Tito's Tenure Over In Boston

Francona leaves Boston as the greatest manager
in their history.

It's official. After almost two days of speculation manager Terry Francona will not be returning for his ninth season at the helm of Red Sox Nation. The announcement comes fresh off Francona's club completed the greatest September collapse in baseball history.

The collapse consisted of the Boston Red Sox blowing a 9-game wild card lead that they held as late as Sept. 3, but finished the month 7-20 including losing the final game of the season after having a one-run lead heading into the ninth. As for Francona, he met with a group of Red Sox brass that included general manager Theo Epstein early Friday morning at Fenway Park to discuss the future of the club and himself. It would be later determined that he would not be returning to the Boston dugout with all signs pointing to it as a mutual decision.

In a press conference Friday afternoon Francona used the words "time for a new voice" when describing why he was stepping down as skipper.

It didn't help that the organization never offered to exercise his 2012 and 2013 options.

There have been reports that Francona possibly lost the clubhouse mid-season due to a lack of team chemistry. Multiple sources said that there was a lot of unprofessionalism going on with the pitching staff during their off days, including the consumption of alcohol in the clubhouse.

Francona throughout his career has been known as a players' manager, something that usual doesn't call for much discipline, now finding himself possessed a problem he didn't know how to approach.

Despite missing the postseason for the second straight season and the third time in his tenure, it's not far fetched to call Francona the greatest manager in Red Sox history as his resume speaks for itself. Following their Game 7 loss to their arch rival New York Yankees in the 2003 ALCS then-manager Grady Little's contract was not renewed, opening the door for a moderate individual from South Dakota to take the reigns.

Francona was hired prior to the start of the 2004 season in an effort to turn around the fortunate of one of the league's most underachieving franchises. That's exactly what he did.

After an unbelievable second half run, the Red Sox captured the 2004 AL wild card and would advance to the ALCS for the second straight year, setting up the heavily anticipated rematch with New York. Boston dropped the first two games of the series and were headed home.

Just when the Fenway Faithful thought it couldn't get an worse, it did. The Sox found themselves facing an 0-3 series deficit after getting stomped in their home building 19-8.

Francona did the impossible, engineering the greatest postseason comeback in baseball history, winning the next four games of the series and capturing the club's first American League Pennant since 1986. Francona has said numerous times publicly, "If Dave Roberts doesn't steal that bag, we're going home and I'm out of a job".

The '04 Red Sox will always be Francona's
greatest accomplishment. 

He is responsible for ending an 86-year curse in the most dramatic fashion and bringing home the franchise's first World Series title since 1918 that same season. After an early first-round exit in '05 and missing the postseason completely in '06, Francona returned the Sox to the Fall Classic in '07.

There he would become only the second manager in the franchise's history to win multiple World Series titles, joining Bill Carrigan as the only other to do so. During Carrigan's first stint with the team he won back-to-back World Series championships in 1915 and 1916 and posted a 8-2 record combined in both World Series he managed. If you think that's impressive look at Francona.

Francona was a perfect 8-0 in his two World Series appearances, sweeping both the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies in '04 and '07 respectively.

His 28 postseason wins are by far the most in franchise history and finishes with a 744-552 regular season record. That's good enough for a .574 winning percentage, second only to Don Zimmer's .575 with a minimum of five years on the job.

Francona will be sure to land on his feet and take his Harry Potter glasses, chewing tobacco wrapped in an amorously large wad of bubble gum and calm demeanor to another playoff dugout.

Boston faces a lot of questions this offseason with two key contributors free-agents-to-be, slugger David Ortiz and  closer Jonathan Papelbon. With Francona out, one big question still lingers until it is answered.

Francona once said, "Boston is a trying place to manage even when your at your best". He might want to pass that long to the next Red Sox manager, whomever he may be.