Terry Francona on Cleveland's Success: "We stayed away from chicken and beer"
By Mike Cardillo
If Indians manager Terry Francona didn’t already have the American League Manager of the Year award wrapped up, he clinched it on Monday delivering the quote of the young baseball postseason. Asked what helped fuel the Indians late-season success, which included a 10-game winning streak to end the season, the manager delivered this great quip:
"“We stayed away from chicken and beer. That helped.”"
The former Red Sox manager’s last days in Boston were spoiled by reports that pitchers Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and John Lackey would hang out in the clubhouse drinking beer and eating friend chicken. It’s good to see two years removed from that epic collapse, Francona is able to joke about it.
The Indians, who won 92 game and finished only one game behind the Tigers in the American League Central, play the Rays Wednesday night at Progressive Field in the Wild Card game.
Quips like that made Francona an excellent broadcaster during the 2012 postseason. He would have been the perfect replacement for Tim McCarver, if Cleveland hadn’t come calling.