Checking in on Arizona Baseball Legend Terry Francona

Arizona baseball has had a long history of tradition of success with the program making 48 NCAA postseasons, six Super Regionals and 19 CWS appearances while walking away with four titles, which stands as tied for fifth most all-time in the history of college baseball.

Although there is a long standing success for Arizona, it is the players that have made the program and will continue to keep things moving in the right direction.

This past season, Arizona was led by Mason White and Brendan Summerhill , who helped get the team back to Omaha for the first time since the 2021 season. And the team is led by beach coach Chip Hale, who played at Arizona in college and is now the leader at the helm.

 Players mean everything to a program, it is the heartbeat that drives the success. Not only have they succeeded in Tucson, but many have gone on to have tremendous playing and coaching careers at the Major League level.

One of those former players is Terry Francona, who played from 1977-980 where he was a critical piece to the 1980 National Title winning team. Francona won the Golden Spikes Award in his senior season before going into the MLB Draft.

Since then, Francona has established himself as one of the best managers in the game, winning 54% of his games throughout his 24-year managerial career. During that time, he won two World Series with the Red Sox and took Cleveland to the World Series in 2016 but lost to the Cubs.

After taking some time off due to health concerns, Francona is back in the game managing the Cincinnati Reds. 

In two seasons with the team, he has turned things around after going 77-85 in his first-year with a young team, Francona has the Reds sitting at 46-44 showing signs of improvement and development of those young players.

Although there is a long way to go, the Reds are sitting 2 ½ games back of the third wildcard spot sitting behind St. Louis and San Francisco. There are  72 games left in the season and the All-Star break is quickly approaching.

Francona has been a proven winner in the MLB and is working his magic yet again with the Reds, who have been struggling and haven’t made the playoffs since the 2020 season.

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