League Central must be purely bliss.

“To be really honest, at 4:30 a.m., it doesn’t feel too good (how),” said Francona.

See? One of the best, funniest and colorful managers of the 2000s is again in his element, his characteristic drought is already in full bloom.

“I get used to getting up early and going,” said the 65-year-old. “But it’s funny because I (previously) signed with the red. I could get up whenever I wanted and my biggest decision was that I had a second cup of coffee or not before I did the crossword puzzle? . . .

“But my mind is back in baseball and it feels good. I love to come to the baseball stadium. There is no place on earth. I feel more comfortable. I think that’s why I like to speak to players because this is my home, man. I grew up in this place. It’s all I know. “

At some point in the not too distant future, the Hall of Fame Francona will welcome the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007 to World Series Championships and is only 50 victories as a 13th Major League manager with 2,000 of them. His 1,950 management victories are the best skipper of the NL and most in the majors next to the Bruce Bochy of the Rangers, whose 2,171 eighth of all time is.

Before Francona makes plans for Cooperstown, he will immediately aim to start the cubs immediately.

The Favorite Division? The Cubs. The top salary statement of the division? The Cubs. The highest paid manager of the game ever? The Craig Consell of the Cubs.

All of this and $ 10, the Cubs will bring an Italian beef in the 1½ miles western Sloan Park of the Portillo directly behind the Mesa border.

In the Reds Camp, the hope and expectation that Francona will get out in a three-year contract with a club option for a fourth-the best in a young, talented squad and use a division in which no team from a distance is from a distance The distance near the carotill for the huge Dodgers, Mets and Phillies.

And in the event that someone cannot imagine what it looks like, look at the American League Central in the eleven seasons of Francona in Cleveland, the last of which was in 2023. Way, below the white SOX in the overall ranking once. Why did the SOX again indented inexperienced Robin Ventura instead of the available Francona in Francona 2012?

Francona ended a victory in 2016 by a title of the third World Series, but they already knew that.

“Obviously I would have liked to win,” he said. “That means the obvious.”

A visitor asked Francona whether he was surprised that the young Cubs core was surprised, who ended a curse in Cleveland, which no longer gained together or was better off to this day.

“I couldn’t give anyone (beep) where boys went out of the cubs,” he said. “You have a parade. They were happy. “

Francona has a lot of happy to be happy these days. The most important thing is that after a relaxing year, its strength and strength have been addressed more than more than more than more than more about various continuous health problems. A shoulder replacement and double hernia surgery were parts of this puzzle.

“I didn’t have to be away from the game,” he said, “and if you say that if you know it yourself, you are probably a little late. I really needed it. Physically, I was so beaten up that it becomes mentally and wearing it on you. They are not in patience and similar things. These are not good attributes for a manager. I think I’m now where I can do the job as they should, as I want. “

The building blocks are exciting. Hunter Greene, only 25, is a fireball -an ass, electrifying staff. In Shortstop Elly de la Cruz, Francona may have the physically talented player, whom he has ever done-unless Michael Jordan is counted with the Double A squad from White Sox 1994.

One in the afternoon last week, Francona was enthusiastic when de la Cruz dived into his office to convert a 20-minute chat before both called it a day. The 23-year-old Dominican practiced his English, while his old skipper worked on his Spaniard on his contract for the year. “Nunca Te Rindas” – never give up – Francona wrote on his phone so that he would not forget it.

Francona is not much for curious terminology that penetrates baseball. He just says to his superstar: “I want you to be the best playback player in the best team in baseball.”

And what he told his fast, sporty team is: “Play with your flames with your pants, but be intelligent.”

It is the kind of clear, uncomplicated messaging for which Francona is known. There are no BS with him and was never.

“I said (the red):” When I come, I am in everything, “he said.” Only in this way I know how to do it. If the season is over, I will switch off and collapse my engine. But until then? Let’s go. “