The Star's longtime columnist also discusses how UA's Tommy Lloyd is embracing his team's much-tougher schedule, Sahuaro naming its football field after former coach Howard Breinig, why Deandre Ayton struggled in Phoenix and how Brent Strom played a huge role in the Diamondbacks' turnaround.
Francona's long career full of memorable moments
My favorite Terry Francona stories:
• November, 1994. Francona, manager of the Scottsdale Scorpions, an Arizona Fall League club, walked from the clubhouse at Hi Corbett Field 60 minutes before that night’s made-for-Tucson game between Scottsdale and Tempe. An overflow crowd of 7,836 already occupied every space in the ballpark.
No, they weren’t there to see Francona, the 1980 NCAA baseball player of the year who led the Arizona Wildcats to the national championship. They were there to see Michael Jordan, a .256-hitting outfielder Francona coached the previous summer for the Double-A Birmingham Barons.
Yes, that Michael Jordan.
As I stood in the dugout for Francona’s press conference, it felt like a rock concert. There must’ve been 20 reporters surrounding Francona. There were so many TV cameras I could barely see or hear him.
At that moment, Tucson Citizen sports columnist Corky Simpson walked toward the dugout. Francona pushed his way through the mob of reporters, shook Simpson’s hand and gave him a bro-hug.
“Guys,’’ Francona said to the reporters, “this is as fine a man and reporter as you’ll ever meet.’’
Simpson blushed, took out a notepad and stood near the back of the pack. He had covered Francona’s epic UA career, 1978-80. Francona, didn’t forget an old friend at a time he was part of the biggest story in baseball.
• December, 2016. A few weeks after the Cleveland Indians, managed by Francona, engaged in an epic World Series confrontation with the Chicago Cubs — the Cubs won in seven memorable games — Francona sat in his customary front-row seat at McKale Center across the floor from Arizona’s bench.
A friend tapped me on the shoulder as I was sitting on press row, maybe 25 feet from Francona.
“Can you introduce my dad to Francona?’’’ she asked. “He’s from Cleveland.’’
It was an ambush. I walked to Francona, pointed to the man from Cleveland, and the Indians’ manager walked to a railing separating fans from the floor seats. I introduced them.
“I’m a Cubs fan!’’ the man said eagerly and much too loudly. “I loved the World Series.’’
Instead of responding negatively, Francona shook the man’s hand and congratulated him for breaking the “Curse of the Billy Goat,’’ one that had shadowed the Cubs forever. The man then asked for an autograph. Neither had a pen or pencil.
“I’ll get one,’’ said Francona, who walked back to his seat and got a pen from a friend. Talk about a class act.
Terry Francona signs autographs for fans before the University of Arizona Wildcats baseball alumni game in 2018 at Hi Corbett Field.
• December 2000. On the ninth hole at the Omni Tucson National Golf Club, Francona lined up a wicked downhill, 40-foot putt with a huge break. He was playing in a benefit tournament with Eddie Leon, the UA’s first baseball No. 1 draft pick, Tucson attorney Burt Kinerk and a sportswriter with ketchup stains on his shirt.
If Francona made the putt, our team would finish 17 under par, an unforgettable day where every putt seemed to drop.
Francona tapped the putt and watched as it rolled and rolled and rolled — directly into the cup. He did a Phil Mickelson-type leap, airborne, sprinted to the cup, shouting and laughing. He gave me and our teammates the tightest bear hugs I’ve ever had the pleasure to receive.
“We won!’’ he shouted. “We won!’’
We then repaired to the clubhouse for lunch and a celebratory beer. Francona never stopped smiling, engaging dozens of golfers who stopped by to offer congratulations.
There’s more to life than beating the Cubs.
• September, 2023. Former Tucson High baseball coach Oscar Romero, who won 488 games as the Badgers’ coach, the No. 2 mark in city history, is battling liver cancer. He is in line for a transplant. Last weekend, Romero’s family and friends staged an enormously successful fund-raiser at the Kay Lee Events Center in South Tucson.
The raffles, auctions and donations raised a significant amount to help pay for Romero's medical treatment.
A day or so before the auction, former UA baseball coach Jerry Stitt, a close friend of Francona’s for more than 40 years, collaborated with ex-UA pitcher Bill Kinneberg — Francona’s UA teammate — in a last-minute attempt to acquire an autographed baseball, a Cleveland Guardians cap and a Francona game jersey in time for the event.
Bingo. Francona delivered. He signed all of them.
Said Stitt: “A day doesn’t go by when there isn’t a tribute or retirement article on Tito. I read them all, every word, with great joy, great sadness, but above all with an immeasurable sense of pride. No single article or combination of articles can do anything more than touch the surface of Tito.’’
Amen. When Francona manages his last MLB baseball game Sunday, he will retire with the 13th-highest victory total (it was 1,949 through Friday) in baseball history. That’s across 23 years, with two World Series championships (Boston, 2004 and 2007) and decades of setting an example of how to treat others with respect and kindness.
Francona plans to return to Tucson, have shoulder surgery, and then enjoy life away from baseball, although last week he said he might coach his grandson’s Little League team.
Stay tuned. Fracona’s next public appearance is sure to be at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in August 2028.
Lloyd’s path to the top: Take the steep climb
Of all the things Arizona men's basketball coach Tommy Lloyd said in his multiple media appearances last week, this one stuck: “My job doesn’t need to be easy.’’
That much became clear when Lloyd willingly agreed to play non-conference games this season against Duke, Michigan State, Purdue, Alabama, Wisconsin and rising power Florida Atlantic. Only one of those games (Wisconsin) will be played at McKale Center.
That’s not how Sean Miller did it at Arizona.
Said Lloyd: “I have an obligation to this athletic department to help it meet its budget."
Arizona men’s basketball coach Tommy Lloyd has a laugh while watching the antics at mid-court with school president Robert Robbins at the Red-Blue Showcase Friday night. Lloyd and the Wildcats will face the school’s toughest nonconference slate since the Lute Olson days this year.
Arizona’s 2023-24 schedule, with six potential Top-25 nonconference opponents, ranks with Lute Olson’s perennially tough-as-nails schedules. A year after Arizona played in the 2001 Final Four, Olson played seven — yes seven — Top 25 nonconference teams: No. 2 Maryland, No. 5 Illinois, No. 6 Maryland, No. 8 Kansas, No. 22 Texas, No. 23 Michigan State and No. 25 UConn.
That’s a murderer’s row streak of opponents that will probably never be broken, although Olson never backed down. Here’s the other Arizona teams that Lloyd’s 2023-24 club will challenge for strength of schedule:
• 1989-90 — Arizona played No. 3 Duke, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 7 UNLV, No. 4 Michigan as well as a road game (a loss) at Pitt.
• 1997-98 — Arizona played No. 2 Kansas, No. 3 Duke, No. 8 Kentucky, No. 15 New Mexico and No. 17 Florida State.
At Friday’s Red and Blue Showcase, Lloyd used the public address microphone to say, among other things, that last year’s first-round NCAA loss to Princeton “is gonna be the best gift I ever had in coaching.”
It’s clear that Lloyd re-assessed his approach to coaching after that embarrassing exit. He has chosen to play a more difficult schedule, tried to develop a rotation of eight or nine players, which makes coaching much more complicated, and wear a hard hat instead of an easy-as-she-goes persona.
At first glance, this year’s club appears to be quicker and thicker, with more skilled bigs and more talented guards than his first two UA teams.
Bring on Duke, right?
Sahuaro to name football field after ex-coach Breinig
One of the most encouraging developments of the week was that Sahuaro High School announced it will name its football facility “Howard Breinig Field’’ before a Nov. 3 home game against Pueblo.
It will fit nicely with Sahuaro’s tradition-rich sports facilities, which includes the Dick McConnell Gymnasium and the Hal Eustice baseball field. It will be the first school in Tucson to name all three of its major sports after an uber-successful coach.
Sahuaro High School football coach Howard Breinig took the Cougars to four state championship games between 1984-94.
Breinig coached at Sahuaro from 1979-94, leading the Cougars to state championship games in 1984, 1991, 1993 and 1994, which were the glory days of high school football in Tucson. The competition was fierce from all corners.
His teams played the way Breinig played when he was the captain of Arizona’s 1962 football team, a 5-foot 8-inch, 185-pound guard from Pennsylvania who didn’t give an inch to much larger opponents.
By my count, Breinig Field will become the seventh prep football facility in Tucson named after a former coach. They are:
• Ev Nicholson Field, Catalina
• Vern Friedli Field, Amphitheater
• Curly Santa Cruz Field, Pueblo
• Ed Brown Field, Cholla
• Rollin Gridley Stadium, Tucson High
• Wayne Jones Field, Mountain View
Short stuff: Ayton's NBA struggles not a huge surprise
• Deandre Ayton’s last game at Arizona, a shocking 89-68 NCAA first-round collapse to Buffalo in 2018, should’ve given NBA scouts more of an insight into what type of pro player Ayton would be.
He usually dominated smaller players, but Buffalo coach Nate Oats said that 6-7 Nick Perkins and 6-8 Jeremy Harris were able to shut Ayton down. “The more we watched game films, the more beatable he looked,’’ Oats said that day in Boise, Idaho. “Ayton’s really good, but you can take him out of a game. You can park a guy on Ayton, sitting right behind him, the whole time.’’
Ayton seemed to go numb against Buffalo. He only attempted five free throws. Had he been bullish, he might’ve shot 15 or more and changed the game. Instead, Ayton often played on cruise control, both at Arizona and in the NBA.
Ayton was never a go-to guy for the Phoenix Suns. He was a fourth option. I think he would’ve been viewed much differently had he been, say, the No. 5 overall pick in 2018 instead of No. 1. The weight of being drafted ahead of Luka Doncic and Trae Young seemed to follow him.
Deandre Ayton, right, is headed to Portland after never quite living up to expectations as the Phoenix Suns' No. 1 overall pick.
Now he’s looked at like more of a salary dump; the Suns got rid of the $133 million remaining on his contract. Perhaps as a Portland Trail Blazer, Ayton won’t carry so many expectations and his mild demeanor will be accepted. ...
• Arizona assistant softball coach Lauren Lappin was inducted into the Stanford Sports Hall of Fame Friday night, an impressive class that included former NFL quarterback Andrew Luck.
Some consider Lappin the best softball player in Stanford history, or perhaps second to Jessica Mendoza. Lappin, a defensive whiz at shortstop, led Stanford to its only Pac-10 championship, 2005, and was named a first-team All-American in 2004 and 2005, before helping coach Mike Candrea’s 2008 Olympic team win a silver medal.
My two cents: Tucsonan Strom part of D-backs' postseason push
It took almost 40 years for baseball insiders to realize that Tucsonan Brent Strom was one of baseball’s best pitching coaches. He finally got his due in 2017 when, at 69, he helped the Houston Astros win the World Series, and followed that by winning 101, 103 and 107 games the next three full seasons.
That’s when Strom announced he was leaving the Astros. Most assumed that Strom, then 72, would retire.
Arizona Diamondbacks pitching coach Brent Strom, left, has been a major reason for the team's quick turnaround.
Instead, he took on perhaps the most difficult challenge for a pitching coach in MLB, agreeing to be the Arizona Diamondbacks’ pitching coach, a team that was coming off a 110-loss season.
Strom turns 75 this month, but the Diamondbacks are closing in on the playoffs and if the former Tucson Toro player and coach is not MLB’s pitching coach of the year, who is?
VIDEO: UA and NBA alumni Channing Frye and Richardson Jefferson share their thoughts on being former players joining the sports media space during a virtual interview Sept. 27, 2023 ahead of the the Wildcats' 2023 Red-Blue Showcase. Frye and Jefferson are in Tucson to co-host the Sept. 29 event. (Video courtesy Arizona Athletics)
