Terry Francona Gives Up on Life, Becomes ESPN Baseball Analyst

We had higher hopes for Terry Francona. He could have really gone places. Seen things. Helped people. Instead, he'll be joining the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball telecast in 2012.

The former Boston Red Sox manager, who has honestly put up with enough crap in his day, will be on your television Sunday evenings, sitting right alongside Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser in the broadcast booth next season. Good times are sure to be had by all but Terry.

Francona had to endure the mumbo jumbo of Joe Buck this postseason during the first two games of the ALCS on FOX while Tim McCarver was out having surgery, and he more or less nailed it. He'll make his ESPN debut this Tuesday night on both SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight from Dallas at the winter meetings.

Oddly enough, new Red Sox skipper Bobby Valentine worked for ESPN back in 2003 before rejoining the network in September of 2009. He did the Sunday night games last season before landing the vacant position in Boston... so there's that.

[ESPN]