This past week was a sad one for baseball.

One wouldn’t think so, with the postseason getting under way and all of the intriguing story lines that go with that.

But Terry Francona, a New Brighton resident who has served the game as a successful major league manager for approximately 25 years, retired as skipper of the Cleveland Guardians after the 2023 regular season ended. Now 64, he will stay with the Cleveland organization in another capacity, but health issues in recent years have forced him from the dugout.

I only had one encounter with Francona during my sports reporting years. It was enough to show me what a classy guy he is.

Current Butler High School boys basketball coach Matt Clement was pitching for the Boston Red Sox, who were managed by Francona at the time. Since Clement signed with the Red Sox and the American League, we didn’t get much of a chance to cover his games live anymore.

The Red Sox were coming to Cleveland for a mid-week series. Now retired Eagle employee Ed Nebel, who dabbled in photography, went with me on a drive over there to do a feature on Clement.

I wanted to make sure we got there early enough to talk to Francona, catcher Jason Varitek and Clement before the game. We figured we got there in plenty of time.

But when I met up with the Red Sox media relations director at the ballpark, he told me I was too late to talk to Francona. He did his “media scrum” earlier in the day.

So I’m hanging around in front of the Boston dugout during pregame warm-ups. I had already talked to Clement and Varitek. I was hoping to somehow catch Francona for a moment or two.

He was standing over by first base, talking to a player, then turned and walked toward the dugout. This was my chance.“

“Excuse me, Mr. Francona?”

“Call me Tito. What can I do for you?”

“Well, my name’s John Enrietto, I write for the Butler Eagle and am here doing a feature ...”

“On Mattie? Matt Clement? Hey, anything for Butler and Western Pennsylvania. Fire away.”

We stood and chatted in front of the dugout for nearly 20 minutes. Francona made sure I had all of the information I needed before rejoining his team.

That impressed me. I was some guy he didn’t know, from a small local newspaper, who missed his earlier gathering with reporters, and he gave me his time regardless. That may not sound like much, but it shows what type of person he is.

The man played nine seasons in the big leagues. He won 1,950 games as a manager, winning two World Series with Boston and getting to another with Cleveland. In his first year as skipper of the Red Sox, he guided the team to its first World Series title in 86 years.

Francona is also the only manager to win his first eight World Series games.

Yet he talked to a small-town reporter about an athlete from Western Pennsylvania, a place he proudly calls home.

The man made a lasting impression on me that night, for sure.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle.