Francona Sends Message to Indians Fans, "We All Want to Get Back to Playing Baseball"

Today would have marked the 30 game the 2020 Cleveland Indians would have played (rainouts not included) as the team would have wrapped up a weekend series in the Bronx against the New York Yankees.

Instead, fans all over the country continue to wait and see if there is going to be a season, and how it’s going to be handled by Major League Baseball.

There has been a number of proposals on the table, with most including games being played in spring training sites in Florida and Arizona.

While fans wait for the game they love to hopefully return the field, Indians manager Terry Francona took to twitter on the official Indians team account Sunday, sending a short one-minute message to Tribe fans around the world.

“We all want to get back to playing baseball,” Francona said. “One, we love it, it's our passion, it’s also our job, but it is our passion.

But I think we need to do it in a way, and I am comfortable that Major League Baseball, the powers that be understand this, when it works, when it works for other people. When it doesn’t take away from other people.”

Francona has seen just about everything in baseball over the course of his career, which started with him playing in 1981 with the Montreal Expos, and then managing in the big leagues in Philadelphia in 1997.

He and the rest of baseball though has never had to deal with a pandemic, and it will be up to the manger to keep the team together as the hopeful season gets started sooner rather than later.

“The hope for me is that when baseball comes back it would almost be a celebration, but it has to be at a point when the rest of the country, like I said you are never taking away from,” Francona said.

“We have people like first responders, nurses and doctors that are going through a heck of a lot right now.”

Francona has compiled more wins in the American League than any manager since taking the Tribe over in 2013, but he along with all the other managers will have to guide their teams in a way they have never had to before.

“Our country is getting tested like it hasn’t in a long time, so I guess my point is when you see baseball, that means there is some sense of normalcy coming back, and that will be a really great sign for everybody,” Francona said.