HBT: Francona won't attend Fenway's anniversary

Next week the Red Sox will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park and Terry Francona was invited, but the former manager won?t be in attendance because of how his tenure in Boston ended.

Here?s some of what Francona told Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe:

Somebody went out of their way to make me look pretty bad. It?s a shame. I?m sure they?ll have a great event and I was part of a lot of that stuff there, but I just can?t go back there and start hugging people and stuff without feeling a little bit hypocritical.

Until I?m more comfortable with some answers on what happened at the end of the year, I don?t want to have much to do with the organization and that?s a shame. With all the good things that were accomplished, I just feel pretty strongly about that. It was pretty raw at the end of the year. I think I?ve done a pretty good job of moving on from that. At the same time, I?m never going to forget that.

And there?s a lot more where that came from. When told of Francona?s explanation for declining the invite Red Sox chief executive officer Larry Lucchino said: ?I understand how strongly he feels on this matter and I accept that.??

However, according to Francona earlier this week Lucchino called him and ?got a little perturbed at me, telling me I was being unfair to them? and ?we ended up getting into an argument.?

There?s nothing wrong with the Red Sox extending the invitation, but it?s pretty easy to see why Francona would decline it and kind of sad that he?s still getting into arguments with the people who fired him and tore him apart in the local media while doing so. Who wants to have anything to do with the other person following an extremely nasty breakup?

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