It has been several years since I saw Francona in person — and he saw me — and it has been since the COVID-19 pandemic since I traipsed the passageways of Great American Ball Park.
Things change. Time marches on and the media march to the press box is a couple of hundred extra steps from when I last appeared.
The press box used to be directly behind home plate, but the marketing department wised up, realized that area was prime real estate, perfect for a money-making private suite.
So they moved the press box down the left field line and if I stretch just a tad I can touch the left field foul/fair pole.
Don’t get me wrong. No complaints. I still get in free, even if I need Naval binoculars to locate home plate.
After the game, though, the media must thread its ways through the departing crowd to get to the clubhouse. On my way there I tried to walk through a red rope and then knocked over a wheelchair. Fortunately, nobody was in it.
When I entered the clubhouse before the game, the first person I met was Rick Stowe, who has been the clubhouse attendant/manager since they put mustard, onions and meat sauce on hot dogs and called them coneys.
He saw me and embarrassed me by screaming, “Hal McCoy! Reds Royalty. Make way everybody, royalty coming through.”
The most refreshing change is the man sitting in the manager’s chair. Former manager David Bell was a nice man, but his scrums with the media were dull, boring and monotonous.
Prying good quotes from Bell was like expecting an answer from the Liberty Bell. He was miscast.
Francona is amiable, humorous and enlightening, a man of many words, nearly all quotable.
When he sat down for his media meeting before the Opening Day game against the San Francisco Giants, he was asked how he slept the night before his Cincinnati managerial debut.
“Not the best,” he said. “Woke up about 2 a.m., one of my (teeth) veneers ... I think I chewed out. I woke up about six because I thought the trainer could get me in (to a dentist).
“He called me about eight and said, ‘You are all set,’” he added. “So I went out to wherever I was, got it fixed, and now I’m ready to go. I didn’t want to go through Opening Day looking like Jethro Bodine. I got it fixed.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Then the game. As it turned out, the dentist’s chair was more comfortable than the dugout became in the ninth inning.
With closer Alexis Diaz on the injured list, Francona chose Ian Gibaut to protect a 3-2 lead in the ninth. On this day, it was a wrong choice, a bad choice.
Gibaut was one out away from acquiring the save, but gave up a game-tying single to Patrick Bailey and a bone-crushing three-run home run to Wilmer Flores that led to a 6-4 San Francisco win.
Francona didn’t say it, but looking like Jethro Bodine from the old ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ wouldn’t fit with his title of the 16th best-looking manager in the major leagues.
“That was the single worst day of my life, my baseball life when that (2017 article) came out,” he said. “A couple of days after that came out, they got T-shirts made up. I walked into our morning meeting and everybody had ‘em on.
“I don’t know who the hell did that, but I think the judges were like Helen Keller and Ray Charles,” he said.
The opener may have superseded that worst day in baseball because Francona wanted desperately to win his first game in Cincinnati.
Francona, on a serious note, said for him spring training was not about numbers, it was about getting to know his personnel — what they can do, what they can’t do.
“It is good to know who you are,” he said. “We just can’t throw our bats and balls out there and think we’re gonna win. We’re gonna have to scrap our ass off. And that’s OK, I enjoy that. As long as we know who we are, we’ll be OK.”
As it turned out, Thursday was another get acquainted day.
Francona’s mantra is doing things the right way and when asked how many times this spring he said, “The right way,” he said, “I don’t know, but probably a lot.”
And the Reds did everything right, right up until that fatal pitch to Flores.
Was Opening Day in Philadelphia, Boston or Cleveland any different from Opening Day in Cincinnati?
“We haven’t even had it yet,” he said before the game. “I don’t know. I hope we win. That’ll never change, regardless of how old I am.”
He’ll have to wait through an off day Friday before he gets another chance Saturday for his first win in a Reds uniform.
“I like coming to the ballpark every day,” he added. “Actually, sometimes more than Opening Day, because there is so much on the periphery on Opening Day.
“I think every day is special. It can be June 30. I just like coming to the ballpark and doing my routine, making out the lineup, getting ready for game,” he said. “I was glad I didn’t last year, because I needed to get away.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Francona resigned as manager of the Cleveland Indians after the 2023 season for health reasons. It recharged his baseball batteries and when the Reds called, he was ready.
“I didn’t need to come back and manage,” he said. “It felt right. I compare it a lot to 12 years ago when I went to Cleveland. People asked, ‘Why is he going to Cleveland?’
“Well, I thought it was right ... and it was,” he added. “I feel the same way here, with people I respect and enjoy.
“This doesn’t mean we’re not going to get challenged. I’m looking forward to seeing this group. We’re not a finished product, we know that. But we’re working towards that.”
The challenge Thursday surfaced late and surfaced suddenly, a misfortunate finish.
It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it. And if anybody can, Tito can.
And he handled it straight out of the current day Manager’s Manual on Opening Day — Five and Fly for the starting pitcher and an inning apiece for the parade from the bullpen.
Starter Hunter Greene went five and gave up two runs, three hits, walked one and struck out eight.
The next three were one-inning carbon copies — no hits, no walks and two strikeouts each by Scott Barlow, Emilio Pagan and Tony Santillan. The monotony was brilliant.
But bringing in Gibaut turned out to be fatal.
About the Author