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Home , Brad Mills (manager), Bronson Arroyo, Buster Olney, Chris Antonetti, Dusty Baker, Eric Wedge

Return to Cleveland a Francona family affair By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | 10/08/12 4:35 PM ET CLEVELAND -- smiled on Monday as he recalled his first drive up to Cleveland so many decades ago. When the city was within view, just breathing everything in let him know he could get to like this town.

"I saw the steel mills and saw all the smoke," Francona said. "I took a good whiff of it and said, 'You know what? This is just like home.'"

Home for Francona is New Brighton, Pa., a steel town located roughly two hours southeast of Cleveland, where Francona suited up for the Indians during the 1950s and '60s. Cleveland always felt like his second home, so Francona was thrilled to be back inside on Monday morning.

That is where the Indians officially introduced -- Tito's son -- as the 42nd in the franchise's long history. During his press conference, Terry Francona offered a warm smile and thanked his dad for being there, along with his wife, Jean.

It was clearly a special moment for the Francona family.

Terry will never forget telling his dad he was going to be the manager of the Indians.

"I kind of cried a little bit," Terry Francona said. "I didn't want to, but it just happens. You can't take a job because your dad was a good Indian, but it's still a good story. My dad spent six years here. This is my third stint with the Indians, and it's pretty special. So it was a little emotional."

Terry Francona played for the Indians in 1988, worked in the front office in 2001 and is now the team's manager on a four-year contract.

Tito, 78, played for the Tribe as an and from 1959-64, making the All-Star team in '61. In 1959, Tito .363 with 20 home runs and 79 RBIs, but he fell short of the plate appearances required for qualifying for the batting crown. Detroit's took home that honor with a .353 average.

"In '59, that was one of the greatest years we ever had here," Tito Francona said. "I thought we should've won the pennant that year."

"That was actually the year I was born," said Terry Francona, who also answers to the name Tito. "[He] is the best father that a son could ever ask for. That's my dad. That's the real Tito."

Needless to say, Tito Francona was thrilled that his son took the Indians' managerial job.

"When he mentioned it to me, I said, 'Terry, stop right there,'" Tito said. "I didn't want to get my hopes up high, not until he had his name on that line. I lost a lot of sleep over this, because I kept thinking about this: 'Gee, is it a reality?' He told me to keep my mouth shut until today. That was so hard.

"We told some of our family members and we're so proud of him now. I know you're going to enjoy having him around. He's a good speaker. Where he got it from, I don't know."

Francona trusts management regarding payroll By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | 10/08/12 5:30 PM ET CLEVELAND -- Terry Francona had plenty of questions throughout his interview for the Indians' managerial job. One that never came up prior to his accepting the job was how much money would be available for the team's payroll.

Francona did not see that as his concern.

"I didn't ask for that," Francona said. "I don't want to say it's none of my business, but that wasn't one of the questions. We're going to work together and figure how to tackle challenges.

"I don't need to be the general manager nor the owner. I'm perfectly content being the manager. I don't know what the payroll is."

Cleveland has operated on a payroll of roughly $65 million or less in each of the past three years, during which the team has posted a 217-269 record. This past season, the Indians went 68-94 and finished in fourth place in the .

Asked if there would be an increase in payroll this winter, Antonetti simply praised Francona's ability to manage any roster.

"We want to improve," Antonetti said. "But as I've tried to articulate, we think Terry is a very good manager regardless of the specifics of the roster composition. Our goal and our objective is to figure out a way to build the best team we can. That starts with a critical assessment of where we are organizationally."

During his eight-year as the manager of the Red Sox from 2004-11, Francona helped guide the club to two championships and five postseason berths. In , though, Francona also had one of baseball's largest budgets at his disposal. "Having a big budget allows you to maybe cover up some of your mistakes," Francona said. "I think that's being kind of frank. So you have to limit your mistakes [with a smaller payroll]. That's about as honest as I can be."

Developing young players also becomes a top priority.

"I know if you put a good baseball team on the field, you can win," Francona said. "By that, I know you have to develop young players. I think that's anywhere. I think that's huge. If you're not a big market, developing young players is huge."

With Francona on board, Tribe looks to set staff

CLEVELAND -- The Indians have their new manager: Terry Francona. The next step in Cleveland's offseason is identifying the men Francona wants surrounding him as part of the club's coaching staff.

Over the next few days, Indians general manager will begin the process of creating a staff with Francona. Both men were scheduled to fly to Arizona on Monday night for the team's organizational meetings this week.

"We'll try to make sure we get the right staff around Terry," Antonetti said on Monday. "They're exceptionally important hires for the organization. Ultimately, they're the ones that are pivotal in helping guys develop and get better at the Major League level."

Sandy Alomar Jr., who served as the Indians' interim manager for six games following 's dismissal on Sept. 27, has been offered a role on Francona's staff. Francona felt it was important to extend the offer himself after being named Cleveland's manager on Saturday.

Alomar also interviewed for the full-time managerial role.

"Just to be completely candid," Francona said, "because Sandy was a candidate for the job, I reached out to him immediately, just because I thought it was respectful. He's very aware of how I feel about him and his baseball ability and my relationship with him.

"Talking staff other than that is probably not very fair, because you're going to leave somebody's name out."

There has been speculation that -- relieved of his duties as manager of the Astros earlier this season -- might be in the mix for a job with the Indians. Mills was also a part of Francona's coaching staffs in Philadelphia and Boston. Francona would not go into any specifics, except to say he was considering current members of Cleveland's staff, along with other internal and external candidates.

Beyond his six-game interim stint, Alomar has no managing experience, but he has interviewed for jobs with the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Cubs in the past two years. The Indians understand that teams -- Boston and Colorado could be in the mix -- might want to interview Alomar for a managerial role this offseason as well.

"I would expect he'll get other opportunities to interview for a manager's job," Antonetti said. "Sandy has a lot to offer any organization. Selfishly, I'm hopeful that he will stay here, because he's had such a huge impact on us. At the same time, I want what's ultimately best for Sandy."

Smoke signals

• Indians manager Terry Francona spent much of the past two days reaching out to players and personnel within the Cleveland organization. He felt that was integral in the process of forging a bond with his new team.

"I'm getting up to speed in a hurry," Francona said. "But I probably need to do more listening in the next few weeks than talking, and learning about our players and what they're about. I've already started trying to reach out to as many as possible to start developing relationships."

• Francona was asked if he would talk to players about mistakes made during the past season. As an example, a reporter cited Chris Perez making critical comments about the team and its fans this year.

"This is a clean slate for everybody," Francona said. "For guys that did well, I'm aware. For guys that are maybe trying to atone, this is a clean slate. This is a chance for everybody. This is a good thing. I would never judge somebody on what they did in the past."

• Francona laughed when asked if the smaller media landscape in Cleveland was attractive to him, considering he spent his previous two managerial stints in Philadelphia and Boston.

"No, I didn't come here to go to pasture," Francona said. "I was either going to work here or go back and work at ESPN. I came here again, because I'm not afraid of a challenge, and the people here that I'm doing it with. I thought I was treated very well by the media in Boston."

Quote to note "It's the first important step. Obviously, we needed to make sure we got the right leader in place for our team and organization moving forward. That was our first priority. We feel Terry will be a very successful manager regardless of what decisions we make." --Indians general manager Chris Antonetti

Francona returns to a place he can trust Cleveland's new skipper drawn by potential to be part of culture of respect By Peter Gammons | Archive 10/08/12 9:21 AM ET It is the right place at the right time. All the rancor of his departure after eight historically successful seasons, including the sensational newspaper accounts of his personal life that never served relevance or purpose, has passed its expiration date.

Terry Francona spent a year being really good at television, but now he is back where he wants to be, in the clubhouse and the dugout. Is he bound to lead the Indians to their first World Series championship since 1948? Maybe, but that is not why it took him less time than it took him to go through security at Hopkins Airport to accept the job.

He knows Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti. Back in 2003, when he was going to Boston for an interview to replace , they played David Axelrod, coaching him for the grilling that he would face with Red Sox management and ownership.

Francona knows how Shapiro and Antonetti view managers. When Shapiro made the decision in 2003 to make the Indians' manager, he described the relationship between general manager and manager as "partners" who are equally responsible and accountable. Antonetti views the relationship the same way, so not only is there comfort in this managerial job, there is little that is unknown.

There is a wont to win in Cleveland. It has been 64 years since the Tribe won the World Series, 11 years before Francona was born in 1959, the season in which his father, Tito, batted .363 for the Indians. So there is some sense of home. For someone who grew up in western Pennsylvania watching his father referee college basketball games, he has come to a city that while struggling to rebuild its fiscal and population bases is a very good place to live. He can go out to dinner and not have it reported in a newspaper gossip column, he is not going to manage in a fishbowl and have to pregame and postgame press conferences explaining everything he or his players did.

Manny Ramirez may walk through the door again, but only for old-timers' games, and he is going to be managing young players with relatively modest paychecks who will look at his resume and appreciate that he has more World Series rings as a manager than any other currently in the Major Leagues.

Tony La Russa constructed a remarkable culture in St. Louis that carried through to the last game he managed, which was the seventh game of last year's World Series. He felt that culture -- which extended from the players to the coaches to the manager to the front office -- was built on three elements: trust, respect and caring. Antonetti and Shapiro are seeking a similar culture.

La Russa and built their legacies on their personal relationships with their players, finding time every day to reach out and converse with each one. Francona will do the same. He will make them laugh at times, he will be self-effacing, he and his coaches will take care of what has to be faced. He is a manager players trust because he will never sell them out for his own media benefit, and trust is the foundation on which respect and caring are built.

Francona has been a media guy for 11 months. He knows the Indians were 5-24 in August and that there is a lot of work to be done, a lot of pitching decisions that have to be made.

But he's back managing -- not being a celebrity, not wearing $1,000 suits to work, not getting makeup. Hey, he's already done something no other manager had done since World War I, and still he remembers what it was like to ride the buses in the Southern League or manage in the . He knows that's who he is, what he is, and that in taking the job with the , he knows going in that he'll be working with and for people whom he trusts, respects and cares about.

At this point in his life, that's a job, a really good job, that Terry Francona deserves.

Terry Francona hopes to stick around(AP) Tom Withers CLEVELAND -- Terry Francona signed a four-year contract with the Cleveland Indians. He hopes to stay even longer.

"I don't want to be a rental manager," Francona said Monday as he was introduced as the club's 42nd manager. "I didn't want to come in worried. I want to be part of the solution. I want to stick around.

"I didn't come here to go to pasture."

After accepting the managerial job with the Cleveland Indians, Terry Francona's first challenge is clear: Make something out of a stumbling starting rotation, writes. Blog

Francona, who led the to two World Series titles, was hired over the weekend by the Indians. He was chosen over Sandy Alomar Jr., who served as the club's manager for the final six games after Manny Acta was fired. Francona takes over an Indians team that collapsed from contention by going 5-24 in August and finishing 68-94, the third time in the past four seasons they have lost at least 90 games.

Francona and Alomar were the only candidates to interview for the job. Financial terms of Francona's deal were not immediately known.

Francona spent the past year as an analyst for ESPN, stepping away from the game after he and the Red Sox parted ways following the team's historic September collapse in 2011.

The 53-year-old previously worked in Cleveland's front office, and Francona said the chance to work again with Indians general manager Chris Antonetti and team president Mark Shapiro was the most intriguing aspect of taking the job.

The Indians have always held a special place for Francona. His 78-year-old father, Tito, played in Cleveland from 1959-64 and Francona said he cried when he told his father he had accepted the Indians' job.

Tito Francona attended his son's news conference.

Francona said he has not yet hired any coaches for his staff. Alomar could return as Cleveland's bench , but the 46-year-old could be a candidate for other managerial openings.

Since agreeing to join the Indians, Francona said he has reached out to several players and is eager to begin getting the team headed in the right direction.

"This is a clean slate for everybody," said Francona, who is excited about Cleveland's core of young players. "Dealing with players is fun. Dealing with young players is really fun."

Francona said the year working as a broadcaster has re-energized him. He missed being around players and felt uncomfortable when he returned to the clubhouse. He also learned from the mistake he made in his final season with the Red Sox.

"We didn't handle frustration very well and we paid the price," he said.

Francona won't have the same massive payroll he enjoyed in Boston, but Francona said he's never worried about a player's salary.

"I don't care what players are making," he said. "I want them to play the game right."

Francona will attend the team's organizational meetings this week in Goodyear, Ariz.

"I will do a lot of listening," he said. "I've got a lot of learning to do."

Terry Francona gets fresh start with Indians CLEVELAND (AP) — Terry Francona could have waited to manage somewhere else. At some point, a more talented team in a major market with a massive payroll would make him an offer.

But if he was going back, there was only one team for him.

And when the Cleveland Indians called, Francona was on his way.

"I knew it was right for me," he said.

Francona, who led the Boston Red Sox to two World Series titles, was introduced Monday as the new manager of the Indians, who crashed in the second half this season after contending for four months. It's a family reunion of sorts for Francona, who has ties with the Indians stretching back over 50 years.

His father, Tito, played six seasons in Cleveland and Francona spent a year working as an assistant in the Indians' front office after he was fired by Philadelphia.

Francona signed a four-year contract. He hopes to stay even longer.

"I don't want to be a rental manager," he said. "I didn't want to come in worried. I want to be part of the solution. I want to stick around. I didn't come here to go to pasture."

With an impressive resume that includes ending Boston's 86-year drought between world championships, Francona was picked by the Indians over Sandy Alomar Jr., who served as the club's bench coach before taking over as interim manager for the final six games after Manny Acta was fired on Sept. 27.

Francona is inheriting an Indians team that finished 68-94 and 20 games out of first place in the AL Central. Cleveland went 18-45 after July 27, an inexplicable collapse that cost Acta his job and sent Indians general manager Chris Antonetti and president Mark Shapiro searching for a strong leader to take over a club with young talent and potential.

They didn't have to look far. The night Acta was dismissed, Antonetti called Francona, who spent the past year working as an analyst for ESPN. Before long the two friends were hammering out contract terms.

"There's two main reasons I'm here today — Chris Antonetti and Mark Shapiro," Francona said. "We've kept in touch for the last 12 years. I value not only their friendship but their guidance and their leadership. I know we have challenges ahead of us but I look forward to us tackling these challenges as a unit, as a 'we.' I'm genuinely excited to do that."

After being introduced by Antonetti, Francona looked toward the back of the room, where his 78-year-old father sat proudly.

"In 1959, a guy hit .363 and that was the year I was born," Francona said, "and it just so happens to be the same guy that is the best father a son could ever ask. "

Francona said he became emotional when he informed his dad that he was the new manager of the Indians.

"I kind of cried a little bit," Francona said. "I didn't want to, but it just happened. You can't take a job because your dad was a good Indian, but it's a still a good story. It's pretty special."

Tito Francona said he offered his son some advice when he learned he was interviewing in Cleveland.

"I said, 'Stop right there,'" the elder Francona said.

Francona has not yet hired any coaches for his staff. Alomar is under contract for one more season with Cleveland and has been offered the chance to return as the team's bench coach. But the 46-year-old Alomar could be a candidate for other managerial openings in Boston and Colorado.

Since accepting the Indians' offer on Saturday, Francona said he has reached out to several players on Cleveland's roster and is eager to begin getting the Indians, who haven't made the playoff since 2007 — when they lost to Francona and the Red Sox in the ALCS — headed in the right direction.

"This is a clean slate for everybody," said Francona. "Dealing with players is fun. Dealing with young players is really fun."

Francona said the year working as a broadcaster has re-energized him. He acknowledged making mistakes during his final season in Boston as the Red Sox collapsed by going 7-20 in September and missed the playoffs. The pressure took its toll on Francona, forcing him to withdraw from the game and reflect "on what mattered to me."

"To do this job and do it correctly, you've got to be all in all the time," Francona said. "I was showing some signs of wear and tear. But I wouldn't have interviewed here if I didn't think it was the right thing to do."

Francona has some simple goals for the Indians.

"We're going to compete," he said. "We're always going to compete. We may not win every game, but we won't back down from anyone."

With Cleveland, Francona won't enjoy the same hefty payroll he had with the Red Sox, who were able to add high-priced free agents to complement their stable of young talent. While some fans fixate on baseball's economic imbalance, Francona said success and failure isn't predicated on dollars spent.

"Tampa has done if for years in the ," he said. "They've gone toe to toe with Boston and New York. Oakland is doing it. That's not something I spend a whole lot of energy on. My job is to get the players that we have to play the utmost of their ability, and then even beyond that to care about each other on the field fiercely and start building loyalty.

"I don't really care what players are making. What I want them to do is play the game right."

As word circulated around baseball of his interest in the Indians, Francona said he was met by some who wondered if he was serious.

Cleveland? Really?

"They said, 'What are you doing? Why don't you wait for a team that's guaranteed to win?' The people that were asking didn't know me as well as I thought," he said. "I'm looking forward to this challenge. I can't guarantee we're going to win. Nobody can, but I'm excited about the chance to go about this and make this better."

Marla Ridenour: Refreshed Terry Francona ready for Indians’ challenge By Marla Ridenour CLEVELAND: Terry Francona has two artificial knees. He survived a serious health scare in 2003 that kept him in intensive care for six weeks and even now might make him feel like an old 53. “I had a pulmonary embolism, I had staph infections, I had some compartment bleeding. You name it, I had it,” Francona said. “It aged me.” So did the 2011 season in Boston, which ended with a September collapse that led to his firing even though he had managed the Red Sox to two World Series championships and five playoff appearances in eight years. Now he realizes the forced sabbatical, spent working as an analyst for ESPN, was needed. “It was an important year,” he said. “I thought I lost a little bit of perspective. Taking a year [to step] back, it’s not easy to accept that you need to, but I think it was healthy for me. To do this job and do it correctly you’ve got to be all in all the time. I think I was showing some signs of wear and tear.” By the time Indians General Manager Chris Antonetti called and asked him to interview to become the Tribe’s 42nd manager, those signs were long gone. When Antonetti and Francona talked Friday, Francona told his friend he was “all in.” On Saturday, they completed a four-year deal, with Francona chosen over bench coach and interim manager Sandy Alomar, who had replaced Manny Acta with six games remaining. On Monday, Francona was introduced. Francona begins an emotional journey in the city where his father Tito played from 1959-64. The elder Francona, who spent 15 years in the majors, hit .363 in 1959, led the American League with 36 doubles in 1960 and was an All-Star in 1961. Calling to tell his father the contract was signed, Francona said he got choked up. “I kind of cried a little bit,” Francona admitted. “I didn’t want to, but it just happened. You can’t take a job because your dad was a good Indian. But it’s still a good story.” Tito Francona and his second wife, Jean, drove 90 miles from their home in New Brighton, Pa., for the news conference. Sharply dressed in a navy pinstriped suit, Tito, 78, never took his eyes off his son as he watched from the back of the room. “I didn’t want him to make any mistakes,” Tito said. Tito said he always considered the Indians “my home team.” So when Terry told him he was interviewing, Tito said his reaction was, “Stop right there.” “I didn’t want to get my hopes up, not until he had his name on that line,” Tito said. “I lost a lot of sleep over this.” His son didn’t. He made up his mind if the Indians picked Alomar, he would stay at ESPN and told his bosses at the network. But after serving as a manager for 12 years, four with the , Francona desperately missed the game. He realized that on his first assignment, which sent him to Florida on an ESPN bus with to interview four or five managers. “Tim Kurkjian said, ‘Ready?’ and I said, ‘For what?’ ” Francona said. “He goes, ‘We’ve got to go in the clubhouse.’ It hit me. He goes, ‘You need to do this.’ I spent a week with Tim and he was like my babysitter. “It was still hard to walk into the clubhouse because the clubhouse was my home. Now I’ve got a tie on and I’m a visitor.” Francona said he learned a lot at ESPN and made many friends. He talked with former Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden about burnout. But as the year went on, he found it increasingly difficult when he ran into those he knew in clubhouses across America. Francona was bursting with energy on his first day but vowed not to neglect his health. He takes blood thinners, and said if he’s hit by a foul ball, he’ll be bruised for a while. He might sit down to watch the last group of hitters during batting practice. He swims about a mile every day, a non-weight bearing exercise his knees can handle. “If I do that, I can go throw BP. I can be a working coach, which I want to be,” he said. But it sounds as if Francona will also be the Indians’ psychologist. He wants his players to “care about each other fiercely” and will strive to build loyalty. “I’ve been on some teams where there might be some carefree and loose guys, but once the game started, they had each other’s backs,” Francona said. “That’s special. You’ve got to fight to get to it, it doesn’t happen. But when you get to it, it’s unbelievable.” Francona is well aware of the challenge he is accepting. But he returned to managing because he likes building something special as much as he likes celebrating it. “When you can see guys jump on a pile, that’s the ultimate feeling because you see guys who have fought through so much. You see all the pure joy,” he said. “But about 10 minutes later, I’m like, ‘What’s next?’ The journey, I like that part of it.” Given the obstacles the Indians face, Francona’s journey may take longer than expected. But Monday at Progressive Field, the promise of joy was unmistakable. Akron Beacon Journal LOADED: 10.09.2012

Indians introduce manager Terry Francona By Sheldon Ocker CLEVELAND: In the run-up to the Indians’ hiring of Terry Francona as manager, the most repeated question on talk shows and among fans seemed to be: “Why would he take the job?” Here was a successful manager, the winner of two World Series with the Boston Red Sox, who had the cachet to pick and choose where he would work next, telling the world that his first choice was Cleveland for a franchise that famously keeps its payrolls low and its frustration level high.

When Francona was introduced at a news conference Monday at Progressive Field, his answer to the question was the essence of simplicity and more personal than professional. It wasn’t the money he would make, the prospects in the farm system or the kind of payroll that makes large-market teams steamroll mid-market teams.

“I am so honored and excited to be rejoining the Cleveland Indians family,” Francona said. “There are two main reasons I’m here today: Chris Antonetti and Mark Shapiro.

“I was on the treadmill at the 1999 winter meetings, Mark was next to me. If memory serves me right, I was going a lot faster [stops for laugh]. I struck up a conversation with Mark, and it led to a relationship that’s been going on 12 years now.

“When I was let go by [Philadelphia] Phillies in 2000, Mark reached out to me, and I ended up taking a job as special assistant in baseball operations. Through that, I met Chris and we immediately struck up a friendship that lasted until today.”

Apparently, the Tribe’s persistent struggle to fund the team and the scarcity of talent in the upper levels of the farm system were not important enough for Francona to change his mind. Asked if Antonetti, the general manager, tried to sell him on the fact that the club would do more to attract and keep talented players, Francona said, “He went to great lengths early to tell me that there would be challenges, and that didn’t scare me off.”

When did Francona make the decision to come to Cleveland?

“When Chris called me,” he said. “I knew it was the right thing to do.”

Francona made it clear that his job will be to manage the players he is given.

“I didn’t ask for that [larger payroll],” he said. “That wasn’t one of the questions. I don’t need to be the general manager or the owner. I don’t even know what the payroll was. My job is to build a relationship with every player on the team and get the most out of them.”

Francona is not working for free. Far from it. He was given a four-year contract, longest for an Indians manager in memory. His salary was not announced, but it is believed to be something close to the $4 million per season he received with the Red Sox.

After being described in glowing terms by Antonetti, Francona smiled and said, “After that introduction, I don’t think I got enough money.”

However, he described negotiations as lasting 10 minutes — it was a little longer than that, Antonetti said — and minimized the importance of the deal he made. Did the length of his contract mean he thought it would take four years to turn the team around?

“No, that had nothing to do with it,” Francona said. “I don’t know. That’s as much as they’d give me. Maybe I should have asked for six. I know I’m kind of making fun of this. It wasn’t a priority for me to be the highest-paid manager. I don’t want to be a rental manager. I want to be a part of the solution. I want to stick ’round for a while.”

Will Francona’s relationship with Antonetti blur the lines between the two executives and eliminate honest disagreement?

“Chris and I actually had this conversation,” Francona said. “I understand the chain of command. And they understand I want to make them proud. At the same time, I think we can have the ability to have an argument or two. But when you have a relationship, you go on from there.”

Added Antonetti, “We’ll actively seek that kind of discourse and discussion, Terry’s viewpoints. Those things are healthy for an organization.”

Hiring Francona should resonate well with the fans, but this was an unusual situation in that fan favorite Sandy Alomar was the other managerial candidate, who took over for the final six games of the season after Manny Acta was fired.

Alomar has been asked to take a coaching job [he was Acta’s bench coach] with the Tribe, but whether he accepts won’t be known for a while. Antonetti said there is no time limit on Alomar’s answer, and he understands that Alomar might be a serious candidate to manage another team.

Terry Francona is 'all in' as the Indians' new manager (with video) By Jim Ingraham [email protected] Don’t you just love happy endings?

The beginning of what the Indians hope will ultimately be a happy ending for them was a warm and fuzzy Francona feeling.

When 78-year-old Tito Francona, the long-ago Indians outfielder, received a call from his 53-year-old son recently, Terry the younger told Tito the elder he had accepted the job of managing his father’s former team.

“I cried a little,” said Terry, a former Tribe player himself (1988). “This is my third stint with the Indians. … It was emotional.”

Monday, the Indians announced they had signed Francona to a four-year contract to be the Tribe’s new manager. Based on Francona’s $4 million salary in 2011, his last year managing the Red Sox, the Indians are likely paying him $3 million to $4 million per year to lead them to Happyland.

Following Monday’s news conference, Francona and General Manager Chris Antonetti left for the team’s organizational meetings at the Tribe’s spring training home in Goodyear, Ariz., to work on the blueprints for the 2013 team.

“He’ll be extremely involved in every decision of consequence,” said Antonetti of his new manager.

The Indians, of course, could use some decisions of consequence, after coming off one of the most disastrous years in a decade of decadence competitively.

The four-year contract appears to be the longest such deal ever given to an Indians manager.

Asked about the length of the deal, Francona joked, “I don’t know. That’s as much as they would give me. Maybe I should have asked for six.”

If Francona can do what he did in Boston, it will be worth the wait for Indians officials and fans. Francona managed the Red Sox for eight years, making the playoffs in six of them and winning the World Series in two of those.

The Red Sox, of course, had money and talent.

The Indians have, um, Terry Francona as their new manager.

The new manager is clearly not intimidated by his team’s lack of resources.

“Chris went to great lengths early on (in the negotiations) to explain there may be some challenges. That didn’t scare me off. I appreciated it,” said Francona.

“I made Terry aware of the challenges,” said Antonetti. “His response was ‘I’m all in.’ ”

The Indians are coming off a 94-loss season. They normally don’t spend big on free agents, and their farm system is depleted at the upper levels.

Francona: What? Me worry?

“I’ll be happy taking the players we have,” he said. Francona’s why-I-took-a-job-nobody-thought-I’d-take explanation had less to do with the level of the Indians’ talent inventory than about the front office in charge of it.

“The two main reasons I took this job were Chris Antonetti and Mark Shapiro,” he said. “At the 1999 winter meetings, I was on a treadmill and struck up a conversation with Mark. That led to a relationship that has lasted 12 years. When I got let go (as manager) by the Phillies, Mark reached out to me.”

Shapiro hired Francona as a special assistant in 2001. Francona spent a year with the Indians, and he forged a relationship with Shapiro and Antonetti that eventually led to Monday’s announcement.

Now the three of them, plus their staffs, will try to put the Indians’ roster back together again.

Francona probably faces the biggest challenge. The last team he managed spent freely and always had one of the largest payrolls in the majors. His new team? Not so much.

Francona responded with a joke when asked what a large payroll can do for a manager.

“It can make you an analyst,” he said.

Francona had been an analyst with ESPN since getting fired by the Red Sox after the 2011 season.

More seriously, Francona said, “Having a big budget allows you to cover your mistakes. So (on a smaller payroll) you’ve got to limit your mistakes.”

Will Indians ownership spend a little more freely now that they’ve brought in a big-ticket name to manage the team? “I didn’t ask for that,” said Francona. “My job is to try to get the most out of the players. I don’t care about what they are making. I want them to play the game with respect and play it correctly. If we do that, we’ll be headed in the right direction.”

Clearly, though, the Indians are going to lean on Francona’s experience to help them revive the franchise.

“We’ll actively seek his views, and everything he brings to the table,” said Antonetti.

Francona said he has hit the ground running as the new manager, and has already reached out to 40 players and other members of the organization through phone calls.

As for his coaching staff, he said his first call was to the only other man interviewed for the job he got, Tribe bench coach Sandy Alomar.

It seems likely Alomar will be offered a spot on Francona’s staff if Alomar doesn’t land a managing job elsewhere. There are two jobs open — in Boston and Colorado.

“We’ve spoken to Sandy multiple times the last few days,” said Antonetti. “He just wants to make sure this is the right fit. Selfishly, I hope he stays with the organization. But I expect he will get interviews to manage.”

As for the makeup of the rest of the coaching staff, Antonetti said the Indians will consider both internal and external candidates.

Jim Ingraham: The Indians finally land a manager with star power in Terry Francona By Jim Ingraham [email protected] He has what no player on his new team has, and what nobody previously in his new job has had going back almost 40 years.

Star power.

Terry Francona has that.

He earned it by managing for eight years, eight extremely successful years, in the bubbling, boiling cauldron that is Boston baseball.

Absent his final month in that job — September 2011 — Francona tamed the Boston Beast. So much so he was recently named manager on the All- century team, commemorating the old ballyard's 100th anniversary.

Managing in a city so baseball mad that a with a toothache is front-page news, a city that equates a midweek night game in April vs. the Mariners with the seventh game of the World Series, where the fan base is considered not merely a "market" but a "nation," Francona flourished.

He won, and he won big. Five playoff appearances and two World Series titles in eight years. Sure, he had the best roster a $150 million payroll could buy, but so did his successor this year, and how did that work out?

Terry Francona has some chops, OK? Career wins as a manager: holds the Indians' record with 726. Francona has 1,029.

Meet the new boss. Not like any of the old bosses.

The 42nd manager of the Cleveland Indians was introduced to his new market (not nation) Monday.

Let the buzz begin.

The last time the Indians hired a manager with this kind of star power was in 1972, when they hired a rookie manager who just so happened to be the first black manager in the history of the sport — .

That got everybody's attention.

So did this.

The hiring of Manny Acta as manager three years ago was a local story. The hiring of Terry Francona is a national one. It brings instant credibility and relevance to a franchise with a desperate need for both. Starting with ownership on down, nobody on the Indians' corporate directory has more baseball been-there/done-that than Francona.

Better yet: He's rested, he's hairless (what is it with the Indians and bald managers?), and he's ready.

"I didn't come here to go out to pasture," said Francona.

Finally, the Indians catch a break. Just when they decided to change managers, the best unemployed manager on the market was not only ready to go "all in" again, but he and his family just happened to have a history with Cleveland. So this was a hiring and a homecoming. Good for him and good for them. Any team who finishes its season with Vinny Rottino starting in left field needs all the good karma it can get.

That serendipitous Cleveland Connection cannot be underestimated because, let's be honest, why would any guy with a resume like that be interested in a job like this?

No money to buy free agents, no immediate help on the farm, a diminishing fan base. Francona agreeing to take on this challenge is like Brad Pitt agreeing to star in a remake of "Porky's III."

"I wouldn't take this job if I wasn't all in," said Francona, who could have probably cooled his heels for another year as an analyst for ESPN's "" while waiting for a more attractive job to become available.

Amazingly, Francona said he was either going to take this one or go back to ESPN.

"I wasn't going to take a job I didn't want," he said, "or go from interview to interview."

That's right, he wants to manage here.

"The negotiations took about 10 minutes," said Francona. "When Chris (Antonetti) called, I knew it was the right thing to do."

Indeed, the biggest winner in this offseason, so far, is the Indians' general manager, who thought he had his next skipper already on board in Sandy Alomar Jr. — only to have a marquee manager fall into his lap.

That's obviously why the team's latest managerial search lasted just hours — not weeks or months. To their credit, Tribe ownership pried the lid off the cobweb-covered vault and ponied up enough of the big green to make the deal doable, although Francona said getting a big deal was not a big deal to him.

"My priority is not being the highest-paid manager," he said. "I don't want to be a rental manager. I want to be part of the solution. I want to stick around."

Francona struck around in Boston for eight years.

Here?

"I've been the manager for 12 minutes," he pleaded, as the questions came pouring into him, Niagara Falls-style, at Monday's coronation.

A miracle worker, he's not. A highly regarded and respected baseball man? Check.

But he also has what yet another bleak, black October baseball sky in Cleveland needs most.

Star power.

Indians: Proud dad Tito Francona thrilled for son Terry (with videos) By David S. Glasier [email protected] John Patsy “Tito” Francona spent six of his 15 major-league seasons wearing an Indians uniform.

As if it had happened yesterday, Francona recalled the day in April 1959 when he first arrived in Cleveland and drove past the steel mills and smokestacks belching pungent smoke into the sky.

“I got a good whiff and thought to myself, ‘This is just like home,’ ” said Tito Francona, who grew up close to steel mills on the outskirts of .

Francona, still lean and athletic looking as he nears his 80th birthday, was back in Cleveland on Monday to watch his 53-year-old son, Terry, address the media upon officially becoming the 42nd manager in Indians history.

Standing at the back of the interview room with his second wife, Jean, the elder Francona beamed with pride as his son singled him out as “the best father a guy could ever have.”

The elder Francona had by far the more distinguished big-league career, batting .272 with 125 home runs and 656 RBI.

In 1961, his third season with the Indians, Francona batted .363 and was named an American League All-Star.

Terry Francona spent nine non-descript seasons in the big leagues, batting .274 with 16 home runs and 143 RBI.

The younger Francona made his mark as a manager with the Philadelphia Phillies (1997 to 2000) and Boston Red Sox (2004 to 2011). He led the Red Sox to five playoff appearances and World Series titles in 2004 and 2007. “Terry has a good rapport with players. People here are really going to like him,” the elder Francona said.

Tito Francona recalled being in Cleveland in 2007 to watch his son’s Red Sox face the Indians in American League Championship Series.

“It was hard for me to root for Boston against Cleveland because Cleveland always was my home team,” he said.

The Red Sox, teetering on the brink of elimination in that ALCS, went on to win three straight games against the Indians.

Terry Francona on Monday smiled when apprised of his dad’s comments about feeling mixed emotion during the 2007 ALCS.

“He’s lying,” Terry Francona said.

Now that his son is managing his favorite team, the proud father won’t face that same conflict.

Indians: Francona introduced as manager

Filed by Chris Assenheimer October 8th, 2012 in Sports , Tribe Notes .

CLEVELAND — Terry Francona proved that he could work a room. Now, it’s time to see if the two-time world champion manager can work his magic with the Indians.

Francona was humorous, honest, engaging and all-around entertaining Monday during a news conference at Progressive Field to officially announce him as Cleveland’s next manager.

The news conference, which was attended by Francona’s mother and famous father Tito, opened with a glowing description of Francona from longtime friend and general manager Chris Antonetti.

“After that introduction, I don’t think I got enough money,” joked Francona, who agreed to a four-year contract, with financial terms not disclosed.

With his credentials, Francona, who won the job over an inexperienced Sandy Alomar Jr., was expected to command a hefty salary. He could have waited to see what his options were after the postseason, but the allure of working again with Antonetti and team president Mark Shapiro, was too enticing, according to Francona.

“There’s two main reasons I’m here today — Chris Antonetti and Mark Shapiro,” said Francona, who spent a year in Cleveland’s front office as special assistant to baseball operations in 2001 and has maintained a friendship with the duo. “I value not only their friendship but their guidance and their leadership. I know we have challenges ahead of us, but I look forward to tackling these together. I’m genuinely excited to do that. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here rejoining the Cleveland Indians family.

“It wasn’t a priority for me being the highest paid manager. I was happy that they gave me four years. I don’t want to be a rental manager. I want to be part of the solution, so I want to stick around. I didn’t come here to go to pasture.”

Francona, 53, joked that contract negotiations took around 10 minutes and that he did not require a commitment from ownership to spend more, something many expected to be a stipulation for the veteran manager.

“I didn’t ask for that,” he said. “We’re going to work together and figure out how to tackle challenges. I don’t need to be the general manager nor the owner. I’m perfectly content being the manager. I don’t know what the payroll is.

“I think having a big budget allows you to maybe cover up some of your mistakes, so you have to limit your mistakes.”

Like Alomar Jr., Francona’s ties to Cleveland are strong. In addition to his front office stint, Francona played one of his nine major league seasons with the Indians in 1988. And his father Tito is an Indians legend, part of the “100 Greatest Indians” roster after a six-year stint in Cleveland from 1959-64. “I kind of cried a little bit,” Francona said when he told his father he would be the next Indians manager. “I didn’t want to. It just happened. You can’t take a job because your dad was a good Indian, but it’s still a good story. My dad spent six years here. This is my third stint with the Indians and it’s pretty special. So, it was a little emotional.”

“I was with nine teams in 15 years but it was always Cleveland that was my home team,” Tito Francona said. “My roots were really with Cleveland. Terry has a good rapport with his players and people and they’re really going to enjoy him here.”

Francona, who after being dismissed following an eight-year stint in Boston spent this year as an analyst for ESPN, didn’t talk much player personnel.

“I think that’s putting the cart a little bit ahead of the horse,” he said. “I’m getting up to speed in a hurry. I probably need to do more listening in the next few weeks and learning about our players and what their about.

“We don’t know what the team is going to exactly look like next year, but the core of young position players, there’s some guys there that are exciting.”

When pressed on how close he thought the Indians were to competing in the Central Division, Francona had a quick response.

“Competing?” he asked. “About two minutes (away). We’re gonna compete. We’ll always compete. We may not win every game but we won’t back down from anybody.”

Francona’s success working with young players in Philadelphia and Boston appears to fit well with the Indians’ youth-laden roster.

“Obviously Terry’s had a lot of public success with teams and what they accomplished,” Antonetti said. “How those teams have gone about accomplishing those things have been important to us, specifically how he’s been able to take some of those talented guys from the minor leagues and helped them transition into in some cases major league stars and in other cases good major league players.

“It’s the total package with Terry that attracted us to him.”

Francona would not discuss his coaching staff candidates, but Alomar Jr. has already been offered a spot as bench coach. Alomar Jr. is expected to interview for potential managerial openings this offseason.

Tom Verducci>FIVE CUTS A's on the ropes, Reds on the verge and Orioles back on track CINCINNATI -- Can the Athletics and Nationals survive the postseason by accounting for nearly half their outs with ? Oakland already is on the verge of elimination in a rough matchup against Detroit: the team that strikes out the most in baseball against the No. 2 staff in the American League. Washington also would be down 2-games-to-0 in their NLDS but for the help from St. Louis manager in Game 1. Oakland has whiffed 23 times in two games. Washington has struck out 24 times. The clubs ranked first and fourth this year in striking out, with Houston and Pittsburgh between them. Strikeouts are not a big deal as long as you pound home runs, especially with runners on base, and both the Athletics and Nationals do have such thunder in their lineups. And strikeouts are a bigger part of the game than ever before in baseball history. But . . . there are limits to blithely accepting punchouts as the cost of doing business. Survival for Oakland might come down to how often they put the ball in play today in Game 3 against Detroit starter Anibal Sanchez. The sooner the better for Reds Though Cincinnati holds a comfortable 2-games-to-0 lead on San Francisco, Game 3 tonight looms large for the Reds in the bigger playoff picture. If the Reds can finish off the Giants tonight they will buy more time for ace Johnny Cueto to recover from the back spasms that knocked him out of Game 1 after just eight pitches. Homer Bailey, who was scheduled for Game 4, gets the ball tonight for the Reds. Reds general manager said last night that Cueto "received treatment twice" yesterday and reported that Cueto "said he felt much better." The Reds will continue to monitor Cueto today to see if he is available for Game 4 if that game is necessary. If the Reds lose tonight, manager 's options are to give the ball to Cueto after two days of treatment on his back or pitch on short rest after his 57-pitch emergency relief appearance in Game 1. Latos never has made a start on short rest. And if the Reds lose that one, then Baker might have to bring back Game 2 winner on short rest for Game 5. Arroyo has made eight career starts on short rest and has a superb record: 3-1 with a 3.19 ERA. A win tonight for Cincinnati would leave the Reds in the best position of all: a well-rested Cueto for Game 1 of the NLCS Sunday, either at home against St. Louis or in Washington. Winning ugly in October So much for pitching and defense winning postseason games. The Orioles and Yankees kicked the ball around for four errors last night. That brings the error count to 21 in all 10 postseason games, a rate of errors per game (2.10) that is almost what it was in the regular season (1.24). You best not keep trying to figure out this Oriole team. They did not play a clean Game 2 by any means. J.J. Hardy let a grounder go through his legs, which almost never happens in the big leagues. He also got deked by Yankees on what should have been a two-out run. (He should have picked up his third-base coach or seen the ball past shortstop , but did neither.) Rightfielder dove for a leadoff pop fly without having any shot of catching it, which was confirmed by his palm facing down as the ball hit the ground -- an error in judgment that allowed an extra base to set up a run. Matt Wieters failed to tag a runner who should have been out by a mile and let a pass right under his glove, allowing two runners to move up. But these are the Orioles, who somehow win close games without any style points. With the 3-2 win in Game 2, is now 30-9 in one- run games. That's just absurd. And this was only the fifth time they won a one-run game without a home run. Baltimore did go 3-for-6 with runners in scoring position, including an extremely rare opposite-field single by . How rare? Reynolds had 538 plate appearances this year. He had exactly two opposite field singles. Yep -- that's been the story of the Orioles. The myth of being clutch Is "clutch?" Most fans would tell you the guy "comes up big" in the postseason and "steps up his game." He does have a sterling reputation in October. And Pettitte threw well last night in Baltimore even though he took the loss. But actually, Pettitte is almost exactly the same in the postseason as he is in the regular season. He has made 43 postseason starts, so the biggest sample size in postseason history does yield big moments that influence how we think of him as a "big game pitcher." Where you give credit to Pettitte is that he is able to maintain his standard of pitching under pressure -- not that he elevates it. With the loss last night, Pettitte wins and loses games in October at the exact same rate as he does in all other months. Just about all other facets of his game remain the same. Check the freakish similarities in Pettitte's work: Andy Pettitte Career Numbers Time W-L PCT ERA WHIP Postseason 19-11 .633 3.83 1.30 Regular Season 245-142 .633 3.86 1.35 Third and wrong The Yankees lost a one-run game that ended with their best hitter in the on-deck . As Alex Rodriguez struck out to end the game, denying Robinson Cano a fifth , the questions about why manager continues to bat Rodriguez third seem even more pointed. Remember when Girardi batted Cano third at the end of last season? It was a statement that this was now Cano's team -- and the second basemen consolidated that statement with a 1.057 OPS against Detroit in the ALDS. Rodriguez hasn't hit a home run in 77 at-bats since Sept. 14 -- almost a month. Since then, he has batted .234 with a .247 (just one extra-base hit, a double) while striking out 25 times in 19 games. He is 1-for-9 in this ALDS with five punchouts. Rodriguez is a .254 playoff hitter with New York, including a slash line of .169/.282/.203 in his past 16 postseason games.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/tom_verducci/10/09/game-3-reds-giants-athletics-tigers-andy- pettitte/index.html#ixzz28o5bdvsg