When asked about staying in the game as long as Lou Piniella, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre, Francona joked that he would be lucky to even live as long as those guys worked.
"To do this job I think you've got to be all in," he said when asked about the trio. "The travel, the pressure you put on yourself to do well."
One of the major storylines of the postseason thus far has been the end of Cox's regime, which came Monday when Atlanta was eliminated by San Francisco, thus setting off a love-fest at Turner Field for the 69-year-old Cox.
Although Francona might not see himself lasting to that age, the path he has taken so far has been stunningly similar to Cox's. Perhaps, at the end of the 2028 season, the fans at Fenway will be giving Francona an ovation as he walks off into the sunset. Tito may cringe at such an idea, but the similarities to Cox at this point in Francona's career are worth consideration.
Both men began their managerial careers by spending four seasons with one team before moving on to another. Neither did particularly well. Cox won 45 percent of his games for the Braves from 1978-81, while Francona won 44 percent of his for Philadelphia from 1997-2000. Cox was 40 years old when he moved on. Francona was 41.
Cox went to Toronto before returning to Atlanta and serving as the general manager for a few years, a career progression that is unlike Francona's one shift to Boston, but consider this little nugget: After Cox's initial four-year run with his first team came to an end, he went 651-482 in his next seven full seasons as a manager. Francona, after finishing up his four years with the Phillies, has compiled a 654-480 mark in his seven full seasons with the Red Sox.
That represents a difference in winning percentage of less than .002.
Additionally, both managers won their first division title in their eighth year on the job. Cox managed four years in the AL East, a division in which Francona has had a great run of success (both have one AL East crown to the their credit). Francona spent four in the NL East, a division Cox won 11 times.
If the Red Sox' skipper is going to one day be compared more legitimately to Cox, who finished fourth all-time in career wins, he will need to compile more than 1,500 additional wins and several more playoff appearances. And since Cox did almost all of it on one place, Francona will have to do it all in Boston, where the pressure is always high. That is no small task.
Knowing that, it sounds as if Francona will take a detour from the path he is on right now before ever reaching that point. It's interesting to note, however, just how similar that path is to the one Cox blazed several years ago.
