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I trust Terry Francona
They say Boston is the hardest town to PLAY ball in. If that's true, it has to be 10 times harder to manage there. You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.
Red Sox Nation, as passionate as we are, is also the most fickle bunch of sports fans in the world. We wanna know why Grady left Pedro in and why Terry took Wakefield out.We wanna know why Mirabelli got axed, again and cash got promoted. We wanna know why Coco is playing while Jocoby sits... and the nest day why Jacobi is playing while Coco sits.
Maybe that's because we're paying attention. But while our love for the TEAM is unconditional, our love for the PLAYERS is very, very conditional and mostly, the love for Tito is on a day to day basis. Win and we love him. Lose and ....well, frankly... we don't.
Mostly we don't TRUST him. We question him and second guess him. The man who brought us NOT ONE, but TWO... Count 'em TWO!!! World Champion Banners.
Terry Francona is a player's manager. He doesn't give a crap what the media thinks. He knows his players. He knows what they can and can not do, He trusts them and he listens to them. More often than not, if a player isn't in the line up, it'sbecause they have asked to be taken out.
What I love about Francona is that he knows that you dance with who brought you. He goes to bat for his players deflecting media criticism and reminding us that you don't sit your way out of a slump. You play through it.
Okie has hit a rough patch. Last year he pitched nearly every day. This year something is going on, and he needs to rebuild his confidence and get his rythm back, but it's only JUNE. The second WS Banner wouldn't be there if it wasn't his stellar pitching last year, So before we trash him to hard, let's cut him some slack and show him that we trust him with the ball.
Two weeks into the season people were clamoring for him to sit Ortiz. David Ortiz. The most feared, clutch bat in the American League sitting out a little early season slump...When his team was in FIRST PLACE.
Tito trusts his players and I trust him. If he does something, he has a good reason for it. If he takes someone out, it's probably because they asked to sit.
TRUST comes before Trustworthy in ANY dictionary. I trust Terry Francona.
-SoxFanNean
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