Boston Red Sox part ways with Terry Francona – MLB News
The Boston Red Sox entered the season as favourites to dominate the American League but have ended the season helpless, without a manager and flawed team chemistry.
This collapse was evident but the team was just not prepared to help themselves. This became evident when manager Terry Francona hinted that players are not helping each other on the field as much as they should. He clarified that he wanted to talk to players
about this but just could not reach the players and was thus frustrated by this inability.
Francona said, “You've heard me talk all the time about going in one direction and getting through challenges and meeting them together, but I just didn't think we were doing that. That's my responsibility to get them to do that and it wasn't happening to
my satisfaction.”
Citing his failure to instill unity in the team as a major reason, Francona parted his ways with the Red Sox after eight glorious years at the ballclub. He led the Red Sox to their first World Series title since 1918 in 2004 and then again in 2007. This
year, they were in-line to add another title, but a historic collapse saw them relinquish a nine-game lead in the Wild Card standings and consequently crash out of the post-season.
Talking to reporters at the press conference, Francona expressed his desire of a new voice at the ballclub. He commented that the management does not seem to be onboard with many issues which need to be addressed and thus is not sure of the support he has
from the ownership.
Team president Larry Lucchino was all praise for the former manager and defended him by saying that he did exactly what he had been doing for the past eight years. Lucchino lauded Francona’s tremendous contributions to the success of the franchise and emphasised
that he deserves respect.
Francona had voiced his concern to the ownership that they might want some other person to carry out the job for the next season. The ownership, in the best interest of the club, decided not to exercise the option years on his contract and thus liberate
the legendary manager.
It remains to be seen how this change will affect the deteriorating club culture.
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