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

When 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 90-win 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 major 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 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, 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 three-time 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 center and it looked like a sure double, but the centerfielder tracked it down and held him to a single. Carmine did take a wide turn, but he did not take the bait as the outfielder fired a seed to second base.

He got lifted for a pinch hitter in the later innings as they used a ton of guys in the game. That’s all right, I got to see his first professional game and his very first professional base hit! Awesome!

I waited for him after the game and who knew? It happened. Carmine actually took a fairly long time to come out afterward and, wouldn’t you know, he was one of the last players to leave, walking out and chatting with his manager at the door, none other than Terry Francona!

Carmine saw me standing there and waved me over. “Hey Skip,” Carmine says to the future Hall of Famer, “This is Frek, my high school coach; he came out to see me play this weekend.”

“Nice to meet you, Frek!” Carmine’s soon to be very famous manager said. “We got us a good one here, he’s got a good eye and great bat. We’re lucky to have him!”

Of course, Carmine was beaming — and so was I — two Malden guys who had no idea we were in the presence of astounding, future greatness: a man who would transform two franchises into bona fide “super”-winners, with two World Series titles in Boston, no less. I knew right away Carmine was in good hands, and I had a great flight back to Logan two days after that.

Carmine would go on to play professional baseball at various levels — all the way up to Triple AAA! — and in three different countries for the next 10 years, longer than anyone ever in Malden High history. He appeared in 847 professional baseball games in 10 seasons, had 907 hits (77 home runs) in 3,117 at bats and finished his pro career with a sparkling .291 lifetime batting average.

Francona? Well, he went on and did (and is still doing) Hall of Fame level deeds. Good luck with anything you do, and anyplace you go, Tito Francona!

That one night in South Bend 1992, you made Malden High’s best-ever hitter, and his high school coach feels like a million bucks!