Francona knows all about this plot
One of the greatest chapters of Terry Francona’s life story is now being retooled as a cautionary tale about how things have a way of going horribly wrong in baseball’s postseason.
We speak, of course, of the 2004 American League Championship Series. Francona was in his first season as manager of the Red Sox, who were on the cusp of being swept out of the ALCS by the Yankees Remember? But the Red Sox did roar back to win four straight games, claiming their first American League pennant since 1986. And they did sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series for their first World Series championship since 1918. And Terry Francona did go into the books as the first, and still only, manager to guide his team to a series win after being down 0-3. So what happens? After his Cleveland Indians rolled to a 7-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday night to move to within one game of a championship, Francona was asked: “Just, in general, how do you feel about the situation? When you’re in a situation and there’s an elimination game, does Boston 2004 enter your mind?”
Francona looked surprised.
“We’re up,” he said. “We’re not down. I think you got it reversed.”
He’s correct about that, of course. But while the question was awkwardly posed, and came just minutes after the Tribe’s big Game 4 victory, it does set up a potentially interesting story line. As in: If the Indians wind up losing the World Series, Francona, in addition to being the only manager to win a series after being down 0-3, will also be the first manager to lose a World Series after being up 3-1 since 1985 when the Kansas City Royals staged an epic comeback against the St. Louis Cardinals. (The last team to come back from a 3-1 deficit in an LCS was Francona’s 2007 Red Sox, who bounced back against ... the Indians.)
Expanding on his we’reup-we’re-not-down response, Francona said, “Nothing changes. We’re going to show up tomorrow (for Game 5 in Chicago). The only thing that changes is we’ll pack our bags, because we’re going to go home one way or the other, and we’ll show up and try to beat a really good pitcher tomorrow and that’s what we always do. Nothing needs to change.”
And then Game 5 came. Prior to Sunday, Francona was asked, “Obviously you’ve been on the other end of some deficits before, 3-0, 3-1, and come back from them. Now that you have that advantage, what have you been telling your guys in the locker room going ahead?”
Said the manager, “We don’t, like it’s just a normal day. That’s our biggest challenge, I think, as you get into postseason, you’re fighting to have a sense of normalcy. Because in our game you can’t give them the Knute Rockne speech every day. It’s not like you can hit longer because you’re going to be better. We’re 200 games into the season counting spring training.”
And then the Cubs went out and saved their season with a 3-2 victory in Game 5. The World Series is now back at Cleveland’s Progressive Field for tonight’s Game 6. If the Indians win, it’ll be their first championship since 1948 when they beat the then Boston Braves at old Braves Field. For Francona, it’ll be his third World Series championship and make him a Hall of Fame lock.
Francona isn’t worried about 1948. He even jokes about it, as he did the other night when he invoked his father, Tito Francona, who played for the Indians from 1959-64.
“I’ve kind of joked with the local guys a lot, that I don’t feel responsible for the fact that my dad wasn’t good enough to win when he played here,” he said.
If the Indians do win tonight’s game, Francona will never again get asked about 1948.
But people will always be asking him about 2004, especially if the Indians lose tonight.