CLEVELAND — Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona crossed one thing off of the bucket list during a recent break in the spring-training schedule, and he did so thousands of feet above ground.
While away from the team, Francona jumped out of an airplane near the Indians’ spring-training home, Goodyear Ballpark, in Goodyear, Arizona.
“Oh, my God,” Francona said to his partner in the tandem jump after letting out an expletive.
“I don’t know what I thought. I felt like my head was going to explode.”
Before the Indians posted video of the jump on their Twitter page, Francona addressed the adventure in his daily spring-training press conference Sunday.
“It’s not a rumor,” Francona said. “I’m a (expletive) idiot. I was swimming in Tucson with some (Navy) SEALs, which was interesting in itself, and they would come from jumping to the pool, and I’d meet them in the pool.
“They’re like, ‘Have you ever done it?’ I’m like, ‘No.’ They said, ‘Man, it’s unbelievable.’ Well, one thing led to another. So (retired Navy special warfare veteran) Jay Hennessey is with us, and there’s a place out in Buckeye. He went out and researched it just to make sure my chute’s going to open.”
Francona said he landed “like a feather” and the experience of freefalling before pulling the chute was “intense.”
“It’s interesting,” Francona said. “I’m sure the video is…I’ve seen part of the video. I would do it again, but I would make them give me a helmet not because…I mean shoot, if you hit the ground, but the force and I had nothing on my head.
“You know when you clinch the division and people pour champagne on your head? After about three seconds, you’re like, ‘Enough.’ Try that for about 45 seconds. I thought my head was going to explode. I didn’t get to enjoy the freefall as much because my head just...”
Francona felt he would have enjoyed the experience more if he had a helmet, but those he jumped with were confident the veteran manager had plenty of fun.
“I didn’t realize it, but when I landed, those guys said I was as high as a kite,” Francona said. “Like I was jumping around. I didn’t know I could.
“It’s funny. They put you in this little plane….I’m sitting on a guy’s lap because you have to be strapped on, so for me to get out of the plane was the hardest thing. He was like, ‘Pull your legs up.’ I’m like, ‘They are.’ Then, they open the door and that wind comes. You’re just like, ‘Oh, my God.’
“Then, I got my feet out on the strut and I was okay. I wasn’t panicked, and I started to ask him something about when we were going, and all of a sudden, the plane’s over there. It’s amazing, man, what goes through your mind…all the stupid things you’ve done in your life.”
Now that Francona has made his first skydiving expedition, he is trying to organize a team-building exercise with another jump, but bench coach Brad Mills might not be on the jump list.
“I thought that was interesting that when I out there, Millsey moved all of his s&*% into my office,” Francona said with a laugh.
“Three of the guys were like, ‘Hey, my wife won’t let me.’ I told them, ‘If that chute don’t open, it’s not going to matter. What is she going to do? Be mad at you?’”
