Francona on Schilling
Terry Francona is entering his 10th season as a major-league manager, yet it will be his first without Curt Schilling being a member of the ball club in some way. (Although Schilling was hurt all of last season, he was still on the Red Sox roster.)
In fact, Schilling was the starting (and winning) pitcher in Francona’s managerial debut in the majors.
So when Francona speaks about the big righthander, who announced his retirement yesterday after 20 seasons in the majors, he speaks from experience. The Red Sox manager talked to sports radio WEEI’s “Dale and Holley” this afternoon about Schilling. Here are a few of his notable comments:
On whether he knew Schilling would announce his retirement yesterday:
Francona:“Only because he had actually sent me a message. He tried to call me [yesterday] morning. I was in a meeting and then I got a voice mail, so I texted him back. I appreciated the message. You get down here in spring training and he’s pretty good about keeping in touch, but this was something I’m sure he shared with his family, and he decided to kind of clue us in a little bit, he called [pitching coach] John Farrell, myself, so we had an idea that it was coming later in the day.”
On what it was like to manage Schilling for so many years:
Francona: “You know what’s amazing? This is my first year as a manager that Schill’s not a part of spring training. This is my 10th year, and I’ve been with Schill every spring. Back in the Philadelphia days when we weren’t very good, the days Schill pitched, we were pretty good. He took the ball, he was a true ace. I don’t know that there’s that many of those guys out there. He struck out 300 two years in a row. He was just a horse. Then he comes to Boston in ’04 and he’s exactly what we needed. He could talk the talk but he could walk the walk. But he backed up what he said. The [bloody] sock, the suture in the [tendon] and all that stuff. . . . I guess all along I figured he’d pitch and win. And that’s probably not fair. But I’ve been around him for so long that I just expected him to do that.”
On whether he had blunt conversations with Schilling:
Francona: “Oh, sure, about every other day. And we had the ability to say whatever we need to. There were some times in Philadelphia when I tried to take the ball away from him . . . oh, my goodness. But you expected that. How can you not? . . . There’s a lot of people who like to take shots at Schilling, and sometimes he opens himself up to those shots. But when you ask a guy to be on time, you ask a guy to be prepared, to compete, and give everything he has, he’s right at the top of the list.”
On Schilling’s legendary “bloody sock” performance in Game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series against the Yankees:
Francona: “Well we were certainly worried about him. But again, there’s that part of him, that resolve to get it done, which we really believed in. And I’ve been around him long enough to know that it would be unfair not to believe in him. So again, maybe it wasn’t fair to him, but we expected that. There wasn’t a lot of surprise that he willed himself to be a good pitcher that night.”
On Schilling’s outspokenness:
Francona: “Well, I never really felt like it was my authority to tell a guy what he can and can’t say off the field. When they do something that affects the ball club, I say something about it. But Schill’s always going to have a reaction about just about everything. He’s a pretty intelligent guy. And when he says something wrong, he apologizes. So by the time I get to him, he’d say, ‘Ah, sorry.’ He’s got a big heart, he does a lot of nice things for people that need help . . . so again, the side that I see of him may not be the side that people perceive.”
On whether he’s the best postseason pitcher of all time:
Francona: “I know what I’ve seen. And again, I haven’t taken the time to look at all the postseason stuff, but I know what his numbers are, and they’re unbelievable. And a lot of those were for us, which is good. Then comes the argument about the Hall of Fame and the regular season numbers vs. postseason numbers; obviously I’m biased because he’s pitched for us for so long. I hope that what he does in the postseason gives him a nod toward getting into the Hall of Fame, because what he did was really, truly special.”
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