BOSTON — Before stepping into the dugout for his third game as acting Red Sox manager, Torey Lovullo named two men who played the greatest role in shaping the baseball coach he is today.
One was Sparky Anderson, the Hall of Fame manager who won three World Series titles with the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers.
The other was Terry Francona.
With the Red Sox hosting Francona’s Cleveland Indians on Monday at Fenway Park, Lovullo reflected on his lengthy history with the former Boston skipper.
“I played for Tito in Philly in the late ’90s,” said Lovullo, a former major league infielder who played for eight teams from 1988 to 1999. “He quickly became one of my favorite managers because of the personality and just the guy — what’s not to love about him? And then I saw him from a different angle when I came (to the Red Sox) in 2010 and worked as a Triple-A manager.
“He was so good to me, he was so fun to be around. He was a guy that brought me along in every way that he could, in any area that he could, because he knew that I was going to pay attention and watch some of the things that he was doing and running his ball club. And I just had a general appreciation for the way he communicated with everybody, the way he got to know his guys. And the more information he got to know about his guys, he felt, was going to help put them in the right position to succeed. It’ll be good to see him. It’s good to know that he’s here for a lot of different reasons. We’re here to compete against this (Indians) team, and it should be a lot of fun for all of us.”
When informed of the high praise given to him by Lovullo, Francona smiled.
“I think it means I’m getting old,” he joked. “I guess any time somebody says something (like that), it makes you feel good. You want players — I think there’s a difference. You hear people say, ‘Well, I enjoy playing for him.’ That’s easy. I think what you want is guys to respect and learn and maybe not even necessarily when it all goes well — maybe when they’re not playing well. I had to give Torey some really tough (news) when he didn’t make the club once. That’s a hard thing to do. He was the last sent out one year, and when you get down to that last week, it was hard. So, you end up kind of probably being closer to those guys than maybe you would expect after those six weeks of spring training.”
But Francona’s pregame news conference mainly was focused on the reason Lovullo was temporarily promoted from bench coach to manager: John Farrell’s lymphoma diagnosis. With Farrell having announced his condition just three days earlier, Francona declined to comment on how Lovullo will perform in his absence.
“I don’t know,” Francona said. “I really don’t know. I haven’t given that any thought. I know if he’s been around John for a while that he’ll be prepared. Right now, it seems kind of secondary. We show up every day and want to win so bad, and I probably have the worst perspective of anyone in this league of how important this game is. But all of the sudden, it kind of smacks you right in the face when you’ve got people you care about that need you to care about them.”
Farrell, who will not manage the Red Sox for the rest of this season, is scheduled to begin chemotherapy treatment Tuesday. Francona, a longtime friend of Farrell’s, will accompany him to his first session.
Thumbnail photo via Kevin Jairaj/USA TODAY Sports Images
