"This is the best book looking inside the mind of a big-league manager I have ever read, because Francona is sharp and loves the game, because Shaughnessy is eloquent and a dazzling storyteller."—Philadelphia Daily NewsWhen Terry Francona took over as manager of the Boston Red Sox in 2004, the storied franchise hadn’t won a World Series championship in eighty-six years. Led by Francona, the team won two over the course of four years. During the full eight years of Francona’s tenure, the Red Sox were transformed from “cursed” into one of the most successful and profitable teams in baseball history—only to fall back to last place as soon as Francona was gone.Francona: The Red Sox Years lets readers in on the inner workings of the Red Sox clubhouse like no book has ever done before. From the highs of the World Series to the lows of the final months of the 2011 season—the most epic collapse of a team in baseball history—this book features the never-before-told stories about Sox fans’ favorite players, moments, wins, and losses. “A scorched-earth memoir . . . [that] touches fleetingly on steroid use, sabermetrics, and Michael Jordan’s stint in the minor leagues . . . but saves its heaviest artillery for the owners . . . [and] Theo Epstein backs him up.”—New York Times Book Review“It’s not often that baseball aficionados and gossip gluttons can plunk down on a shared portion of outfield grass with the same book for an afternoon of readerly delight, but Francona can bridge those kinds of differences.”—Boston Globe Read Less