Terry Francona reiterated Thursday on ESPN New York's "The Michael Kay Show" that he won't attend the 100th anniversary celebration at Fenway Park next week but admitted he regrets some of the public comments he made about it recently to The Boston Globe.
Francona, now a baseball analyst for ESPN, told the Globe for Wednesday's editions that "somebody went out of their way to make me look pretty bad."
He was referring to a Globe report which cited unnamed team sources as saying Francona's performance as manager in 2011 might have been affected by his troubled marriage and use of pain medication.
"It's a shame," Francona told the Globe's Dan Shaughnessy, with whom he is writing a book. "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."
Francona and the Red Sox parted ways after the club collapsed last September and missed the playoffs. Shortly after, the Globe published a story painting the Red Sox clubhouse as dysfunctional and Francona as a manager unable to control the situation.
On Thursday, Francona said he wish he hadn't shared his thoughts on the situation so publicly.
"That came out the other day and I wish I had handled it a little differently," he said. "I think I'm smarter than that. ... But I'm not comfortable going back there. But I wish I would have kept some of the reasons to myself and I'm a little disappointed in myself for that."
Kay also asked the question many around Boston have been wondering: "As you sit back on Thursday, April 12, and the Red Sox are 1-5, is there a part of you that's absolutely elated?"
Francona laughed at first, but then said: "I wouldn't say elated. I know what you mean, though. You know, everybody has human emotions ... there are so many people there that I've gone through so many things with, that I care so much about. You know, somebody asked me yesterday and I said 'I hope [Dustin] Pedroia hits 1.000 and I hope [Jon] Lester wins every game.' ... At the same time, I recognize the way things ended there didn't make me very happy. And actually really hurt me. And I'm aware of that also. So, you try to balance it a little bit. But being vindictive is not a good way to go through life. And I hope I'm not that way."