Francona on D&H: 'Tek's true colors showed'

Terry Francona joined Dale & Holley to take one last look at the 2010 season as well as look back at 2004 after the recent 30-for-30 documentary about the American League Championship series. The manager was asked about his decision to lift Jason Varitek during the season's final game so he could get an ovation from the Fenway crowd.

"I thought Tek's true colors really showed this year," Francona said. "Things didn't work out the way he expected them to. Going all the way back to when we acquired Victor [Martinez], this guy had a lot of chances to either want to go somewhere else or not show his leadership, and all he did was get better. He got more vocal. He got more open. He communicated. I just wanted him to have a chance to let the fans show their appreciation." 

On the bullpen, Francona said that the price tag was simply too high to make a trade at the deadline. "I thought we were pretty realistic leaving spring training. We were hoping that between Manny Delcarmen and [Hideki Okajima] and Ramon [Ramirez], that not all would struggle at the same time. That was kind of disappointing and it made it rough for us. Saying that, we got to the trading deadline and when Theo [Epstein] was telling me what they were asking, we were desperate for help, I couldn't even ask him to [make those trades]. It was people trying to hold you up and any general manager in their right mind wouldn't have done that and I don't blame Theo."

Franconca was asked if there was a point in the season when the injuries overwhelmed him as a manager. "I actually thought we could be good enough to compete," he said. "I thought it was getting harder, but I still felt like if everything went right we could compete. Unfortunately we could never string together that run."

On who surprised him the most: "How in the world are you supposed to know about a Daniel Nava or a Darnell McDonald? Mac had five spring training at bats. They come up and help us win games immediately. Those were some pretty cool things that happened. Saying that, the reasons those things happened is because our guys got hurt. I told Billy Hall early in camp, 'If you get enough at bats to where you're happy that means something went wrong,' and that's what happened. He hit a bunch of home runs, but when he had 350 at bats, that means that somebody went down or multiple people went down."

The guys asked Francona his memories about the 2004 ALCS. On Kevin Millar, Francona said, "You've always heard me say you've got to be true to yourself and everyone's different. That's how he was. He was like that every day, it just wasn't always on camera. You can't pull that act off if it's not legit, but he was. He was just dumb enough to think we could do it and guys followed him. We wouldn't have won without him, I guarantee that." 

On the Curt Schilling performance: "I took for granted Schill's will to not only be out there, but to win. I never questioned the fact that he would pitch. That probably was very unfair to him. Because of what he went through, he had no business being out there. He had no business being able to cover first. He had no business being able to pitch successfully, and I never for one minute thought he wouldn't."

For more highlights, check the Full Count blog. To hear the whole interview, go to the Dale & Holley audio on demand page. For more Red Sox news, click on the team page at weei.com/redsox.