Page 10 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, AugusT 15, 2025 DID YOU KNOW?: Terry Francona’s first manager’s job was with the first team for Malden High longtime pro Carmine Cappuccio Former Red sox World series winner and new 2,000-win manager got his start in 1992 with south Bend silver sox By Steve Freker W hen you have been around long enough, you have gone to some places, seen some things and met a whole bunch of people. With all the places I have been — especially chasing games all over the country, at all different levels of baseball for many years — I have had so many memories and experiences. I got another taste of that the other day when I started reading the stories about former Red Sox and present Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona and him winning his 2,000th career game as an MLB manager. Francona, of course, is expected to be a sure shot Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame inductee as soon as he is eligible, after leading the Red Sox to a pair of World Series Championships (2004, 2007 and almost a third!) and then 11 successful seasons after that with the Cleveland Guardians. Through it all, Francona has battled personal problems (some of which unfairly were made public), lots of health issues and a shocking dismissal by the Sox after a 90win 2011 season, when it was floated that he had supposedly “lost the clubhouse” due to some tough to deal with, high-paid louts who were masquerading as hardworking maThe Midwest League still exists today with Single A baseball. The South Bend (Ind.) franchise is now an affiliate of the National League Chicago Cubs. jor leaguers. As Cleveland’s manager from 2012 to this season, Francona led the Guardians to division titles in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022, the AL pennant in 2016 and wild card appearances in 2013 and 2020. In this, his first year with the Cincinnati Reds, Francona has them fighting for the wild card in the National League Central, just behind the Cubs and the Brewers. Anyways, does anyone realize that Francona’s very first coaching job was with the Chicago White Sox minor league farm system for four seasons from 1992-1995 before he got his first Major League Baseball (MLB) manager’s post with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1997? That’s right. After a 10-year Major League playing career — mostly with the Montreal Expos — his very first manager’s post in the Minor Leagues was with the South Bend (Ind.) White Sox, Chicago’s Low Single A franchise. One of Terry “Tito” Francona’s The South Bend Silver Sox was the first stop on the lengthy professional career (19922001) of former Malden High great Carmine Cappuccio. (Courtesy Photo) top players on the first team he ever managed? Well, it was none other than Malden High School’s longest-playing professional baseball player in city history, whom many believe the best overall athlete to wear a Malden uniform, Carmine Cappuccio. Cappuccio was the first Malden High Golden Tornado baseball player selected in the Major League Baseball entry draft for the 1990s and second-highest round pro baseball draftee in Malden High history, one of five MLB picks in that Malden decade of high-powered baseball. He was selected 260th overall in the 1992 MLB entry draft, CAPPUCCIO WAS BEST EVER: Malden High School’s Carmine Cappuccio (17), shown here in the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association (MBCA) State All-Star Game in 1988, beside St. John’s Prep’s Mike Kotarski and Tewksbury’s Chris Mader. Coincidentally, Mader and Cappuccio would both go on to play collegiately at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. (Courtesy Photo) the 24th pick in the 9th round by the Chicago White Sox. That draft came on June 1, 1992, and there were some bigtime “notables” in it, the biggest being the #5 overall pick, then future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, who was actually not a Top 20 projectable player at the time, who went to the New York Yankees out of Kalamazoo (Mich.) Central High School. Future Boston Red Sox World Series winner Johnny Damon went first round #35 to the Kansas City Royals out of Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Fla. Another future Red Sox, Mike Lowell, was a 48th ROUND(!) draftee by the Chicago White Sox but did not sign. Cappuccio, a 1988 Malden High graduate and a threetime NCAA Division 2 First Team All-America selectee out of Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., signed a $15,000 bonus and jumped on a plane from Logan Airport in Boston to Chicago two days after to meet his coaching staff and join his team. He was assigned to the South Bend (Ind.) White Sox, the Low “A” affiliate of the White Sox, a charter member of the Midwest “A” League. Chicago International Airport was about a 90-minute drive from South Bend. On the spur of the moment, a week or so later, I decided I, too, would fly to Chicago and try and see Carmine play in his first professional game, since he was the first pro guy I had ever coached, having been a varsity coach alongside Shawn Brickman at Malden High in Cappuccio “the Salem Street Slugger’s” three wildly successful years with Malden High baseball (1986-1988). Carmine did not get into the season opener, a home game for South Bend, who were listed as the “South Bend White Sox,” but actually went by the “South Bend Silver Sox.” But there he was in Game 2, starting in right field in his first-ever professional baseball game. I was sitting there, about 20 rows from the field in South Bend, Indiana, also home of that little Catholic school next door to the baseball park. What was that name? Oh yeah, Notre Dame! What a thrill it was to see this 22-year-old kid from Malden getting his first professional swings! Carmine grounded out his first at bat, pulling the ball sharply between the first and second baseman. The second baseman made a pretty good play on the ball. Second at bat? Bingo! Carmine hammered a ball in the gap in right cenTERRY FRANCONA | SEE PAGE 13
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