Oct. 24 Terry Francona workout day interview

THE MODERATOR: First question for Terry Francona.

Q. We were talking to Danny in there. He said that he was informed he’s on the roster. What can you tell us about that decision, and how he looked in the sim game yesterday?

TERRY FRANCONA: Nothing’s official, but Danny is going to be on, and Cody Anderson will be taken off for this series. Now, again, nothing’s official, so if we have another drone incident or anything with model airplanes or anything, we reserve the right till we have to turn it in.

But Danny threw last night, and he threw three innings and under those circumstances, it’s not the easiest to probably reach your best velocity, but he was getting after it pretty good. So, it gives us — we’ve talked about using three starters, then after the third game we’d kind of see where we are. We have Merritt, we have Danny. Neither one would pitch a full game, but between those two, you know especially with Danny, it gives you a guy that made the All-Star team that we could pitch really whenever we want.

So it’s another really good arm that’s kind of a wild card that we think could help us.

Q. Two-part question for you.

TERRY FRANCONA: Go slow.

Q. You’ve known Joe Maddon an awfully long time. Just your thoughts on him as a manager, and what he’s meant to this game. Number two, who were your influences on the managerial side, guys that maybe made you want to be a manager and kind of molded you into who you are today?

TERRY FRANCONA: One, I would never evaluate another manager. I don’t think that’s my job. I think Joe’s career speaks for itself. He started in Tampa and had the ability down there to kind of almost do what he wanted. He always pushed the envelope trying to do some things, whether it was playing four outfielders against Ortiz. The one thing he’s always had the ability to do is keep a clubhouse together, which is saying a lot, during the course of 162 games, keeping guys going in one direction. I mean, certainly there’s a lot more to him than that. He’s very intelligent. But just for the fact that he gets teams going and believing is a pretty big compliment in itself.

As far as people you learn from, I mean, shoot, from the time I was able to carry a glove or a bat, because my dad played, I always watched my dad do everything, and he was by far the biggest influence in my life and in baseball. But then, because I wasn’t a very good player, there were a lot of Major League managers I played for. I think it was 16, so I paid attention a lot. It’s a lot of philosophies. A lot of different ways of handling things.

Buddy Bell, who I roomed with in Cincinnati, was a huge factor. Then he hired me as a third base coach, and a lot of how I feel about the game is because of Buddy.

Q. A couple Cubs players who you have a shared past with, how would you describe your relationship with Jon Lester, and do you remember the day you showed Anthony Rizzo around Fenway?

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, Jon, when you know young players when they’re first coming through, like when they’re coming from Double-A, Triple-A to the Big Leagues, you almost get a little bit of a feeling, almost a paternal feeling, and I don’t ever mean to say — there’s only one father and mother, but I think you get my point. So I’ve known him since he came to the Major Leagues. I’ve lived through him beating cancer and so I’ve known him for a long time.

He’s one of my favorites. He’s one of everybody’s favorites though, so that’s an easy one. I won’t be pulling for him tomorrow, but he’s very …

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