Hansen's Hundred, No. 35: Terry Francona among Wildcats' best baseball players

Arizona’s baseball recruiting class of 1977 was what you would expect a year after the Wildcats won the 1976 national championship. It was full of big names.

Second baseman Kevin Schoendienst, son of St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst, arrived from Missouri. Outfielder Fred W. Enke Jr., son of the UA’s iconic former NFL quarterback by the same name, had been one of Arizona’s top prep ballplayers. Mike Wing, son of UA pitching coach Jim Wing, had been a star at Pima College.

And that was just the start. Coach Jerry Kindall’s Class of ’77 included future big-league players Craig Lefferts, Craig Chamberlain and Brad Mills.

But the big name was outfielder Terry Francona of Brighton, Pennsylvania, son of Tito Francona, a 15-year major-league first baseman. The young Francona was so highly coveted that he had been a second-round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals, but declined a bonus offer, choosing to attend Arizona and play for Kindall, his father’s old Cleveland Indians teammate.

“I wanted to get a college education,” Francona told the Star.

A week or so before classes began for the 1977-78 school year, Kindall held a team meeting. Francona, whose long hair, typical of the era, hung to his shoulder, was told that he would have to get a haircut ASAP.

He did. He and the other big name recruits bought into Kindall’s team-first edict so well that in 1980, Arizona won the College World Series. Francona was named the nation’s top college baseball player, winning the Golden Spikes Award, baseball’s version of the Heisman Trophy.

Francona, who is No. 35 on our list of Tucson’s Top 100 Sports Figures of the last 100 years, was as good as advertised.

He hit .401 as a junior with 81 RBIs, the second-highest total in school history to this day. He completed his three-year Arizona career with 200 RBIs, 61 doubles and 395 total bases, all records for three-year players that still stand.

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“I followed Terry very closely through his high school years,” Kindall told me. “During spring training in the early ‘60s, most of Cleveland’s married couples stayed at the old Alvernon Gardens, where the DoubleTree Hotel is now. (Tito’s) family lived next door. Our kids played together. We became close. When Terry became a skilled high school player in Pennsylvania, I wasn’t about to let him get away.”

Francona’s ties to Tucson have remained strong.

He sits in the front row during Arizona basketball games at McKale Center, directly across from the UA bench. He donated more than $1 million to build the Terry Francona Hitting Center at Hi Corbett Field. He spends baseball’s offseason in his home near the Westin La Paloma and has become close friends with 1960s Arizona All-America shortstop Eddie Leon.

In baseball lore, Francona will be known most for being the manager of Michael Jordan’s Double-A season playing for the Birmingham Barons in 1994, and for managing the Boston Red Sox to the 2004 World Series championship, ending an 86-year drought.

In November 1994, Francona returned to Hi Corbett Field as manager of Jordan’s Arizona Fall League team. An overflow crowd of almost 10,000 squeezed into the ballpark.

About 90 minutes before the first pitch, Francona held a press conference in the first base dugout. He was asked about his days at the UA.

“I got to play for Jerry Kindall,” he said. “That’s the reason I’m here today. The foundation I got at Arizona, learning from Jerry and Jim Wing and Jerry Stitt, taught me about all I know about baseball and about working with others. I’ll never forget those years.”

At Arizona, Francona became close friends with his Class of ’77 teammate, Brad Mills, who went on to play in the big leagues, manage the Houston Astros and work for Francona as the top assistant coach for the Red Sox and Indians.

Last fall, after spending most of the last 40 years playing with or working for Francona, Mills decided to retire and work at his cattle ranch in Granbury, Texas. But rather than text Francona or give him a call, Mills flew to Tucson and drove to Francona’s house to tell him how much he appreciated their years together.

The friendship that began 43 years earlier at Wildcat Field carries on today, as does Francona’s legacy to the Tucson sports community.