There is no question Farrell had a terrific season managing the Sox. This is a team that did not have a four-game losing streak all season and only had five three-game losing streaks, just two after mid-May. But the Professor, as I refer to Farrell for his analytical way of looking at the game, brought a team that had a culture of winning, and a nucleus of excellence, back to greatness. In addition, we cannot minimize that following Bobby Valentine as manager of the Sox was as much a breath of fresh air for the players and Red Sox Nation as it must have been for the Chilean miners who spent 10 weeks trapped underground.
But Francona taught a team how to believe in itself. He instilled in the Indians the belief that they could win, a knowledge that veterans of Boston had from their personal experience. Boston and Cleveland were rebounding from almost identical miserable 2012 seasons, but the Sox's season was an anomaly, not a continuation of mediocrity
The Manager of the Year award is not just a recognition of one season’s work, otherwise the MOY would automatically be handed to the two teams in each league that finished with the best records. To give that some perspective, in the 30 year history of the award, the skipper of the Yankees, who frequently had the best record in the league was the winner twice: Buck Showalter, who won in the abbreviated 1994 season when his Yanks went 70-43; and then again in 1996, when Joe Torre won his only Manager of the Year award, when the New Yorkers went 92-70. And even that season he tied for the award with Johnny Oates, who led the Texas Rangers to a 90-72 record, after finishing 74-70 the season before.
So if the award is not given to the best record, what is it awarded for?
It’s frequently given to the manager who wins with teams who are frequently lower budget (Boston had a $126 million payroll, Cleveland’s was $77.4 million) but even more often to teams who have spent years in the depths of despair. With that factor in mind, the most recent five-year history of the Indians and Red Sox best explains the worthiness of the Francona selection.
Ignore where the two teams finished in their respective divisions, just look at their five-year 2008-12 records:
• Cleveland: 363-447 .448
• Boston: 438-372 .540
And as a an additional frame of reference, here are the five-year numbers for the NL Manager of the Year winner Clint Hurdle, who has brilliantly re-shaped the culture for the Pirates.
• Pittsburgh 2008-12: 337-472 .416
One additional point: In Francona’s eight seasons managing Boston, he had a record of 744-552 .574, winning two pennants and two World Series and did not garner one first-place in the Manager of the Year voting.
As a great a job that Farrell did, and he did, Francona’s task and (Clint) hurdle was larger and more impressive. Having said that, I can’t recall a GM who did more in one year than Boston’s Ben Cherington. There are not enough accolades that can be heaped upon him as he rid himself of negative baggage and went 7-for-7 in free agency signings last Hot Stove season.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book, “David and Goliath,” which is all about how and why underdogs win, he explains why being bigger, richer, and stronger is not always best, which is why I think this morning, Terry Francona wakes up as Manager of the Year.
