BOSTON - There's plenty of history between John Farrell and Terry Francona. The two played together, coached together, and have become the best of friends.
That's why Francona will join Farrell for his first chemotherapy treatment on Tuesday.
But interim manager Torey Lovullo also has a relationship with Farrell, albeit it a bit different.
Lovullo played for Francona in 1999 with the Phillies, though he only appeared in 17 games. Despite not having been with the team for the majority of the season, Lovullo spoke very highly of Francona. After his playing days were over, Lovullo got to know Francona even more when he became manager of the PawSox in 2010.
"He quickly became one of my favorite managers because of the personality and just the guy," Lovullo said. "What's not to love about him? And then I saw him from a different angle when I came here in 2010 and worked here as a triple-A manager. He was so good to me and he was so fun to be around. He was a guy that brought me along in every way that he could and every area that he could because he knew that I was going to pay attention and watch some of the things he was doing in running his ball club.
"But I just had a general appreciation for the way he communicated with everybody. The way he got to know his guys. The more information you got to know about his guys he felt was going to help him put them in the right position to succeed. It'll be good to see him, it's good to know that he's here for a lot of different reasons. We're here to compete against his team. It should be a lot of fun for all of us."
Francona joked that he must be getting old when another manager talks about the time he played for him, but he appreciated hearing Lovullo say Francona along with Sparky Anderson were the two managers that had the biggest impact on him.
"I think there's a difference, you hear people say, 'Well I enjoy playing for him.' That's easy," Francona said. "I think what you want is guys to respect and learn and maybe not necessarily when it all goes well. Maybe when they're not playing. I give Torey some real [respect]. Tough when he didn't make the club, that's a hard thing to do. He was the last sent down one year and when you get down to that last week, it's hard. So you end up kind of closer to those guys than maybe you would expect after six weeks of spring training."
