Whatever Happened to Tito Francona?

TITO FRANCONA

• Outfielder, First Baseman, 1959-64
• Best season: 1959, 122 games, .363 batting average, 20 home runs, 79 RBI
• Indians career: 835 games, .284 avg., 85 home runs, 378 RBI

There were many what-ifs in Tito Francona’s 15-season major-league career, two of which stand out in particular:

What if Jimmy Piersall had not complained to Indians manager Joe Gordon that, because of the late-afternoon sun, he didn’t feel comfortable playing center field in the second game of a double header against New York at Cleveland Stadium on June 7, 1959?

And what if Francona’ s left leg had not been so severely injured that he was unable to play five games in late September that season, after the Indians were mathematically eliminated from the pennant race?

“When Piersall had a problem because of the sun, Gordon put me in center field,” said Francona, who’d filled in at first base for slumping Vic Power and singled and homered in the opener. “From that game through the rest of the season everything seemed to click for me.”

Indeed it did. Thereafter, Francona—who’d been acquired by the Tribe two weeks before the start of the season—was a regular in the lineup that season, either in the outfield, for 64 games, or first base, for 35 games.

And, in contrast, “When my leg was so bad late in the season [trainer] Wally Bock warned me that I could cause serious damage if I continued to play, and insisted that I rest it for a few games,” added Francona.

If Francona had not established himself as a regular in the lineup at either center field or first base, he would not have had the opportunity to come this close to winning the 1959 American League batting championship. And if he had not been forced out of the lineup when the tom hamstring muscle caused his leg to tum black, it’s probable Francona would have batted enough times to qualify for the title that was won by Harvey Kuenn, his former teammate with the Tigers.

Francona hit for a .363 average (145 hits in 399 official times at-bat), 10 percentage points higher than Kuenn’s .353 (198-for-561). But he didn’t have enough total plate appearances to qualify for the championship. The rule then in effect required a player to make at least 477 total plate appearances—which included walks, sacrifices, and times hit by pitches.

In 1959, Francona walked 35 times, was credited with six sacrifices, and reached base as a hit batsman on three occasions for 443 total plate appearances, 34 short of the amount specified in the rule. Thus, Francona would have needed to play eight or nine more games to reach the minimum requirement—and the way things were “clicking” for him that season, it’s safe to assume he would have made enough hits to hold his lead over Kuenn.

As Francona said from his home in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, “I felt like I had a god on my shoulder every time I went to the plate. There was no way a pitcher could throw a ball past me. No way. Not anybody. Not that season.” Which must have been true because, as late as August 10 he was batting over .400.

Francona’s sore hamstring, and a similar injury suffered by teammate Chuck Tanner, also factored in his failed bid for the title.

“There were times I got screwed out of hits because, after I’d hurt my leg, I couldn’t run full speed and couldn’t beat out balls that normally would have been hits.”

On at least one occasion, “Tanner could hardly run because of a bad leg and was forced at second by the right fielder—the right fielder!—when I hit a line shot that would have been a hit if nobody had been on base,” he said.

In the years since his final game, with the Brewers on September 29, 1970, the former outfielder/ first baseman—and almost-batting champion—has had two open-heart surgeries, in 1992 and 2001, and both knees replaced at the same time in 2005.

As he suggested, fans who might remember him from the years he played in Cleveland probably would be surprised to see him now. “My height has increased by two or three inches, that’s how bad my legs were bowed. My wife, Jean, calls me ‘Betty Grable’ because my legs look so much better now.”

Francona lost his first wife, Roberta, to cancer in 1992. She was the mother of their two children, daughter Amy and son Terry, who played 10 years in the major leagues, including 1988 with the Indians. Terry managed the Philadelphia Phillies from 1997 to 2000 and took over as manager of the Boston Red Sox in 2004.

Terry was born on April 22, 1959, which was 42 days before his dad replaced Piersall in center field for the Indians, launching his near-batting championship season. And now, of course, it’s Terry and the Red Sox who command most of Francona’s attention.

“People asked me if I coached him when he was a kid, which I didn’t because I never had time, I was always playing. And when Boston won the World Series [in 2004] they asked me if I give him [managerial] advice, which of course I don’t,” he said.

When he signed as a 18-year-old amateur with the St. Louis Browns in 1952, Francona received a $10,000 bonus. He was in the army in 1954 and 1955, reached the major leagues with Baltimore in 1956, spent 1958 with the Chicago White Sox and Detroit, and was traded to the Indians on March 21, 1959.

That first year with the Tribe his salary was $10,000; it doubled to $20,000 in 1960. The most he ever made in baseball, Francona said, was $29,500 in 1962, after a brief holdout with Indian chief Gabe Paul. “I liked Gabe, but oh! was he tough to deal with. In those days players had no choice because management had all the power.”

As for agents, Francona chuckled and said, “There was no such thing in my day. If you brought in an agent, they [the owners] would throw you out.”

It is ironic that on two occasions Francona was traded in deals involving Larry Doby. The first was in 1958, when the Orioles sent Francona to the Chicago White Sox, and the second in 1959, when the Tigers dealt Doby even-up for Francona. It also was ironic that, the season following their classic battle for the batting championship, Francona and Kuenn wound up as teammates—and as roommates on the road—after the Indians acquired Kuenn in Frank Lane’s infamous trade for Rocky Colavito.

Francona said they never talked about Kuenn winning the batting championship, or that he won it because Francona did not have enough at-bats. “It never really dawned on me how good it would have been if I had won. In fact, I never thought much about it until you guys [in the media] asked about the what-ifs.”

Francona played for nine teams in his major-league career: St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta, Oakland, Milwaukee Brewers, Orioles, White Sox, Tigers, and Indians.

“I never played on a pennant winner,” he said. “I always seemed to be one year too late or one year too early. “

Thus, “When Terry and the Red Sox won [ the World Series in 2004], it was almost as great a thrill for me as it was for him. Before that I hardly ever watched a World Series game on television … I was always too jealous of the guys who were in it,” said Francona. The closest Francona came to playing in a World Series was 1959, when the Indians collapsed in the final two weeks and finished second, five games behind the White Sox.

“We could have won it; OK, maybe we should have won it,” Francona said about the Indians’ failed bid to win the pennant in 1959. “We had the best team.”

Just as some would say about Francona’s failed bid for the batting championship in 1959: that he could have won it; OK, perhaps even that he should have won it.

 

Author’s note

This article is excerpted from Whatever Happened to “Super Joe“? (softcover $14.95/294 pages), 2006 by Russell Schneider. Reprinted with permission of Gray & Company, Publishers. The book is available online from Amazon.com.