DeFrancesco comes back to The Brick
Tony DeFrancesco’s life the past nine months has been about change, and more is coming.
DeFrancesco, the former Oklahoma City RedHawks manager, left the Houston Astros organization in September and was named the manager for Triple-A Las Vegas, the Mets’ affiliate.
Next season, the Mets are taking their Triple-A affiliate out of the Pacific Coast League to Syracuse and the International League, just hours from his hometown Suffern, N.Y.
DeFrancesco has won more than 1,000 games in the PCL, including three league titles. He’s spent 15 years in the league and returned to OKC over the weekend for what could be his final series at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
“This will be it for a while,” DeFrancesco said. “But you never know in this game. You just keep rolling around.”
DeFrancesco spoke with The Oklahoman about coming back to OKC for possibly the last time, the Astros’ World Series run and more.
Q: You were with the Astros for nine seasons. What has it been like transitioning to a new organization?
A: “It’s always difficult, I think. A lot of new players in spring training, we got a new manager. It was good I went to major league camp and got to meet a lot of the players. As you move on in the season it’s just like any other team. You get to know each other and go out there and do your best every day.”
Q: You have a lot of memories in this ballpark. What is it like coming back?
A: “There’s a lot of good memories here.
The ballpark was always nice, the people are nice, the front office, Monty the ground’s crew guy was always good to us. A lot of good players came through here. Last week I received my World Series ring out in Vegas.
Q: That is obviously a special moment. What was it like watching the World Series for you?
A” It was pretty cool. Correa and Springer and Altuve was there with me. Bregman, Max Stassi was there. A lot of good memories. I’m happy for them.”
Q: You had already left the organization. Did you watch a lot of the World Series?
A: “Oh yeah. I knew I had a ring coming if they won.”
Q: You’ve won titles before, but what does that ring mean now?
“I got a lot of minor league rings, but this is different. And last year I got to coach third base for them for about 10 days. I thought I was part of them at that time.
Q: Living in Las Vegas is totally different than OKC or Fresno. What has it been like for you there?
A: “Vegas is a great town. It’s booming. They’ve got the Vegas Golden Knights, they’ve got football coming, they’ve got a brand new facility coming for a very lucky team.
The Mets are going to Syracuse next year, so whoever goes in there is going to be very lucky. It’s going to be top of the line.”
Q: Are you ready for a change?
A: “You do this thing long enough sometimes change is good for you. It’ll probably be more exciting for me. I played in that league, Pawtucket, years ago. There’s a lot of new cities in the league, so it’s going to be pretty interesting.”