JUST MY TYPE
TERRY FRANCONA
SNACK ATTACK
During a 10-day road trip, the manager of the first-place Indians, recent winners of 14 straight, airs his dirty laundry—and shareshis curious late-night eating habits.
DAN PATRICK:The mood of Cleveland is what now?
TERRY FRANCONA: I mean, shoot. Getting to watch the Cavs' Game 7 and then the parade three days later, those people were ecstatic. The way the city poured out its feelings for the team, and the way the Cavs handled it was really cool. I don't pretend to have grown up in Cleveland, but I've been there long enough to care.
DP:Does it put more pressure on you now to win or less because this city finally got a championship?
TF: That really doesn't enter into anything we do. If we start letting external things get to us, shame on us. We need to win. Winning is hard enough.
DP:Do you do anything different when you're on this hot streak?
TF: Nothing. We're on such a long road trip.... I kid around that I ran out of underwear in Atlanta. The biggest thing is just trying to be consistent. If people come into our clubhouse, and they can't tell if we're hot or cold, that's probably an accomplishment.
DP:Do you send somebody out to get you underwear?
TF: No. Shoot, are you kidding me? You've seen the way I dress. It doesn't matter. All my stuff ends up on the floor, and whatever looks wearable, I just wear it.
DP:What's this thing I saw with you and Popsicles?
TF: Supposedly they're healthy. So I kind of figured well, gosh, if one's healthy, 16 have got to be really healthy.
DP:Wait, who said they were healthy? They're full of sugar!
TF: It says they're healthy on the box! They don't lie! But the clubbies stock my refrigerator with Popsicles and grapes. So I kind of go off the deep end at night during the season, and the worst thing that happens is I get a stomachache.
DP:Wait, that's going off the deep end, having grapes and Popsicles?
TF: It's just the way it is during the season. I'm sure it's like that with every manager, but instead of eating nachos, I've at least corralled it to a point where it's semihealthy.
DP:But I saw that you almost threw up because you ate so many Popsicles.
TF: Well, 16 is a bit much. I had spent the night in my office because it was one of those late games, early arrivals, and, you know, one thing led to another. In the morning when the guys came in, they were like, Hey, look at all these Popsicle sticks! And I didn't even tell them that I had thrown a couple of them away. So it might've been more.
GUEST SHOTS
SAY WHAT?
Swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines doubted that Michael Phelps would retire after the London Games. "I didn't feel like he left everything in the pool in 2012," Gaines told me. "I don't think he was happy back then. So many things have changed. He's in a great state of mind [now]." ... MLB Network's Kevin Millar said he and his teammates used to stop to watch Mark McGwire in batting practice, and one current player draws the same sort of attention from his peers: Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton. "He's the closest guy," Millar said. "Where he hits the baseball ... it doesn't make sense." ... Samuel L. Jackson talked about how he took down Tiger Woods at St. Andrews: "I beat him once when I was a 16 [handicap]. He gave me all my 16 shots. I shot 78. He shot even par [71]. I win."