Terry Francona has been known to be somewhat of a jokester around the baseball field, and the Cleveland Indians skipper did his best to use that humor to his advantage during Monday night’s game against the Boston Red Sox.
Francona and Red Sox third base coach Brian Butterfield appeared to get into an argument at one point, but actually, it was just the former Red Sox manager’s way of trying to get under Butterfield’s skin.
The well-regarded Red Sox coach is a native of Maine and a diehard New England Patriots fan, so that’s where Francona tried to strike when he invoked the name of quarterback Tom Brady.
“I could hear him yelling,” Butterfield said, per WEEI’s John Tomase. “So I step closer to the dugout and I want to say exactly what he said. He said, ‘How did the X-rays come out on Brady this morning?’ I just kind of stared at him for a minute and everybody was straight-faced and then I said, ‘You stop that. You’re not going to take me out of my game,’ and I straight-faced him right back. I’m sure that’s why people thought we were having a disagreement.”
Oh, Tito.
The Red Sox would go on to win that game 6-2 behind Doug Fister’s gem, and took Game 2 of the series thanks to a Christian Vazquez walk-off home run.
As for Brady, the Patriots QB turns 40 years old Thursday. And while he won’t be chugging beer or golfing on a cliff, he’s certainly healthy enough to dodge pads at training camp.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
