By   Terry Pluto, cleveland.com.   ▪︎CLEVELAND, Ohio –    “Will you miss it?”

I asked Terry Francona that question as he basically said this is his last season managing the Guardians.

Francona told a story.

Francona was the 1980 College Baseball Player of the Year at Arizona. He was a first-round pick by the Montreal Expos. In his two minor league seasons, he was a .336 hitter. In 1982, he was batting .321 after 46 games when he slid into second base and suffered a major knee injury. ....

This was before the medical advancements in surgery. He never was close to the same player after that operation. More surgery would follow.

By 1991, Francona was in spring training with St. Louis. He had been bouncing from team to team, from the majors to the minors, for several years.

He was cut by the Cardinals.

When he came home, he packed all his playing gear in a bag.

“I put my equipment bag in the closet in my house,” he said, “I can’t find it now, but I never opened it. Point being, I never looked back. I never missed playing. I think I had given everything I had and I knew it. It was getting hard and I never looked back.”

Then Francona moved into the present tense.

“I think that’s probably where I’m at now,” he said. “I’m in a pretty comfortable place.”

HIS BODY SENDS A MESSAGE

Francona explained that he needs major shoulder replacement surgery. He was told, “That’s pretty lengthy (recovery time).” He also said he needs two hernias removed.

He’s 64. This has been a hard season. No doubt, the frustrations of the injuries, losing, and trades have piled up on him.

But the health issues also weigh him down.

Almost forgotten was Francona missing a few games at the end of June in Kansas City. It was originally announced the manager was hospitalized because he was “feeling light-headed.”

When Francona returned, he explained: “The last couple days … my heart rate was high, my blood pressure was high. I’d be sitting here, sweating. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know something was not right.”

In 2017, Francona had a “cardiac ablation procedure” at Cleveland Clinic. He has dealt with so many health problems over the years, he has what the Cleveland Clinic people call “The Tito Suite” at the world-renowned health center.

Guardians president Chris Antonetti didn’t directly talk about Francona’s future. He wanted the manager to tell his own story.

But when I asked Antonetti about Francona’s health battles, he said, “He’s the toughest guy I’ve ever been around.”

A BASEBALL ETERNITY

Guardians GM Mike Chernoff, Antonetti and Francona are in their 11th season together. That’s like a million years in pro sports. ....

They have had nine winning seasons in those first 10 years – six trips to the playoffs. This is probably his most discouraging year, given the team’s 60-66 record. This comes after last year’s 92-70 season and victory over Tampa Bay in the first round of the playoffs.

But the big issue is his health. Francona missed large chunks of 2020 and 2021 because of physical problems.

“Every winter, I’ve been trying to get healthy for the season and then I get beat up. I need to go get healthy for life. This lifestyle is just too difficult. I went to see the doctor this morning just to set these things up. Trying to be logical, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Francona sometimes mentioned how he worried he couldn’t physically meet the demands of the job.

Antonetti said no one is as hard on Francona as the manager is on himself.

A few times in his last two press conferences, Francona talked about being “beat up” because of all his health problems. The Guardians want to keep him in the organization, but that’s something that will be discussed later.

.... Now, it’s time for him to rest up once the season is over. He’s earned that.    EOM.  A really good read.