Cleveland Guardians' Tito Francona retires as best manager in baseball

Major League Baseball is just slightly ridiculous.

As the 2023 season began, New New York, New York - Mets, Yankees - totaled $630,546,726 in player payroll, according to USA Today.

Ohio, Ohio - Guardians, Reds - came in at $173,034,629.

I have friends who glory in the ability of certain low-payroll teams to climb past some big spenders. Go, underdog!

I fail to summon any of their enthusiasm.

I think the system simply sucks. Forgive me.

Maybe this makes me a hypocrite for loving that Terry Francona has achieved more with gravel than others have with gold.

But I must admit that — in tandem with having shared countless ballgames with family, friends and neighbors — Francona has kept me interested.

He is my favorite leader of a Cleveland sports team — regardless of sport — covering the time since I became aware of Cleveland sports.

This goes back to when you could buy 25 hot dogs at the ballpark for the price you pay for one now.

A quick glimpse of manager Birdie Tebbetts' ballclub from those days …

• Sept. 26, 1963. Pitchers Tommy John and Gary Bell got the Indians to a 1-1 tie with the Kansas City Athletics through nine innings.
• Woodie Held led off the 10th with a home run. Pitcher Gary Bell hit for himself and singled. After Tito Francona flew out and Vic Davalillo grounded out, Max Alvis and Fred Whitfield got hits that led to a 4-1 Cleveland win.

Point being: You have to be "older" to remember any of those names, except Tito Francona's, kept alive by his son, who, of course, hardly anyone calls Terry. He has been Tito for many years. He was 4 years old in 1963.

The original Tito died in 2018, having lived to see his son get Cleveland to the 10th inning of Game 7 in the 2016 World Series.

That postseason, Cleveland had three chances to turn a three-games-to-one lead into an all-time street party.

Francona's lineup in Game 5, a 3-2 loss, reflects what he was up against throughout his 11 years.

The batting order was Rajai Davis, Jason Kipnis, Francisco Lindor, Mike Napoli, Carlos Santana, Jose Ramirez, Brandon Guyer, Roberto Perez and starting pitcher Trevor Bauer. A few nice pieces there. And a few not so wonderful, backed by weak pinch-hitting options.

Fast forward to Sept., 5, 2022. Francona's team arrived in Kansas City tied for the AL Central lead.

The batting order was Steven Kwan, Amed Rosario, Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, Oscar Gonzalez, Andres Giminez, Tyler Freeman, Austin Hedges and Myles Straw. Not exactly Thome, Manny, Albert Belle ...

Starting that day, Team Tito went 24-6, leading to two postseason wins against Tampa Bay and a 2-1 lead in a series against New York.

This could only have happened with a manager in Francona's class. Actually, it couldn't have happened under any other manager.

It's hard to put one's finger on the magic, but ...

Tito wields personality, humility, humor, intuition, respect, compassion, knowledge, patience, gift of gab, body language, will power, and fire.

He looked like Uncle Tito. It was a joy to watch him in a handshake line, a hoot to see him tooling along Ninth Street on his scooter.

Often, his talks after the game were the highlight of the night.

It would take a mouthful to provide Francona proper thanks. On behalf of three examples of the talent he managed, Giovanny Urshela, Abraham Almonte and Marc Rzepczynski, thanks.

Let's acknowledge that Francona managed some players ranging from good to star-quality. Of course, most of his best players disappeared into a nebula of gaseous baseball economics.

My all-Tito team has a pitching rotation of Corey Kluber, Shane Bieber, Carlos Carrasco and "The Cowboy," Josh Tomlin, who gets the nod for personal reasons over Mike Clevinger and Bauer.

Around the horn, it's Carlos Santana at first base, Jason Kipnis at second, Lindor at shortstop, Ramirez at third, Michael Brantley in left field, and … and?

Francona's ever-changing cast in right field included Drew Stubbs, David Murphy, Brandon Moss, Lonnie Chisenhall, Melky Cabrera and Tyler Naquin. Mediocre Michael Bourn was Francona's first center fielder, and the talent went down from there.

The recent catchers haven't reminded anyone of Thurman Munson.

The moral of Tito's tale has been doing more with less.

One needn't guess what he would do with more. He won two World Series with a Boston team that could afford to keep or collect obscenely-priced stars. He did his best and his most likeable work in Cleveland.

I really hope the cap on his plaque in Cooperstown bears a "C."

Meanwhile, I didn't say Francona is my favorite baseball manager of all-time. I merely called him my favorite leader of a Cleveland sports team in the decades I've been watching. No. 2 is Marty Schottenheimer.

My favorite managers were guys I played ball for, Bud Breymaier, Ray Goodin, Dave Grasse … men most of you never met and are up there with my favorite sports buddy, my dad, now.

One of my grade-school teammates was a Yankees fan, Sam Shaheen. Why, Sam, why?

I'm not sure Sam ever gave an adequate explanation. When I asked him to size up Francona, though, it made good sense.

Shaheen on Francona:

"His ability to steer teams even during times of great difficulty in my mind is legendary.

"I remember with great sorrow how he brought his (Boston) team back from a 3-0 deficit against the Yankees in the playoffs and took them to a world championship.

"I think of last year when he guided a mediocre group to the playoffs.

"In my opinion what success Cleveland has had in the last 10 or 11 years in overwhelmingly due to his guidance. I believe him to be the best manager in baseball."

Thank you for being a friend, Sam. You, too, Tito.

Reach Steve at [email protected]