Francona reveals surgeries
Cleveland manager had four procedures
Terry Francona’s mind briefly wandered to a life without baseball while he battled through a major health scare.
Retirement stared him in the face.
“Some days when I was extremely frustrated, the thought crossed my mind,” the Indians manager said. “When it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I tried not to think like that.”
Francona revealed Wednesday that he underwent several surgeries in a four-day span and required an extended stay in intensive care at the Cleveland Clinic while dealing with medical issues that sidelined him for all but 14 games this season.
The 61-year-old Francona, who plans to return in 2021, said he’s relieved to have the ordeal, which beat him up mentally and physically, behind him.
MLB: Major League Baseball is moving ahead with planning to eliminate the separate governing body of minor league baseball as part of a project to shrink affiliations from 160 to 120. MLB said Wednesday it had retained Peter B. Freund and Trinity Sports Consultants to work on the transition. The Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues expired Sept. 30 without a successor deal following a year of acrimonious negotiations.
Reds: Cincinnati president Dick Williams has resigned to pursue other interests with his family’s property development business, the team said Wednesday. The 50-year-old Williams worked in Reds baseball operations for 15 years and has been president since 2016. The Reds said he is leaving to work more closely with family-owned and controlled North American Properties, which has an ownership stake in the team. Nick Krall will continue in his role as vice president and general manager.
Padres: Mike Clevinger was replaced on San Diego’s playoff roster Wednesday because of his elbow injury, a move that would keep him from pitching again this postseason unless the Padres make it to the World Series. That would also depend on if his ailing right elbow is healthy enough to get back on the mound in October. The right-hander went only two pitches into the second inning of the NL Division Series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.
Ratings: ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC averaged 1,836,000 viewers for 16 broadcasts in Major League Baseball’s expanded wild-card round, drawing far more viewers for 16 games but an average down vastly from the single-knockout contests in previous years.